Saturday, January 13, 1906.

The Unity of the Church.

The Bishop of Southwark devoted a part of his address to the first Synod of his clergy of the new diocese to The Unity of the Church. Dr. Talbot's utterances on such a subject are always significant. What he says is of value; what he is intensifies the value of what he says. That part of his address which deals with unity appears in full elsewhere. It would be difficult to present in nobler form or in a more comprehensive spirit the appeal for unity in a section of Christendom. But practically he puts the unity of a section before the unity of the whole, and so, as it seems to us, the first note of catholicity and what we believe to be the primary principle of Christendom is to that extent impaired.

...

This

Dr. Talbot says, speaking of The Unity of the Church: "The words can never stand in our prayers and aspirations for less than the unity of all who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in all sincerity, all who profess and call them selves Christians. Still less can they omit the unity of all the great bodies, congregations, or communions of Christians. To this great aim we shall devote, if you approve, our first resolution. In it we tender to this great cause the only offering that we can make that of strong de- consecrated in prayer. will not, I think, require much discussion, but from it we pass to a part of the subject which is closer to us; our unity among ourselves; unity, and that which is essential to it, the comprehensiveness of the Church of England. And I would point out to you that in consulting for this we shall really be serving the interests of wider reunion when, at some distant day, God's providence may bring that more near." Our difficulty is that the unity of a part is given precedence over that of the whole-precedence in immediate obligation and precedence in actual life, whereas the unity of the whole is left

Church comprehend those who come to Him? Some would interpret generously and deal sympathetically with their Roman brethren in the hope of finding common ground upon which the sure foundations of unity might be laid. Others would approach their Protestant brethren in the same spirit, with the same hope. These dispositions are intensified, and the numbers of those who advocate and maintain them are increased by every effort to check them. The effort of the one to check the other, or of the national Church to check either or both in the interest of its own unity, is to oppose the sectarian to the catholic spirit. Unity lies in the direction of more, not less, comprehensiveness. The less spells sectarianism; the more catholicity.

Own

Is not the condition of divided Christendom a manifestation of the insufficiency of sectarianism, and a demonstration of the necessity for a real catholicity? The English Church, our Church and all Churches are divided among themselves and against one another because they have for their immediate object unity within themselves and not the unity of the Church. For the future we see no signs of hope for any sort of permanent or effective unity in the various bodies of Christians that is not conditioned upon the unity of the whole of

Christendom.

Until that ideal is nourished and supported by something more than prayers and aspirations, it will not in any real sense help us to become partakers with Christ in His effort to lift us out of our sectarianism and make us indeed living members of His Body.

The individual who says that he must himself become righteous before he can help his neighbor to be righteous, or the national Church that says it must convert itself before it can convert the heathen, is recognized to-day as irrational, as contradicting the essential principle of the Incarnation and as antagonizing the nature of that love with which God

ટી.

but fatal. If there could be such thing as section a of Christendom at perfect unity within itself, would not that insure its separation from other sections? The comprehensiveness of one section may be greater than that of another; but can there be in an isolated section any such comprehensiveness as Christ willed for His Church? To be definite and concrete, do not the divisions and violent contentions within the English Church demonstrate its insufficiency to comprehend as Christ would have His

"The Truth of the Living

Giver."

If we have spoken in frank criticism of this particular statement from the Bishop of Southwark it is not that we think it representative of his attitude toward unity, but rather because the statement is typical of an attitude in all parts of divided Christendom. Possibly Dr. Talbot is himself more influenced by this general

attitude than he realizes. But that no one may be misled by this single statement as to his catholic-mindedness, we give the following notable passage from his "Some Aspects of Christian Truth" published in 1905.

