Article June 12, 1902 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from Stopford Brooke, Frank G. Tyrrell, L. M. Powers, James Martineau

The Church Standard quotes the following from Rev. Robert Edward Bartlett in the Bampton Lectures: "Prayer, almsgiving, outward observances, all must have their root in love or they will become cold and dead and meaningless. And yet, on the other hand, we may not let our religion evaporate into a sentiment, a perfume; we must serve God not in the oldness of the letter, not as a matter of routine, of law, of respectability, of social position, but in newness of the spirit, with the new energy, the new enthusiasm, the new hope with which Christ inspires his servants. Not less but more obedience, not less but more self-sacrifice, is demanded of those who are not under the law, but under grace. And we upon whom 'the ends of the world are come,' are ever tempted to think that we are wiser and more enlightened, more free from superstitions than men of past generations, and to despise the simple faith of earlier days—let us see to it that with our wider knowledge, our more unfettered thought, there be not less of holiness, of simplicity, of purity, of faithful obedience to duty and to conscience, than there was in the life of those who knew nothing of our eager questionings, of our intellectual restlessness, but who knew Christ, and the power of his resurrection."

According to The Church Standard, the London Spectator quotes Mr. Balfour, in a speech on Church extension at Glasgow, as saying:

"The defiant disbeliever is becoming rare, while the unbeliever who distrusts, but does not say or even feel the impulse to say, 'Lord.... help thou mine unbelief, is daily adding himself to a great host. And it is equally certain that if any of these tendencies prevail, conduct which is now so exalted will have lost its base.... The Altruists forget that if Christ was only a great philosopher, if he was capable of radical error as to the destiny of man, and had no right to give an order, we are all thrown back on our own thoughts as absolute guides of conduct....

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

LITERATURE FOR DISTRIBUTION