New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-03-06
MEN md SERMONS.
Studies in Religious Biography and
Research.

MEMOIR OF BISHOP sEABURY-- By william
Jones Seabury- Svo, PIP. VII, 40 Edwin 5 Cor
NATIONAL. IDEALIsM AND THE BOOK OF
COMMON PRAYER. An Essay in Reinterpre-
tation and Revision. By Stanton Colt, Pm: D.
THE PRECINCT OF RELIGION IN THE CULT
IRE OF HUMANITY. BY Professor Charles
Gray Shaw. Phi D 12mo. PIP Xiii. 2l9. The
Macmillan Company
THE BIBLE OF NATURE Five Lectures Deliv-
cred Before Lake Forest College on the Founda-
ton of the Late William Bross By J. Arthur
Thompson, NJ. A l2mo, PIP. xiv, 2S Charles
Scrfbner's Sons.
rHERsDAY MoggNINSGs, II THE CITY TEN Fem
pp. iii. eos. The Macmillan Company
JERrsALE The Topography, ,I Economics and "a
BY George Adams Smith, D. D, Ii. D. In two
volumes With maps and Illustrations gtIt1 n 60 SVo
THE ILLUSTRATED BIBLE DICTIONARY. Ed
tied by the Rev. William c. Piercy, NJ. a. With
eolored maps and $65 illustrations 8vo' PIP. xvi
81 Z. P. DuttOn & Co
Professor William Jones Seabury has been
able to draw upon family traditions and a con-
siderable collection Of papers in writing his
Memoir Of Bishop Seabury." The biography
throws fresh light on the important movement
in which Dr. Samuel Seabury was leader. the
quest by presbyters OF the Anglican communion
in America for the blessing of a free, valid and
purely ecclesiastical episcOpacy. In 1873 when
the whole number Of the Anglican clergy In Con-
necticut was fourteen, Seabury was elected
ton meeting at Woodbury. with an attendance
Of ten members Proceeding 10 England the
bishop-elect could find no prelates Of the Estab-
1ishr2ent ready TO consecrate him. for the rea-
son that the national Church was at the moment
considered TO have no jurisdiction in foreign
country such the colonies had recently be-
come Fortunately three bishops of the much
chastened Church of Scotland came to the res
cue and Dr. Seabury was enabled to return to
Connecticut carrying valid episcopacy in his
own person.
Among the documents now printed in full Tor
the first tine the author lets us see letter from
Charles Wesley one OF Bishop Seaburys
friends in which the English churchman de-
rIores the separatist tendencies at work among
the r.eople called 3iethodists. He wonders what
will become OF those poor sheep in the wilder
ness. the American Methodsts," and he foresees
no happv issue. Had they not been betrayed
into separation from the Church Of England all
might have been well:
But what are your POOR Mathodists now? Only
rev sect q PresbyteIlaTs Aitct my , orc a. II,
en5P Tfev AiM lose al their usefulness and i'm
lo-I5g In lTts asai pon ther lees and ike other
-ects Of Diss,nters. come 10 nothing
Without sharing Hazl:tt's distrust Of the
prose STYLE Of poets. one can see from this that
The sweet singer Of Methodism was better
psalraist than prophet
Having in an earlier volume espoused the
cause Of communal religion. Dr. Stanton Colt
has now gone on to consider what should be the
liturgical expression OF such faith. faith
which is summed up in devotion TO social causes
IN his National Ideaiism and the Book Of Com
mon Prayer he proposes the removal from the
prayer book Of passages that betray sympathy
with supernaturalisn. unless. indeed. it can be
shown that the terms in question may be used
n a ncn-transccndent sense. There is no neces-
sity, Dr. Colt believes. for altering the first of
she Ten Commandments 10 make II read. l.
the principle Cf social justice, am the Lord thy
Cod For. although pedants and self-interested
religionists. fer purposes and vanities of their
own, have read metaphysical meanings into the
Bible there has been no great misunderstanding
among simple folk. They have always identi-
aed Cod with the good in the world The first
personal pronoun in the first commandment
should therefore be retained. trusting TO en-
lightened teachers and the native Wit of the
guileless TO bring home TO the people that Good
ness is the God who commands men. Similarly
in Using the Lords Prayer the term Our
Father" should be understood TO represent the
unifying WI Of the Community as the source
Of the nations moral salvation An incidental
advantage OF this mode of address would be