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Show As to Organic Union Protestant Churches BY D. V. FBANCIS. I Hp By Leased "U'ire to The Trlbuno. K NEW YORK, Auk. 20. Tlic question of W Die organic union of tlie ProlcsUmt fc churches Is receiving a good deal of at- wfc icntlon tlicse days, und earnest men In W. various denominations have been Inclined & to believe that the tendency toward such K union Is growing. The best opin- K ion. however, Ih that while there Is K" a strong trend toward the unlllca- ft' Hon of cfTort along lines, particularly I? In the missionary field, where the if churches are at one there Is no reason (t to believe that there Is any hope of or- 4. ganle union. Indeed, It is held by a great majority of churchmen that the divisions, t so far as they concern methods of church pr government, arc necessary for the best development of Christianity, g One result of the "World Missionary a" conference would assuredly seem to bo a , desire on the part of members of the I different churches to understand the point $L of view of one another. It Is in this spirit men of the Protestant Episcopal ' church of N'cw York have formed a t Christian Unity foundation, among whose Jt. " objects are "to gjither and disseminate t " accurate information relative to the faith r und .works of all Christian bodies " I to devise and suggest practical methods of co-operation, substituting comity for rivalry In tho propagation of the common faith." Tho signatories include Bishop Croswell Doanc of Albany, who has presided pre-sided over his large diocese for more than forty years, and has had the recognition of honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford, Cambrldgo and Dublin for his learning; Dr. Courtney, who left the bishopric of Nova Scotia to tnko tho Church of St. James, New York; and the bishops of Chicago, New York. Southern Ohio and Newark (N. J.). Of the laity arc Rear Admiral Goodrich, who brought the Grcely rellof ship Alert to New York In 1SS4, and commanded the Si. Louis during the Spanish-American war; Robert Rob-ert Tulton Cutting, president of the New York Citizens' Union for Improving tho Condition of the Poor; Colonel Charles William Larned, who took part In the expedition against the Sioux in 1S73, and B ,T Chief Justice J. H. Stines. a lav sym- Wf. pathlzer. gives 510,000 for the initial ec-Ji ec-Ji ): Vcnscs of the movement. V i r American Delegates Dominated. m if "J. Campbell "White, general secretary jr of the Laymen's Missionary movement, I T . says the American delegates dominated R 3 Ihe recent conference at Edinburgh, where I almost all the civilized nations of the 1 ft world wcro represented, and ho suggests a reason for It which seems plausible," declares tho Advance (Congregational). "The speakers were limited to seven minutes, which, of course, is a short space of lime in which to unburden unbur-den one's mind if he is full of his subject. sub-ject. The Americans knew how to make the most of tho opportunity, and the rest of the world did not. The other delegates would spend most of the allotted al-lotted time ltJ making apologies and In clearing the ground for action, and Just as they wore ready to start on the real subject the gavel would fall and the opportunity op-portunity would be gone forover. The American delegates, on tho other hand, would 'cut out' all extraneous matter, omit explanations and apologies, and i plunge at once Into the heart of the subject. sub-ject. They would say what they had to say briefly, clearly, pointedly, and sit down. This way of doing appealed to the audience, and the speeches f the Americans made a marked impression. We do have some tedious and' long-winded long-winded public speakers In America, but fortunately none of them seems to have been sent as delegate to that conference." Scotch General Assemblies Meet. "Reformer," writing in the Scottish-American, Scottish-American, says: Once again the Scotch general assemblies havo met and discussed many subjects, but, alas, as usual, broached few themes pertaining to the welfare of the human majority. However, one rathor interesting item did crop up the proposal to limit the tenure of office to ministers to seven years. Really, this "seven years" Idea is an excellent ex-cellent thing, and the change In pastorates pastor-ates to be brought about, if it ever comes Into force, will most undoubtedly lead to a ouickenlng In Important departments de-partments of church life. 'Tis greatly to bo feared, however, that the scheme hinted at Is doomed never to go much further than the proposal stage, chiefly owing to the resistance of those ministers minis-ters who havo fallen into "fat livings," which they'll strive their hardest to stick to. In fact, this samo ministerial determination de-termination "to stick to fat livings" as long as strength remains to mount pul-plt pul-plt stairs, and pound tho board of a Bible, undoubtedly explains to the great extent the present-day existence of the vast number of non-church goers. I would like to see tho "seven years" idea associated with another novel proposal pro-posal in regard to clerical remuneration the paying of ministers at so much per church-attending member. Suppose the number of members' names on the books of a church to be 600, one-sixth of this number would bo .always deducted as representing those members who, through business or other unavoidable causes, couldn't possibly get to church. This leaves fifty members free to attend divine di-vine service if Inclined. Living Wage for Ministers. A "living wage" for the minister would be figured out at so many dollars per member of the 500 free to attend. Such a number of the 500 as failed to attend on Sunday at church wouldmean so many dollars deducted off tnc preacher's living wage. Thus, when the minister was performing his work well, he would b( drawing the whole 500 members to church and earning his "living wage" at the same time. When, on the other hand, ho failed to properly fulfill his duty by the "Inability to attract," then for what I term "bad work" ho would be penalized penal-ized as indicated. The above scheme. It seems to me. would provide the necessary "spur to action," of which so many present day divines undoubtedly stand in nrpfl. A Bible and Christian workers conference con-ference is being held at Stony Brook, Long Island, for two weeks. It began August H. This Is the most Important conference of the season at Stony Brook. About thirty speakers were sccurod for the conference, and among them the leading men of this country. The Rov. J. Wilbur Chapman, D. D., speaks every day during tJio conference, preaching each morning at 11 o'clock, and In the afternoon, and conducting conferences for ministers. Other well known speakers are tho Rev. R. M Russell, D. D., president presi-dent of Westminster college; John Willis Bacr, LL. D., president of Occidental college; Andrew Stevenson, the Rev. W. H. Roberts. D. D of Philadelphia: Bishop Lewis of the Methodist church, the Rev. George Heebor Jones of Corea, William Phillips Hall, Don O. Shelton, the Rov. J. K. McClurkln, D. D., of Pittsburg, ami the Rev. Frank Granstaff, D. D, 1 Student Move in England. "It will be learned with some surprise by the friends of tho Young Men's Christian Chris-tian association in this country," says the Record of Christian Work, "that the so-called student movement in England Is not upon the same exclusively evangelical evan-gelical basis with the movement In America. The aim of the leaders In Great Britain seems to bo the comprehension compre-hension of even' type 'of religious life (excepting the Roman Catholic) In one corporate unity, an aim which is ob-vlounly ob-vlounly impossible of realization except by considerable compromises, While the movement has been successful as far as numbers go along this line. It Is not to be expected that its policy secured , general approbation. The-Cambridge In- tercolleglatc Christian union, for in- I stane, which has been for the last twen- , tv-flvo years an aggressive evangelical , and evangelistic student organization in the university, has on this account surrendered sur-rendered its affiliation with the English student -movement body, fooling that It tmn accomplish its work on an Inde pendent basis more effectively than In making concessions to the High Anglican Angli-can ind theologically broad members of the mlvcrslty, with a view to securing their co-opcratlon " Wish of tho Popo. Following the desire of tho pope, expressed ex-pressed in a recent mcssago to the clergy of the Catholic church, St. Mathew's. church In Washington Is making mak-ing preparations to have i number of men and boys specially trained. |