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Show DISINTEGRATION Passing of Protestantism Views of Congregational Minister Infidelity and Indifference the Logical Results of Non-Authoritative Creeds Human Authority Au-thority Could Not Beget a Divine Religion. Re-ligion. Xew Haven. The Rev. Dr. Xewman Smyth has written a pungent book, which asserts that, Protestantism Prot-estantism has passed into decay and is to be succeeded suc-ceeded by modernized Catholicism. As he is pastor pas-tor of Center Congregational church, the oldest church in Connecticut, and is a member of the Yale corporation, the university governing body, his book has made a great stir. It is divided into three parts, "Passing Protestantism. Mediating Modernism and Coming Catholicism." "While he sees the beginning of the end of the Protestant movement. Dr. Smyth, when it comes to the future of Catholicism, by no means takes ground with the representatives of the Roman Catholic faith. The disintegration which is at work in Protestantism is, according to Dr. Smyth, appearing in another form in Catholicism, that of modernism. Of this he gives a lucid and interest-ins: interest-ins: account, which doubtless will challenge the criticism of leading scholars of the Catholic church. As to the .future of Protestantism, this quota-, tion is typical of Dr. Smyth's general view: "Facing the plain facts of life, in view of the awful urgency of many conditions of modern civilization, civ-ilization, can we hide from ourselves the cnnclti- i sion that a church disorganized and without unity ' . of effort, waging a brave guerilla warfare, wifh m grand strategy, cannot be c::pected. to overcome all unrighteousness or t bring the peace of God's love among all classes and conditions of men The disintegration here spoken of has been g'iu-on g'iu-on since the Reformation first broke out and would have long since reached its goal, namely, infidelity, had it not been for its opposition to the Catholic, church. Error, as well as truth, has its logical results, re-sults, and tho principles upon which Protestant i-tn rested could not fail in their development ultimate-Iv ultimate-Iv to take away from Christianity the foundation upon which it rested. : In getting rid of the Pope and his spiritual authority, au-thority, the reformers were bound hand and foot to the civil government. Because the church ex- j: tended her jurisdiction over the grandees she wa-: I accused of interfering with the temporal power. I Hence, the first step taken by the reformers was t. I free the government from all religious restraints, and make religion subject to the temporal authority instead of a spiritual head. In Germany. England f and other Protestant nations, it was the ruling power that defined the faith of their subjects. The same applies to Russia. In France today the civil f power tries to interfere with the authority of the church, both in her discipline and ecclesiastical ad- f ministration. In Protestant nations they not only tried but assumed entire control over the form of I religion which they adopted, prescribing its con- i stitution. articles of faith, discipline and liturgy. By this system, unknown before in the history of, heresy, religion, instead of being a divine, became ' f a human institution, on a par with other depar I ments of state. It is true that all took the Bible I for the foundation of their particular sect, yet I when we take into consideration that the inspired I word was subject to the interpretation given by the frovernment. or the people, or even individuals, the creed adopted varied with the nations who took part in the Reformation and even with the indi- I viduals of the nation. I Religion, in its general acceptation, is the ac- I knowledgment and worship of God: But a religion ! founded and controlled by the state does away with j the sovereignty of God and imposes on the people f not divine commands, but human precepts enacted I and executed by human authority in the sacred I name of religion. The growth of intelligence did 1 not fail to see this inconsistency, namely, the usur- '! pation by the state of God's right to command. What was the result i Individuals claimed as much right as the state to interpret the Bible for themselves. Error had only one step more to reach its logical conclusion, and that was. individuals .claimed not only the j right to interpret the Inspired Word, but also the I right to judge the inspiration, genuineness and au- thority of the Scriptures. I . At the outbreak of the Reformation, there wjis ! no -question of the divine authority of the Sacred 1 Scriptures. -With the development of time and j higher criticisms of today, how dies that divine I authority "standi It is relegated to the domain of ! .superstition as was that of the Catholic church at f the commencement of the Reformation, and yet it. I is but the logical- development of the principles upon v hich Protestantism rests. At the commence- ment of the Reformation, the Scriptures were re- ' " ! vercd and their divine authority proclaimed as au offset to the rejection of the authority of the I church. This makeshift, to present some sem- I blance of divine authority, did not tell against the f church. Avhich ilways recognize! fhe authority of ? the Scriptures irom which all her doctrinal tv.oh- J jngsg are derived. This is id louger insisted on bj the advanced and progressive tlieo'ogians of the I twentieth century, who pav nu.re attention k. I the authority of the Pible than, they would t ? last year's dina.iac. We hear this proelaimc r! from' I the pulpits, conventions and assembly halls, and I . CContinued on Page 5.) 1 DISINTEGRATION. (Continued from Page 1.) published to the world in journals and 'monthly .. magazines, Last week we published a list of subjects sub-jects discussed at an Episcopal convention held in Detroit the week previous. There is no mistaking their attitude towards the Bible as a book not inspired in-spired nor even historically true. A Xcw Yorker treated "of Biblical miracles as improbable." Rev. Paddock of Pennsylvania "declared the Bible nothing noth-ing but literature." Rev. Bradner of Providence. R. I., said: "Reference to th'e Bible was becoming a sham until the higher critics made it reasonable." What those higher critics are doing one may learn from Rt. Rev. Charles D. William?, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Michigan, in an article published pub-lished in the April number of the American Magazine: Maga-zine: He ranks with the higher critics, and his criticism does away entirely with old Bible. His school is giving a new Bible which is evolved from the inner consciousness of this progressive and enlightened en-lightened age. We wonder what will come next. F' D' |