The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1880-12-16

THE 5"HEREslo, or DIR THOMAS. &.
From JAMES G.. CLARK, in the Mime:
apolis Spectator.
Rev. DR.. Thomas, a model Chris
tian, and one of the most gifted prea-
chers in the Methodist denomination,
is to be tried for heresy. In late
sermon delivered in the Centenary
Church, Chicago, he expressed views
on the doctrines of substitution, future
punishment, inspiration Of the Scrip
lures, ETC., which are not in accor-
dance with those supposed to have
been laid down by John Wesley
and for this crime he has been ar
raigned by his lesser and younger
brothers for vague and indefinable
thing known as "heresy."
OF course he is not to be tried for
being in advance Of the rest of the
brethren, but simply for making his
views known to the world. None Of
these literalists who make clean the
outside" of the doctrinal dish ever
find fault with a man for inward dis
sent from established" beliefs. It is
only when the thinker betrays the
fact Of his new growth to the world
that he is scented and pursued by
the theological hounds who have just
sufficient intelligence to watch at the
windows Of the church and lift their.
pious voices in a concert Of discord-
ant howls at every new ray Of sun
light that attempts to struggle in thr-
ough the closely shut blinds.
The church has "whitewash" for
immortality, but INK for "heresy."
In a late sermon to his Chicago
congregation, DR.. Thomas said that
he had known and felt that for eight
years he had lain under suspicion
Of heresy. No one" said he, mot
even my own family, has known how
hard it has been for me to bear these
things; to feel q sense Of desertion, a
turning against me of the ministers
of the church in which I have labored
SO long. | have borne these things"
he said, "till every fibre of my soul lies
almost bare and bleeding; and I find
coming upon me, what is the farthest
from me by nature, an underlined fear
of man, a fear OF being struck in the
dark. But for the future" he says,
like the honest and fearless man that
he is, Il shall try to be true to N.Y.
self; true to my God and my race,
true to the truth lie gives me. must,
| will be free-frce to live and think,
and grow with the life Of my age; and
this at any cost. I would rather die
in hovel, with the crown of liberty
on my brow, than to wear the chains
Of 4 slave in palace!"
1t is the old, old story. Bodily
torture end persecution have been
Gagged, but not killed, by civil law
The thumb-screws are now applied to
the soul.
If DR.. Thomas can stand it, and
think he can, I am glad the heresy
hounds are baying on his track. 1t
may interfere with the comfort of
his days." but it will move the race
forward. Protestants need not de-
ceive themselves. Every step away
from the Pope is step toward a
more clearly defined materialism, or
toward q broader and more reason
able spiritual philosophy I am
aware that when the journey is once
begun people have tied up to different
denominational "hitching posts" and
according to conviction, education
and taste taken shelter under various
tcnts-some under the canvas of Lu-
Their, or Calvin: or Edwards, or Roger
Williams, or John Wesley, or George
Fox, or William L. Charming, or
John Murray, but each generation
finds wider and more conyenial camp
ing grounds, while the cross and the
dome Of St. Peter grow beautifully
less in the smoky distance of the TN
returning past. In a spiritual sense
we arc but a mighty tribe of Bohem-
ians. Yesterday we were eating,
drinking, swearing and sleeping by
some pet dogma as though it were to
be our eternal abiding place, but to-
day we "fold our tents like the Arab,
and as silently steal away" across the
landscape that some reformer has ex-
plored before us. True, the masses
find smoothly prepared highways and
spiritual turnpikes, we'll supplied with
church toll-gates, while the radical
pioneers, guided only by the light
within, and by the north star of eter-
nal TRUTH and beset with untried
pcrils, have trod with torn and bleed
ing feet the same hills and valleys,
with not SO much as q "blazed" tree
to remind them Of other travellers,
but the latitude and longitude do not
differ, and the whole number of mile
stones is the same which separate
them all from an infallible book or
Pope
and this constant evolution in religi-
Gus thought and theory is an essential
accompaniment to growing civiliza-
ton which .must ultimately invite a
free, fair and honorable discussion
between fact and assumption-a dis
cussion in which faith in both ancient
and modern evidence of spirit COM
munlon must either stand or fall to-
gcther.
Religion, being an organic factor in
human growth, cannot always be OBJ
structcd by an infallible pope, church
Or book. Wherever humanity grows,
there must be q corresponding expan-
sion spiritually, and an increasing
freedom Of thought which will not
stop for old boundary lines. The
mountain stream grows because it
moves, and finds new landscapes
which contribute new elements of force