Federation and Belief in Christ
THE Inter-Church Federation Conference just held in New York City adopted a resolution making belief in “Jesus Christ our divine Lord and Saviour” a requisite of admission to the federation, thus shutting out the Unitarians and Universalists as organized bodies. This moves the New York Sun to make the following editorial comment:— It is true that both the Unitarians and the Universalists as organizations are now small, and instead of growing with the growth of the population have rather fallen back, but their general spirit of criticism of the orthodox Protestant positions has extended greatly and essentially modified the sentiment of a religious public once bitterly opposed to them. Practical Universalism has entered into every Protestant denomination. . . . Unitarianism is expressed in the higher Biblical criticism which is now so dominant even in Protestant orthodoxy. Unitarian churches of Boston have largely lost their strength to Episcopal parishes. An Episcopal rector of Rochester in this State has been charged with heresy in practically denying the virgin birth of Jesus. Like denial is made by many of the prominent clergy of the Church of England. If even the ministers at the late New York conference which voted to make belief in the divinity of Christ an absolute prerequisite of admission to the federation organized were catechized and cross-examined on the subject of their own belief, would not the answers be likely to indicate an absence of positiveness in themselves? This estimate of the extent to which orthodox Protestantism has departed from its original platform is undoubtedly correct. This modern apostasy is preparing the way for that threefold union which will act its part in the closing days of the great controversy.