The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-26
PRONOUNCED HIN
AN ANARCHIST.
DR.. BROWN SAID DR.. HERRON'S
DOCTRINES ARE DANGEROUS
TO PEACE.
SOME MINISTERS APPROVED
BUT OTHERS UPHELD THE PRo-
FEssoR-THE Rev. HENRY
VARLEY's TALK.

The Congregational Monday Club is
liberal in allowing people of different
shades of opinion to hold forth to it.
| Recently the club listened to noted
socialist, without, however, saying
s'Amen" to all his theories. DR.. Haweis
also discoursed upon Moses in a witty
manner, which caused the brethren to
| smile, though they afterward confessed
that the wit was more apparent than the
| orthodoxy of the English divine.
| 1t was after Mr.. Haweis had gone that
he was accused of maligning the law
giver and as some thought this scarcely
fair, DIR. Brown took time by the forelock
yesterday, and impeaehed the orthodoxy
of DIR. Heron, before his advent. DR.. Her
ron, who is Congregationalist himself, is
professor of applied Christianity at Iowa
College He has written books which
some of the brethren consider expose him
to the charge of unorthodoxy, and as he is
to address the club in Passion week, Dr.
Brown wished it to be clearly understood
| that he, for one, could not indorse his
| views. The following were some of the
charges brought against DIR. Heron in the
paper:
| OF all the writers who have undertaken the
| serious business of sweeping aside the existing
| order of things none is so solemnly sure that
he is right and no other so fantastic in the fig
| ure he cuts as the Rev, George D. Heron. He
! takes himself so seriously that he compels US to
! smile.
His confidence in himself is only equaled by
his lack OF confidence in nearly every one else.
| The freedom with which he censureS his breth-
| rem in the ministry, the sweeping condemna-
| ton which he visits upan the churches as in
| sincere and pharisaical, compel us to inquire
| whether he has so long INDUCED such a spirit
as to have lost entirely the capacity of trusting
| his brethren.
! He has issued four OF five books, none of them
| large, but none of them small as to fail to
create the impression that the one man
| in whose convictions Mr.. Heron has abso-
lutte and unbounded confidence is on deck. In
his belief mot in his ''opinion," mark YOU'D,
there is at least one man in this world whose
bearing OF the OF Christ is sincere and al
together above reproach. He is not slow 10
| Christian world ought to be more consecrat ted.
DR.. Brown here showed by extensive
quotations from the seventh chapter of
"The Republic of God" that Mr.. Heron
derived his peculiar ideas of the kingdom
from that work of Elisha Milford.
In the authors opinion the churches
have become so corrupt and SO little repre-
sentative of the spirit of the founder that
the awful maledictions of the twenty third
chapter of Matthew would apply to them.
He continued:
Does this man really believe that the churches
of to-day are no better than the Pharisees
| who opposed Christs teachings and slew him !?
| If he really believes that we are tempted to ask
with what churches he has associated?
His contempt for our churches is only
equaled by his contempt for our theological
| schools, which, in his estimation should, with
atheism, be considered as having ''shut God
| out of their teachings
| 1t is said in apology for author that his
rhetoric is accountable for all of his objection
able passages. We do not believe that DR., Her
ron would thank these apologists or accept
awful seriousness with which he regards him
self and the reverence which he has for his
own utterances should be so trified with When
he says that the churches are Pharisees that is
what he means. When he says that the pos
SCISSORS OF wealth are "a prey upon society"
Interest is robbery that is what he means
When he says that "the people ought at once
to assume control OF the instruments of pro-
duction" that is what he means. When his
friends hand these words over to q rhetoric
which is law unto itself they rob their
prophet of his consequence and his glory.
These are the phrases which have been
wings to his fame which have given him cur
rency as the wonderful expounder of social
ism Tor anarchism) in the phrases of Christian
ity, which have made him the self-discovered
link between religion and those who hurrah
for Christ while they curse his churches. 1t
will not matter after the fire brand gets into
his powder bin whether we call it rhetoric, "
or plain speech or only pious feeling.
Judged by the ordinary laws of human
| speech, the man who says such things as have
quoted-who repeats them in lectures and
prints them in books-is menace to public
order As to the invocation of the sacred
name of the worlds Redeemer, in connection
with such words, can conceive of nothing
more awful, nor of anything so well calculated
to add the zeal of the fanatic to the frenzy OF
the mob.
The discussion which followed was an
ardent one, twelve members of the club
indorsing DR.. Brown, and ten declaring
that the paper had misrepresented DR..
Heron, by taking him too seriously and
by giving quotations from his works with
out the context, which entirely altered the
meaning. Gilbert Dexter and Rev Fred
B. Pullan were the most earnest champions
of the professor of applied Christianity,
though DR.. Rominger and other speakers
defended him from the charge of anarchy
Rev. T. Flawith said: He sees clearer
than nine-tenths of the ministers that we
are not living up to our privileges. 1t may
teach US the lesson that we need to know,
that there are hungry men and women in
San Francisco while we are sitting care
lessly by in our comfortable pews." Those
who agreed with DR.. Browns views were
in the majority however.
Next Monday Rev. Fred B. PuIlau will
read a paper on "a True View of DR.. Her
rom"
Rev. G. A. Rominger states that in his
remarks upon "Lynchings in the South, ~
made before the Congregational Ministers
Club, he said the Chinese were driven out
of Tacoma by mob headed by the secre-
tary of the Young Mems Christian Associa-
ton, and not out of Seattle.