Show RELIGIOUS OPIXIOXS The following extracts from religious journals on popular topics are not the views of The Herald but merely those of the papers from which they are clipped and the leading minds of the denominations which they represent A letter from Dr Wayland editor of the Philadelphia National Baptist contains con-tains these passages That different denominations should treat each other with unfairness should denounce each other this Isa reproach to Christendom Christian union is quite a different thing I live In Christian union with many disciples of Christ who are not Baptists This Christian union would not be increased If as the results of any legislation they and I were Included in the same church Christian union comes from Heaven It is promoted by mutual justice jus-tice mutual understanding mutual courtesy and comity and kind offices and especially by laboring together in behalfof temperance charity and the evangelization of the slums I hope that the replies of the bishops showing that church unity is not attainable will do a great service by leading us all to strive for the Christian unity which is attainable in which will be answered the prayer of our departing Lord As to the plan of federation now being be-ing agitated among a number of Presbyterian > Pres-byterian churches the New York Independent Inde-pendent says It does not make one denomination out of eight but it makes one ChristIan Christ-Ian body out of eight bound together in such a way that their unity is as real though not as organically close as that of the church which makes most of Its catholicity Although the several denominations may meet In different dif-ferent synods or assemblies they will have even more vital union than there is in the Roman Catholic church between be-tween those who practise the Latin and those who hold to the Chaldean or Armenian rites This is very nearly such a union as was proposed pro-posed by the Congregationalists ofNew Jersey II has substantially the same purpose except that it is limited to these eight Presbyterian branches But we see no reason why its scope should not be enlarged so as to take in the entire body of our evangelical denominations denomi-nations Christian unity is the most prominent subject now before our Christian churches It demands the careful thought of every wise Christian Christ-ian We should unite to break down the walls of division and to accomplish corporate union wherever we can and to secure federate union where corporate corpor-ate union Is impossible ± On the same question the New York Christian Intelligencer sa SIt S-It believes such a federation of Reformed Re-formed churches holding the Presbyterian Presby-terian system possible and desirable If consummated it would go far to heal some of the divisions of Christs Church and prepare the way for a still closer and more organic union It would ibe a step in the right direction and if Inaugurated and found to work well would establish what many firmly firm-ly believe that the federative principle princi-ple Is as true a basis of union among churches as states Proven to work successfully in one case the example would influence others and churches I of similar faith and polity wQuld be grouped in federations gradually enlarging I en-larging In their comprehensiveness until un-til the divisions of Christendom would be reduced to the few resting on irreconcilable irre-concilable antagonisms The Boston Christian Peglster asks What is heresy and what is a schism Z Who will define them There are as many heresies as there are churches and what the hersy is depends upon the standpoint from which you view it Thus to Congregationalists Congrega-tionalists who hold to the primitive apostolic form of the church Roman Catholics are heretics because they have broken away from this primitive order and introduced priests bishops and popes Episcopalians are likewise heretics because they insist on apostolic apos-tolic succession Instead of the succession succes-sion of the Holy Spirit and because they have introduced prelatical ordination ordi-nation instead of ordination by the congregation The Calvinistic churches are heretical because they have manufactured manu-factured creeds and confessions which i are not Scriptural and which are opposed op-posed to the spirit of Christianity The Methodists and Presbyterian churches I are heretical because they practice infant in-fant baptism which has no Scriptural sanction Some Unitarian churches are I heretical for the same reason The Baptists are heretical because they practice close Communion which is not taught in the New Testament And I I there are other heretics who hold to the unscriptural doctrine of the Trinity Would it be wise however for Unitarians Unitar-ians to formally excommunicate their order or the Roman Catholics Episcopalians Episco-palians or any members of the churches named for their departures from the simple congregational monotheistic mon-otheistic democratic faith of the primitive prim-itive churches No let these churches KO on their way and do their work but let them remember that they are all heretics and schismatics that orthodoxy or-thodoxy is simply mydoxy after all The New York Outlook is of the opinion opin-ion that It is a great mistake to underrate the value of