WELL STATED BY A SECULAR JOURNAL.
The old Springfield (Mass.) Republican—once Republican, now Democratic, in politics—has always been deemed a reliable representative of the times. In a recent issue it says: "There is a movement for evangelizing the people of the United States entertained, and now being furthered by many of the religious denominations which call themselves 'evangelical,' for some reason which does not appeal to every one." It then notes that neither in the Roman Church, nor in the Unitarian or Protestant Episcopal ranks, "is there a stir of special effort for the regeneration of the world." Of the Protestant sects, which "are manifesting the desire of circumscription within creeds," it remarks that "all these need new life, and they know it." The last clause, "and they know it," is the only mistake in this arraignment. Speaking of the church of the last days, the Laodicean period, the prophet notes this very condition, and says that they do not know it. See Rev. 3: 14-22. Individuals who believe and heed the Word of God by His prophet know the condition, but the masses of the professed church are in ignorance of the true situation. After stating the disease so tersely, the Republican goes on to prescribe the remedy in the following lucid manner:— What is wanted in all the churches is a renewal of Spirit. It is not important to carry on a warfare against the criticism, which shows how human the documents are which have been regarded as divinely and verbally inspired; it is not worth while to quarrel with the fallibility of man. What is needed is to get in touch with God,—to strike a pure chord with the spiritual essence of nature. There it is that we must find the truth of things, which is the body of the Infinite. All the rest may be abandoned, without loss, to those whose souls are emancipated into unity. The superstitions of the world, never more abundant than now, as we see from the multitude of follies that claim direct warrant from Deity, will continue. But the regeneration of the social conditions of men must come from a simpler and purer source than all the sects furnish. It is the ethics of the universe that the revivalists should seek; the schemes of salvation, by priests or by dogmas, are but make-shifts to catch those who are incapable of thought or can only think in terms already old. The spiritual regeneration, which will make human society what it should be, must rest in developed truth, must be inspired by the ever-during life of all that is. We must dip into the streams of universal childhood, and now, after centuries, find ourselves floating in greater waters, where artificial formularies are swamped and we rest on the ocean of one divine flood of life. But the only law which will bring us into the channel of that life is God's everlasting law of truth; and the only means by which we can appropriate it is the everlasting Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the sum of God's last message to this world. Rev. 14: 6, 7.