The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1880-11-04
ATOTHER HERETlC

/
For some days the newspapers have
had great deal to say about the heresy
of the Rev. H. w. Thomas, Of the NJ.
E. Centenary Church. of Chicago.
The Doctor has grown so liberal that
his brother itinerants think it best to
have him suspended. In fact. the Doc.
tor has grown so much that he does not
wish to stay in church witlra straight
| jacket creed, aud he himself asked the
church to take some action.
DIR. Thomas has come to disagree
with the NJ. E. church theology upon
the following essential points: l. The
atonement. 2. Inspiration. 3. Future re-
ward and punishment. In short. he no
longer believes in the exploded doctrlne
of vicarious atonement; nor in tho
church notion of the inspiration of the
Scriptures; nor In endless punishment.
He believes in ''another chance" after
death.
OF course, the Doctor will be ''sus-
pended" from the immaculate and big
oted true believers" of tho NJ. E.
Church. This is just what he wants,
but we wish he had withdrawn direct
ly, without asking any hearing, and CIV
en- his reasons for 50 doing in \ public
letter.
Already large church has been or
ganized called the "People's Church., :"
and the Doctor has accepted the place
rendered him AS its leader and speaker.
Services will be held for the present
at Hooley's Theatre. Thus the Doctor
becomes second Swing and will preach
to much larger congregations than he
could have within the prison walls of
an "OrthodOx" church.
This movement reminds us of DR..
Thomas experience few years ago. A
re @lous and jealous bigot, named Jes.
sup. fonnd that DR.. Thomas was grow
ing too liberal for the orthodox straight
jacket. He therefore set to work in the
approved orthodox fashion to drive the
Doctor out of Centenary church and
he succeeded. DR.. Thomas went to Au-
rora, Illinois, but his Chicago congre-
CATION after tim. demanded his re-
turn, and he was triumphantly INSTALL
ed a second time rs pastor of Centena-
ny Church. And now comes the joke of
the matter. This same Rev. Jessup
went to Aurora and ''rattled around"
in DR.. Thomas pulpit, and came out
more liberal than the DR.. himself. He
out Thomased Thomas in liberality,
and the DR.. had his revenge in just the
way Il man of his mind would desire it.
Among all the articles we have read
on the subject Of DR.. Thomas heresy,
we have not seen 4 word as to what led
him out of error into the truth. Not
one of the glib reporters or owl-eyed ed
itors have mentioned it if they knew it,
DR.. Thomas, for some years, has been
Investigating the phenomena and the
literature of Spiritualism, and he grew
under it as inevitably is plant grows
under sunshine and rain. Three years
ago when we were in Chicago investi-
eating among the best mediums, we
heard everywhere of DR.. Thomas and
learned of number of tests which lie
had received. He will no doubt carry
with him number of his Centenary
hearers.
AS showing the liberality of his
church, rs compared with the narrow
ness and prejudice of churches general
ly, we give the following: A few years
ago while the yellow fever was raging
in Memphis, we happened to be in Chi
cago aud OH Sunday attended service ut
Centenary Church. After the sermon,
DR.. Thomas said Il lady of his acquain-
to .ce desired to go to Memphis to as
s'st in nursing the yellow fever suffer-
ers. He gave the name of the lady who
was known in Chicago rs ''healing
medium, zone of those dreadful Spiritu-
alists. The DR.. asked his church to
raise fund to send the lady to Mem
pllis. The congregation responded
promptly, the lady went to Memphis,
and Il few weeks after her arrival we
saw an announcement in a Chicago pa
Per that she had fallen victim to the
fever herself.