Article January 10, 1901 Issue

Religious Items

An article in the Philadelphia North American gives information regarding the religious beliefs of the ruling sovereigns of about all nations. The Queen of England is a "Broad Church" Episcopalian. Emperor William of Germany is a Lutheran. The Queen of Holland is a member of the Dutch Reformed Church (Presbyterian). King Christian of Denmark and King Oscar of Sweden are Lutherans. Emperor Francis-Joseph of Austro-Hungary in a devout Roman Catholic. Carlos I. of Portugal is also a Roman Catholic, though apathetic in his adherence to his church. President Loubet of France, the Prince Regent of Bavaria, the King of Wurtemburg, King Leopold of Belgium, and King Victor Emanuel of Italy are all Roman Catholics. The premier of Canada, President Diaz of Mexico, and the presidents of all the Central and South American Republics are Roman Catholics, although in some cases only nominally such. The Czar of Russia, King George of Greece, King Charles of Roumania, and King Alexander of Survia are all adherents of the Greek Church. Menelik II. of Abyssinia belongs to one of the Oriental churches regarded by Roman and Greek Catholics as heretical. Among the non-Christian religions Mohammedanism claims the largest number of rulers, including the Sultans of Turkey and Morocco, the Khedive of Egypt, and the Shah of Persia. The royal family of Japan are disciples of Shintoism, and the Emperor of China's official religion is Confucianism.

The London correspondent of the (Episcopalian) Church Standard says: "Mr. Hall Caine, in an address on "The Old Century and the New,' expressed himself as satisfied that the world is constantly growing better and happier. He claimed that the mortality of the world has been loftier in this, 'The People's Century,' than at any previous period. Having christened the coming time 'The Century of Humanity,' he predicated a rapid and glorious march of ever-increasing conquest. 'Every man,' said the lecturer, 'who educates himself is educating coming generations of men, and thereby lifting up the whole world. And this I hold to be the very essence of the Christ idea. To be twenty years of age in 1901, with the prospect of seeing 1950, is to be heir to an inheritance better and greater than the richest millionaire can leave behind him."

In one of a series of articles discussing the awakening of religious leaders to the necessity of making the christian life conform to the standard set by Jesus, the Homiletic Review says: "This tendency, which has become so powerful in our day, was admirably expressed in the celebrated sermon preached in 1855 before the Queen at Balmoral by Principal Caird. His brother, Dr. John Caird, says of the sermon: 'Its theme was the necessity of carrying the religious spirit into all the ordinary practices of life, and the hollowness and worthlessness of any religion that wastes itself in feeling, in zeal for orthodoxy, or in the formalities of worship. and fails to consecrate the whole secular existence of man.' If the life is Christian why should not its Christian light illumine everything on which it falls."

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