"We, brethren, in the Church of God, have this happiness and blessing that our Lord Himself has in part, at least, decided for us this matter of method by giving us definite sacraments of His power and presence; decided it, that is, not by the defining language of words which divide and perplex, but by the silent speech of acts which unite; acts of utter simplicity, yet of richest mystical power. Happy we, if resolutely minimizing controversy by rising to what is really highest, we can unitedly lay hold upon the truth of the living Giver present to give us in His own way living gifts, part of the one gift which is life from Himself. Happy if we can recognize that different races, times, and strains of opinion or temperament may treat these great things of Divine operation with more or less of simplicity or splendor, and mean by both alike the same purpose of doing fullest reverence to the real working of God amongst and within us. Well for us if we resolutely decline to focus interest upon questions of definition about which the history of controversy has taught us with utter plainness that there is no thoroughfare, that each added sharpness of assertion means a fresh brusqueness of rejection; that with much speech there comes to each side increasing peril of worshipping the image in their own heart instead of the Truth; and to all sides ever deeper misunderstanding and mistrust of one an

other."

"Thus may Christians who find their secret in the revealed inworking of God understand each other; thus also may they find their union with all that is good and fair everywhere in human life and thought. For there is but one God, in nature and redemption, and one Lord, the

Word, Who is, as the old theologians delighted to teach, the λoyos σneрuatikos through all creation, as well as the Incarnate Jesus Christ" (page 11).

We print this passage not simply in justice to Dr. Talbot, but rather because it is a mine of wisdom, rich in the truth and love of "the living Giver," and because we in the American Church especially need this aspect of Christian truth. We need it to deepen our conviction that there is such a thing as truth, and we need it to stimulate us to a truer conception and a more real consciousness of our obligation to seek it; and still again, we need it to ennoble and to hallow the spirit in which we fulfil our relations to our fellow-men.

Bishop Walker and

Dr. Crapsey.

We have not won a name as a truthseeking, though we assume the grave responsibility of being a truth-bearing and a truth-teaching, Church. The General Convention has discouraged the original and independent investigations of scholars by refusing to accept in the simplest form the overwhelming voice of scholars as to mistranslations in the version of the Bible

which it is our custom to use.

The re

fusal in itself is not so important as the

attitude it represents toward truth. The far-reaching effects of this attitude it would be impossible to estimate. It is but natural, that if the General Convention gives preference to opinion, to taste, and to habit over accuracy with regard to the Scriptures, that the ministry and the laity should follow its example.

We wish to illustrate by a single contemporaneous example the evil of such a principle of action-the arbitrary substitution of something else for truth. A priest of the diocese of Western New York was widely charged with a denial of the Church's faith. In accordance with the canons a Committee of Five was appointed by the bishop to make an investigation. The committee, two dissenting, reported back to the bishop, refusing to make a presentment. The essential reason for their refusal is contained in the following sentence: "It is by inference rather than by unequivocal statements that conclusions as to the belief of the author are arrived at, and three of your committee do not believe that these conclusions are sufficiently positive to stand as evidence in an ecclesiastical or civil court, and therefore they decline to present the Rev. Dr. Crapsey for trial." The Bishop of Tennessee interpreted, we believe, the best though not the whole mind of the Church, when he expressed relief and satisfaction that the committee had been

able to come to this conclusion. But the Bishop of Western New York, on Friday, Dec. 29, at Christ church, Rochester, preached a sermon which it is said represented the attitude not only of the bishop but of many others in that diocese toward the case of Dr. Crapsey. That sermon consisted largely in the assumption of positive, definite and unequivocal denial

of Bishop Walker. Each may be unable to modify the attitude of the other. But our Lord is able and willing to help and to save both in His Church. The speculations of Dr. Crapsey, the committee reports, tend to undermine the Creeds, and surely the attitude of Bishop Walker, with his theory of "quartz crystals," would tend to destroy a belief in the Creeds as the truth of the "living Giver." But since both Bishop Walker and his priest, in spite of their peculiar opinions and speculations, declare that they are loyal to the Christ of the Gospels and the Creeds, we must believe, as we have no reason to doubt their sincerity, that each is entitled to a place in the Church's ministry.

Our Lord did not banish Thomas because of his doubt, but He enlightened. and confirmed his faith. Neither did He banish or drive out Peter because of his denial. He enlightened and saved him for his great mission. There is no record that He banished Judas, who seems to have been left to the inevitable consequences of his sin. Was it ever imagined, much less charged, that our Lord condoned or made Himself responsible for the doubt of Thomas? Or that He condoned, or approved of, the denial of Peter? A bishop cannot do better than try in his measure to follow the example of the Master, Whose servant he is.