specific reforms and to fix ones eyes so exclusively upon the interior nature of man that his passionate pas-sionate desire to better his external condition becomes a thing of no account ac-count It is a greater disaster however how-ever when men persuade themselves that man is to be saved by any political polit-ical industrial or social changes These will aid his salvation but they will not complete It The real revolt must always be the revolt of the soul the struggle of man against the tendencies ten-dencies of his own nature rather than against the Institutions which surround sur-round him The significance of his struggle against Institutions lies in the fact that they represent his nature and that when he grows beyond them his reaction against them records the advance of his own soul Carlyle was perfectly right in one sense when he insisted that the emphasis ought to be laid not on mans rights but on his duties for the value of institutions Is their power t6 represent moralIdeals and man is saved by character not by governments The New York Examiner does not like the organization called the American Amer-ican Protective Association although that paper is antiCatholic It says Of the A P A oath This oath has been published repeatedly repeat-edly and so far as we can learn its substantial accuracy has never been denied by a responsible parson Xhe G l f < i last clause Is ip flat contradiction of the f federal and state constitutions all of which provide that no religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office or public trust Any member mem-ber of the American Protective Association Asso-ciation who is elected to an office to which attaches the power of appointment appoint-ment must perjure himself If he appoint ap-point Catholics he is false to his American Protective Association oath if he refuses to appoint Catholics he is false to his oath of office Moreover More-over he swears as a member of the society to guide his private political conduct by a principle repudiated by the Constitution It is a denial of the principle for which Baptists have strenuously contended for centuries the right of every man to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience without molestation from any other human being The New York Examiner speaking of the new light which the churches receive as to the meanings of Scripture Scrip-ture remarks i Of course the individual consciousness conscious-ness of the believer is not to be tyrannized tyran-nized by creeds or councils but left free under the guidance of the spirit to determine for himself what the Word does actually teach But this does not touch the question as to where the authority rests to determine deter-mine what is the faith of the church as a whole and as such binding upon its ministers who have subscribed to Its standards That authority can only rest with its constitutional representatives repre-sentatives duly elected The voice of their majority is not an expression of mere personal opinion It is an expression ex-pression of the mind of the church and as such should be regarded by all as of great weight and importance In church councils however as truly as in affairs of state It should always al-ways be remembered that the human capacity for apprehending divine truth is necessarily limited that the finite cannot grasp the infinite and that the great truths of revelation are so manysided that those who differ In their way of looking at them may not be so far apart in their religious thinking as is sometimes supposed The question Was there ever a flood Z meaning such a flood as that recorded In Genesis received a response re-sponse recently In a scientific discussion discus-sion of the subject by Professor Prestwich F R S at the Victoria Institute London A report in the Bulletin of the institution says The author described at considerable length the various phenomena which had come under his observation during dur-ing long years of geological research in Europe and the coasts of the Mediterranean Medi-terranean Among these he specially referred to having found the flints of the drift to be of two classes one with bones of animals carved and interspersed Inter-spersed with the remains of man and the other which he termed the Rub bledrift containing bones of animals of all ages and kinds in vast heaps He cited the confirmatory opinions on this point of Professor Geikie F R S a member of the Institute and drew special attention to the geological geologi-cal surroundings of these strange deposits de-posits and the manner In which the bones were found He then referred to phenomena in regard to raised sea beaches and the constant occurrence of head the large masses of transported trans-ported rock loam and Loess covering the high plains in Hungary and Southern South-ern Russia and the Ossiferous Brec cias in various localities From the circumstances attending these and their surroundings he said he had been forced to the conclusion that all their phenomena were only explicable explica-ble on the hypothesis of a widespread and short submergence followed by early reelevation and this hypothesis satisfied all the important conditions of the problem which forced one to recognize that there had been a submergence sub-mergence of continental dimensions |