The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-19
REV. MYRoN w. REED.
The Impression He Has Made in Denver
His Views of Creeds and Preaching.

His Views of Creeds and Preaching.
Denver (Col.) News.
The more one sees of the new pastor the bet
ter impression is gained of him. He is thor
oughly charming man; modest, unassumlng
open hearted and free from all stiff and pedantic
notions. He is a man who, while evidently ac-
quainted with books has still better acqualnt-
ance with the world and its inhabitants If he
is as pleasing in the pulpit as he is in converse
ton, he will undoubtedly become one of Den
yers most popular pastors. His every day talk
bubbles all over with good humor, wit, good
sense and right feeling. Though, evidently, a
prudent and considerate thinker, his thoughts
are poured forth in a singularly manly, straight
forward way, without egotism and without CON
cealment. He appears to belong to the great re-
public in which culture, intelligence and refined
taste make men brothers.
In the course of a very general talk, In which
there was no attempt on the part of the reporter
at an interview and no attempt on the part of
the preacher to make one. Rev. MIR. Reed ex-
pressed a great many ideas and opinions which
are too interesting to lose.
The conversation taking somewhat political
turn Mr. Reed said: Il think my predecessor,
Rev. Mr. Hilton, had some pretty good ideas on
these points l understand he did not join in
the recent prohibitory movement. hold pretty
conservative ideas on thatpoint myself. doubt
whether legislatures can make men virtuous and
intelligent by laws"
The reporter suggested that there was in all
these things misunderstanding OF the Amerl-
can idea of government
Yes. " said Mr. Reed, 'that is Just what L
claim. We are not going to succeed five go beyond
the will of the majority. This country is going
through great mixing process. 1t is great eX-
pertinent but to my mind it is a very successful
one. Local option laws are right in principlel.
In towns like Greeley and Colorado Springs.
where people are opposed to liquor selling, the,
attempt to suppress the traffic succeeds very
we'll, and no sensible right minded man can
doubt of its being an excellent thing in the com
munity. But in large city controlled by differ
ent elements and where prohibitory laws do not
find favor with the majority, their enactment is
only an announcement to vice, and vice thus en-
couraged may be worse than If allowed freer
rein"
Il take it." said the reporter, 'that you do
not believe in the dude idea that only the vir-
tuous and intelligent should vote"
''Your word expresses my idea exactly. 1t is
a dude idea People who get rich and live away
from the masses of the people, eonjure up all
sorts of foolish emotions in their own mind.
They think the country is to be ruined by for
eign immigration, by ignorant voters by the
vicious and dangerous classes, and indulge in
other ideas of the same sort. | am in no sym
pathy with their notions l have, on the con
trary q strong belief in an idea which, if l re-
member rightly, is advanced by Carlisle, that
the leading william is not a poor ragged creature,
but sits in cushioned chair and has good
time The dangerous classes are not the poor,
the ignorant or the so-called degraded. They
are the rich, intelligent rascals who sit in
cushioned chairs. Their ideas about prop
erty qualification for voting, educational
qualifications and all this talk about commun-
ism and the dangerous classes, is simply bosh to
my mind. 1t is not only not in accord with the
principles of our government but it is equally
contrary to the true spirit of Christianity
'If l remember rightly said the religious
editor, ''Christ associated with the so-called
dangerous classes in his day"
yes" returned the clergyman, 'and Christ
was a pretty dangerous man himself, at least in
the popular estimation of his day; and don't
I,.A 10 al hn oil olo..4
the same way now. You remember what Wen
dell Phillips said in his lecture christianity a
Battle and Not Dream, to the effect that if
Christ came to Boston nowadays he would be
repudated by every church in the city, and
would be crucifed in much shorter time than
he was in Jerusalem"
These remarks led the reporter to observe that
Wendell Phillips and other men who came up in
the ti-slavery movement were not ln1dels and
and atheists as Colonel Ingersoll would have the
people believe:
Congregationaist and rather inclined to be
Calvinist Garrison drew most his arguments and
ideas from the Blble Cheeyer was religious
man. and Lovejoy, one of the martyrs of the anti
slavery cause was. if | recolect rightly, clergy
man. Of course later in the movement the
attitude of some of the churches toward the
movement induced some people to become fol-
lowers of Theodore Parker, but the movement
was started by religious men and religious ideas
carried it on to success
I'm my pulpit, resumed Mr. Reed, Il Shall
not appear as a special pleader for rich men.
They have money enough to hire lawyers to talk
for them; they may own some ministers, but
they don't own me-"
The reporter turned to the creed adopted
by the Congregationalists and asked Mr. Reed
what he thought of it.
sit is pretty good creed" replied the clergy
man. 1.-THE trouble with Congregahonalism has
BEEN especially in the West, that it has united
itself too much with Presbyterian chusches and
been led away too much by their forms of gov
eminent There is no reason why the Shorter
Catechism should be regarded as divinely in
spired Yet good many Presbyterians and
Gongregationalists have acted as if they
Thought So We have borrowed too much
from poetry and hymns and sources not at
all scriptural There is good deal of theology
that has been borrowed from Millions Paradise
Lost" For my part, l like to have as short a
creed as possible, and am much pleased with
the confession of faith used by the First Congre-
gational Church in Denver which is one of the
Shortest and best have ever SEEN. There is no
earthly reason WHY ideas advanced by men three