Chronicle and Comment.

The President on the Canal.

President Roosevelt sent to Congress on Jan. 8 the reports of the Isthmian Canal Commission and the Panama Railroad Company with a letter of transmission from Secretary Taft. In an accompanying letter the President expressed his gratification at the progress nine months. The organization had been of the work, especially during the last perfected, the plant prepared, sanitation secured. He hoped soon to lay before Congress the recommendation of the Commission and the consulting engineers as to the plan for the canal. There was reason to believe that the canal would be dug in a shorter time than was expected and at less expense. Citizens had every

but subject to the peculiar limitations of Government employment, and it was unfortunately true that men engaged in public work, no matter how disinterested, were the object of misrepresentation and attack. Only those with a genuine sense of public spirit, those eager to do the great work for the work's sake, could be obtained. They must not be treated with niggardliness and parsimony. In the assurance that the work on the isthmus was being done admirably; that the or

ganization was good, the mistakes few

and trifling, the zeal, intelligence and efficient public service of the Commission

and its subordinates noteworthy,

he

courted for them the fullest, most exhaustive and most searching investigation, asking "that they be decently paid and that their hands be upheld as long as they act decently."

Europe and Morocco.

The Emperor of Germany would seem to have impressed French public opinion with the conviction that if the claims of Germany in regard to Morocco are not accepted in the approaching international conference at Algeciras, war will follow. His New Year's speech to his generals was for the first time in years delivered in secret, and all publication withheld-a proceeding which evidently conveyed the impression that the subject under consideration related to approaching military operations. Etienne, the present French Minister of War, has been steadily working to tone up the French military establishment, left weak by his predecessor, the semi-socialist, M. Berteaux, and has increased the artillery upon the frontier. The German War Office has met this by an order for 20,000 freight cars to be built in Italy, Switzerland and Belgium, as well as Germany. They will increase the military efficiency of Germany in moving troops, and offStill set public opinion in these lands. more, the German press has for a month carried on a discussion in regard to the possibility of war, apparently under Government direction and encouragement. All this has greatly strengthened in France the position and pleas of the Nationalist party for a more aggressive policy. In view of the exig ency, it is altogether possible that M. Loubet will reconsider his determination to refuse a re-election, and will be chosen as president for another term by the Senate and Chamber of Deputies which must meet in joint session before Feb. 18, to elect a president for a seven year term. Tension on the continent has led to the energetic declaration from Sir Edward Grey, the Liberal British Minister of

priests of the Church, and in violent denunciation of such priests. The coldness of the attitude and the deadness of the conception of the Creeds as the truth of the "living Giver" cannot better be described than by the following phrase from that sermon: "Those gathered Articles of Belief are a group of quartz crystals."

It would appear that Bishop Walker had converted his promise to banish and drive away from the Church erroneous and strange doctrine into a determination to banish and drive away from the Church priests, who in his opinion, hold erroneous and strange doctrine, and to have forgotten the exhortation of the Presiding Bishop at his consecration, "Be to the flock of Christ a shepherd, not a wolf: feed them, devour them not." Unquestionably, an attitude like that of Bishop Walker tends to produce an attitude like that of Dr. Crapsey; and the attitude of Dr. Crapsey to produce an attitude like that

standard of efficiency and integrity that had been maintained. Irresponsible charges had been made from time to time of jobbery, immorality, inefficiency, or misery on the isthmus. He had examined each, so far as any seemed worthy of attention, and had found them always without foundation. They arose either from personal grievance, from sensational habits of mind, inaccurate observation, or desire of notoriety. Men who had failed to secure employment, or had been disappointed in land speculation, or in securing contracts, or officers who had been dismissed for incompetence or abuse of trust had been found among these sensation-mongers. The only discredit in their accusations was to those who originated them and gave them currency. down the salaries of the officers or of

To cut

their subordinates would be bad economy.

