The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-11-14
PROTEST OF A METHODIST MINIS
TER IN NEBRASKA.

A DISPATCH from Omaha, OCTOBER
"a, announces that Methodism in
Nebraska has been agitated greatly
by the trouble in the church at
Schuyler, city of about $500 peo-
pie, in Colfax county. The Rev.
Henry G. Myers, graduate of the
University ofthe Northwest, was sent
to Schuyler year ago against the
protests of some members, who
wished their old pastor to bereturned.
The malcontents proceeded to
make trouble for the new pastor, but
he proved to be an eloquent and
forcible speaker and drew larger au-
diences than the edifice would hold
A new church was built, but about
month before the Conference was held
his enemies, reinforced by doz
mbers who objected to the preach
ing of Mr.. Meyers on the question of
eternal hell, he having repudiated
the orthodox view, got up petition
asking that he be not returned for an
other year. When the appointments
were announced twas found that Mr.
Meyers had been transferred. This
action of the Bishop coused more
trouble in the church, and appeals
to the presiding elder and the Bishop
were made by his friends, but with
out avail. Mr.. Meyers declared he
would not be transferred, and the
Bishop sent his successor, armed
with the necessary legal papers. The
new pastor took possession without
employing any physical force. The
deposed minister has begun the task
of building up new church of his
own in Schuyler, and his first services
were largely attended.
Mr.. Myers's letter of declination to
the presiding elder of the district
has just been made public, and the
bitter tenor of it, as we'll as the
charges he makes against thu church
authorities, has created a sensation
in the State. In this letter lie gives
the reasons for his action-reasons
which would have been more i'm
pressive and influential if expressed
in less severe terms. If Mr.. Meyers
does not believe in an eternal hell he
has no place in the Methodist church
and he need not complain SO bitterly
of ecclesiastical action. Following
is the letter in part:
"The world has outgrown the Sec
tartan thinking of the centuries past,
and is now moving in the progress i've
light of reasons lamp in the present
day. The Dantean hell of the past
the pit from which fame of fire and
smoke assembled, mingled with the
breath of birthstone and the cries and
groans of suffering spirits-is a hell
no longer reasonable to all thinking
men and women of this age. To
preach men into hell who do not
bow down to the creed of the church,
formula once possessing measure
of life, but now dead and decayiog,
is as unreasonable as the mind that
pictured it. Who made the thinkers
of hundred years ago infallible, SO
that their thoughts possessed a priori
and Interchangeable principles, and
then left all future thinkers to the
fate of their human weaknesss Did
God? He did if the old doctrine be
true.
els the creed of the Methodist
Church an infallible rule? If it is,
then all other creeds are wrong, for
it differs from all others. Cree DIS
must shake off their dead leaves be-
fore their branches can pro luce
ripened fruit to save and bless the
world. Churches, like nations, must
move in the direction of ultimate
truth or die and decay with the past.
As water, standing still, stagnates
and produces living organism, SO
churches, refusing to move forward,
will die, and from their effete body
will rise new organism instinct with
the breath of a broader and clearer
light. Good is good no matter
whether it is found in character
builded by church creeds or built by
personal recognition of duty and
right with a faithful allegiance to the
same. Men are not all on their way
to the bottomless pit who do not bow
down to creeds composed by few
chalmers of infallibility."
mrnNuonNyo nnnN