Editorial December 25, 1902 Issue

The Surprises of Modern Religious Thought

Whoever takes the time to look through the pages of current religious literature will be impressed with the warring incongruities, the turmoil and tussle of the world's expressed convictions. It is a day of entire freedom of utterance, both in adverse criticism and in the most pronounced support of traditional beliefs, and this frankness of confession and denial is one encouraging aspect of the situation.

Never since the days when Dean Stanley's polished blade began to smite the unguarded hosts of contented Anglicanism, has there been such a portentous stir in theological ranks, and the boldest radical not infrequently shares the page with the most ultra-conservative.

Two leading evangelical church organs lie before us, both of which stand for the integrity and authority of Jesus' teaching as recorded in the Gospel narratives. Both would undoubtedly concede that Jesus healed the sick by the spoken word of Truth, and that in commissioning his disciples he commanded them to continue these works of spiritual healing. One of these journals, however, is emphatic in its assertion that "freedom of conscience in the domain of religion does not include the practice of the art of healing," and it classifies the endeavor of some of Christ's followers to heal the sick by spiritual means as "illegal and iniquitous conduct." If we may judge of them by the attitude of their leaders, we can but assume that this point of view is endorsed by a large body of professed Christians to-day, and we are thus brought face to face with one of the greatest anomalies of Christian history.

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