"Demoralization of the service is certain if the reward for successful endeavor is a

reduction of pay." The work at Panama was infinitely more difficult than any private work, for it was not only tropical

to France and Morocco will be precisely similar to that which was held by Lord Lansdowne, his Conservative predecessor. This gives France at the Algeciras Conferonce the moral support of Great Britain. The real issue that appears likely to come up there is whether such police as disorder in Morocco may render necessary shall be conducted by France, whose frontier lies for 700 miles along Morocco, or shall be placed in the hands of a joint European control. Germany will undoubtedly urge such a control, and has already secured a number of contract concessions. Count Tattenbach, who represents Germany in the approaching conference, has been for years the advocate of energetic German action in Morocco. While minister a decade ago, he landed German marines at a small port, and nothing but the prompt remonstrances of the other Powers prevented his act from passing into a permanent occupation.

The real question which clouds the European future is whether Kaiser Wilhelm

has the moral restraint to avoid abusing the dominant power which he possesses, owing to the political paralysis of Russia, or whether the world's public opinion will be powerful enough to restrain either an appeal to arms or such "pressure" on France as would bring Europe perilously near a general war.

America and Morocco.

Slight as are the commercial or political interests of this country in Morocco, it is possible that the American delegation may have a very important part to play in the coming conference, and as though to show our readiness to play it, an American squadron has been ordered to Spanish waters. If the differences between Germany and France prove difficult to reconcile, and other European nations

range themselves with relative equality

on either side, our delegates may have the deciding vote. Naturally, under these circumstances, the State Department is careful to give no indication whether it is in favor of a French or an international police control in Morocco, though we are in so far interested as, should the latter alternative prevail, we should be called upon and should expect to share in that work. There is every indication that

President Roosevelt has determined to use all his power, now as at Portsmouth, to allay animosities and maintain international peace.

New Japanese

to

It often happens cabinets that have carMinistry. ried a country through the strain of even successful war, that peace finds them without a parliamentary majority. So it has been in Japan, where, on Jan. 5, it was semi-officially announced that Marquis Saionji would succeed Count Katsura as Prime Minister. Marquis

Saionji is leader of Marquis Ito's Seiyukai Political Association and is still in the vigor of manhood, under fifty-seven. Ten years of his life were passed in study in France, and after his return in 1880 he soon became conspicuous as a Liberal journalist. He was made Minister to Austria in 1885, transferred to Berlin in 1887, and recalled in that year to become President of the Board of Education, a post that he held also in the second Ito administration, from 1894 to 1896. He was then almost continuously in cabinet office and twice interim Prime Minister till he became leader of the Seiyukai in 1903. As Minister of Foreign Affairs he has

chosen the eminent but unpopular Takakira Kato. The present Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yamagata, adopted son of the Marshal, is to be Minister of Home Affairs; the present Minister at Rome, Makino, Minister of Education. The Vice Minister of Finance, Sakatani. is advanced to be Minister; General Terauchi, the present Minister of War will probably keep his place; Vice-Minister of the Navy, Saito, will become Minister and President Matsuoka, of the Court of Administrative Litigation, will be Minister of Justice. The new ministry as a whole represents the progressive spirit of industrial and commercial Japan. Viscount Aoki is to be the first Japanese Ambassador at Washington. He has been Minister at London and Berlin. His wife is a German, his daughter a Countess Hatzfeldt.

Japanese Churches.

port not only of the most responsible and orthodox Japanese ministers in these churches, but also of some of the most experienced and far-sighted missionaries. Incidentally he gives also an interesting side light on the recent visit of the Papal Nuncio, Bishop O'Connell, to the Mikado. The tenor of the Pope's letter, which he bore, has not been made public. Nor have officials been willing to give even the vaguest hint of its character, except that it may have been an expression of thanks for protection extended to Roman Catholics in Korea and Manchuria. The Mikado is said to have replied: "You may rest assured that I shall protect followers of religion whatever their nationality." It is thought significant that the Nuncio had to wait two weeks for his audience. Though he was made the recipient of many courtesies and given a decoration, he was not entertained at the Imperial Palace, but at the Shiba, where Secretary Taft stayed last July. Roman Catholic methods of evangelization, the correspondent says, have recognized more than the Protestant that the social unit in Japan is the family, not the individual. Their aim has been to convert heads of families

and, if possible, influential members of a family clan; so while it may be true, as the Conservative journal, Nippon, recently said, that Roman Catholic propaganda "produces scarcely a bubble on the surface of the nation's life," it may still be acting as a self-propagating yeast beneath the surface. The quiet character of Bishop O'Connell's visit, says the correspondent, is quite in accord with the spirit of the work he came to strengthen. Nevertheless, he thinks that the general result of the war has been a strengthening of the ancestral faith, and that “not for 1,200 years has Shintoism been so emphasized as it is to-day."

