Article December 12, 1901 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from William Bernard Ullathorne, Thomas A. Kempis

Rev. Dr. Worcester writing upon Isaiah, 10:21, "The remnant shall return, even the remant of Jacob, unto the mighty God," says in the Church Standard:—

"The saddest fate that can overtake any people is to have no Remnant, no steadfast hearts set upon righteousness, no strong minds that refuse to be carried away by the idle affirmations, the foolish beliefs, the fanaticism of the multitude. A nation that is in such a case is dead already. When the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch.... Thank God, we are not without our Remnant. The bitterest censor of this country's manners and morals can hardly pretend that the vice, dishonesty, and incompetence exhibited in the administration of our great cities are a fair index of the intelligence and character of the people who live in those cities. In no city of the world, I firmly believe, is there more public depravity. In very few cities in the world are there more numerous or more admirable institutions of learning than we possess. What is the reason that these institutions exercise such a pitifully slight influence on the moral and intellectual life of the community? Is it not because our Remanant has taken the view of its duties and responsibilities advocated by Plato, and not the view of Isaiah and of Jesus Christ,—that the Remnant to be of any value must be a saving Remnant, a holy seed? Ye are the light of the world. Ye are the salt of the earth. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and place it under a bushel, but on a candlestick that it may give light to them that are within the house. Or let us ask: 'Can a man be said really to love wisdom or to love righteousness who is not consumed with desire to communicate his truth to others, and to make others good?' A physician who thus concealed an important discovery would be regarded almost as a criminal. So long as the Remnant of which I have been speaking is content to hide behind its wall, to discuss saving truth within closed doors, to regard its fellow-men as wild beasts who may well be left in iniquity provided it be left in peace—it remains an impotent Remnant. Its truths are academical (a word derived from Plato). Its very virtue is Pharisaic. It is only when truth is working among the people, when it is springing like leaven from mind to mind, that it becomes great."

Horatio Stebbins, in the Christian Register, thus speaks of the Fatherhood of God:—

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