Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-11

us imagine that so of the rich men Of San
Francisco, who have their thousand millions
all in money, should get angry with the
other SO rich men who have their thousand
millions mostly in city property. Now, let
us suppose that the so rich men with the
ready money should pool in and buy up a
lot OF land at some favorable point nearby
and there set to work to build better city.
What would follow? Why, the very first
thing would be the emptying out of the old
city to get men to build the new. And the
ten-story tenement that to-day is worth
800, 600 would tomorrow not be worth 100
cents. So you see these great cities and
centers can easily and very proftably be
torn to pieces by the very men, or the very
order of men, who reared them, without any
reference to the people. For what can hap-
pen to new and small cities like San Fran
cisco eau easily happen to Paris, Berlin,
London and New York"
1 remember being hit startled by the
possibilities at the root of this last allusion;
and must have said something about its
being strange speech and thought for 3
priest, for he hastened to remark that the
proposition was hardly his own, but rather
something of the general thought as ex-
pressed by the men and women who had
time to look at the drift of things from their
higher point of view in this new city of the
desert
Gas for being priest" he added in a
very serious tone, 81 am priest; and yet l
am not now a priest. 1t did not seem good
to me that the people should be ignorant
and dependent to the end OF time. III the
world is to lay aside the sword and turn to
the ploughshare it must be done intelli-
gently, il done permanently. Love must
be in the hearts of the people, not on the lips
OF the priests. Religion must be fact; not
a form. The people are good; the world is
beautiful, aud God is love. Let the child
that comes laughing down out of heaven to
us, clapping its tiny hands with delight all
day in the open fields, not be told that it is
sinful and that the world is wicked and that
God is angry with this beautiful world
which He has made for man. No, mol God
has made each child happy, and it should
be forbidden that man, priest or layman
should make it unhappy"
From this time forward found myself
being irresistibly drawn toward this
thoughtful man. I asked him to tell me if
he would, how it was that he came 10 walk
out and down from his high place and take
up his home in the desert.
Very deliberately be began, after some
reflection, and spoke as nearly as / can re-
call. to this effect:
There is a sort of Freemasonry, as it
were, among men in the world of thought;
q sort of common ground, common sense, in
upper world of thought. The eminent
tbeologian is not necessarily q more re-
lgious man than the eminent mathema-
tician. The eminent Mathematician is not
of a necessity a wiser man than the eminent
theologian. But in this age of advancement
all thinkers of all creeds or callings have a
comfy OF thought on the common ground of
common sense. And looking out and
down from this, oftentimes with their gray
heads laid close together, they have had
their hearts torn continually at the contem-
plation OF the misery oil men. The eminent
and thoughtful theologians, most especially,
have deplored and continue to deplore this
misery, so inseparably interviewer in the
present order OF things with deceit and
TalseGood, practiced in the name of Jesus
Christ. Now, OF these eminent men of
the church there is, and long has been,
two distinct kinds; one the kind that
pities the misery and deplores the ignorance
and deceit, but at the same time sees no way
out of it all, and believes that the misery
and the ignorance and the sham are in
separable, and that the best thing to do is to
leave things as they are and 60 right along
with all the falsehooGs and all the forms
and all the big fees. The other kind of men
among the eminent theologians is one who
desires, like Christ and His disciples, to de-
spise forms and falsehoods and ceremonies
and Shams, and to walk in the footprints of
the meek and lowly Nazarine, without pay
or price. Of course, there is a third class, or
kind of theolUgians, SO called. And this is
by far the most numerous. But remember, /
have been speaking of eminent men, of
thinkers, not of men who enter the church
as they enter the army, merely for the money,
and to escape that one first command of God
when man was driven out of Eden, which
saws in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread.
But as this large class weighs nothing in
the world of Thought, 1 need not speak of it
again. The second kind referred to, how
ever is more numerous than one would at
first believe. And 1 am of that class. So,
when / secretly learned that an attempt was
TO be made somewhere in the deserts of
America to found a community, as an ex-
ample to the world, on the plain, brief pre-
cepts, principles, examples and sermons of
. Jesus Christ, turned my back on forms
and begged TO be o. it.