been

put

Rebellion at Moscow has The Russian vigorously Situation. down, and from present reports it seems that it was never as serious as had been claimed. Certainly insurrection did not receive popular support. On the whole, the result of the past week has been to strengthen the reactionaries and to decrease the influence of Count Witte, though the necessity for employing his exceptional financial abilities will probably keep him in power and perhaps enable him to make a fair trial of the representative institutions granted by the

Tsar, but no coherent party has arisen as yet to give promise of profiting by them. Rebellion, temporarily successful in Esthonia and Livonia, is being suppressed with great brutality; and similar movements in the Caucasus and Georgia, though seemingly successful at present, will probably ultimately share the same fate.

But even should reaction triumph, its position can never become stable. This must have a very serious effect upon Russian credit. The reserve held to maintain the gold standard has already been impaired and specie payments will probably not be long maintained. No foreign loan can be negotiated until the Moroccan war cloud has definitely passed away, for the great lending nations are all husbanding their resources in fear of imperative demands nearer home. A domestic loan is out of the question. The nation is, if any thing, worse off financially than the state, but the interest on the debt held abroad will, no doubt, be met promptly for some

time to come. A long period of depre

ciated currency will precede any impairment of international obligations.

France and the Vatican.

.

they come to us by mail are interesting. Of course there is a large group of anticlerical journals who are pleased with the bill as far as it goes and wish it went further. They declare their intention to work for an aggravation of the law and for the maximum of oppression in its administration. The more sober organs of public opinion speak very differently. The Temps, which is supposed to represent cultured French Protestantism, says that the more thoughtful of the legislators "are not altogether without anxiety as to the future they have prepared for the republic." They are, it says, playing a game in which the republic is at stake and for an advantage very dubious and very small. "When there is not the excuse of a popular movement, when an appeal to the country was so easy, the precipitate voting of so grave a measure cannot but be regarded as a serious act. It is simply staking things on a cast. If the result is as they hope, it will prove only that they have been more lucky than wise." The traditionally timid Journal des Debats also professes regret at the measure. On the other hand, in La Croix, that paladin of Roman Catholic politicians, Comte de Mun rejoices in the freedom of the Church and says good will come of evil and that the day on which the law was signed is less an occasion of mourning than for hope. He is convinced that the Catholics of France will so acquit themselves as to find in their sufferings their salvation. The Figaro, which for all its flippancy often speaks with peculiar authority of things Roman, ventures the opinion that as the result of the separation diplomatic relations between France and the Curia will be resumed,

new

as was the case in Brazil when a Concordat was abolished there ten years ago.

The Pope, says this journal, intends to provide episcopal incomes for the future by reviving the ancient jus cathedraticum, a proportional tax on all ecclesiastics and ecclesiastical buildings, and shows himself serene and hopeful in regard to French affairs, though protesting that the Concordat ought not to have been abolished by the

French Government without consult

ing the other party to it, the Vatican. That the majority of Roman Catholic ecclesiastics and leaders are opposed to the separation is true, but the sentiment is not universal. A small but influential minority is already making itself heard and felt. They have a journal of their own, founded on the conviction that only good can come from a free Church in a free State, and that establishment checks spiritual growth and vitality. These men are, in a measure, the successors of the Gallicans of Louis XIV.'s day who wished a French rather than a Roman Church, and their parliamentary representatives have shown themselves inclined to act rather with

than against the ministry in the debates and votes on a new law, so that there seems more promise than for some time past of a lasting division of political sentiment among French Churchmen, a condition that is of good augury for the cause of religious progress in

France.