The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1897-08-16
REVIEW OF MORE,S UTOPIA.
Discourse FromE the Platform of
the Peoples tabernacle.

ptS Col'e 1ibcIuhcsSs
The platform OF the People, Tabernacle
was occupied yestersiay3,by Mr.. john l..
McCreery, Rev. DR.. Kent being absent
from tie city.
The subject which the speaker selected
was Utopia" by Sir Thomas More.
Among many other things which Mr.
McCreery cited to show how far in adj
vance Oh his generathni More was, he called
attention 10 "a law which has never been
repealed and which is applicable in the
District Of Columbia. This statute pro-
yides that any person who denies the
oodhead or any OF the three persons OF
the Trinity FOR the first offense shall be
bored through tine tongue with d hot lion
and fined 500; for the second off,,nse the
letter b, the initial of blasphemer,
shall be burned upon his forehead and a
fine Or $500 imposed, or in the absence
OF the money, Imprisonment for Il year;
for the thiru offensc the penalty shall
be death without benefit of clergy When
the District or Columbia was coded to
the general Government, the Maryland
statutes We're made operative here, and
the statute IN question was passed by the
Colonial assembly in October, 1923, and
has never been repealed.
Mr. aicCreery undertook to show how
much of political progress the world owes
TO More's Utopia. He said the discovery Of
America was not necessarily a priceless
boon 10 humanity 1t would have been bet
ter That IL had remained unbound its fields
| untitled, its forests unfelled, It's precious
treasures unmineG, than for it 20 have
beCOEno inn /,f ha old
as Ii was then Better have left IL TO the
Powha: uans and 0sceolas ana Moutezunas
than convert it into hall where other
Torquenadas should torture and other
Borgias poison.
Tie American citizen who realizes the
blessings OF liberty should look back with
gratitude, not only to washington, and
Jefferson, and Adams, and Franklin, and
faine, but TO Alsernon Sidney and John
Hampden, and earlier yet. and most of
all, Sir Thomas More. His work, Utopia
was tie first book ever printed, IL not
indeed the first one ever written, that gave
clear and emphatic utteranee TO the idea
in its extremist and most comprehensive
form that there is no power On earth that
IL not derived fIunl the viii OF the peo-
pie, and that government officials, civil
and ecclesiastical, have no other duties
than to carly out that Will. Mr.. McCreery
reviewed ut considerable length the condi-
ton Of the people of England at the time
tie book wds written. lie quoted from
MoshcIn's Ecclesiastical History as fol
lows
The most considerable part OF the clergy
had become, by their ignorance and leyity.
their sioth and avarice, their voluptuous-
ness and inlpurity, contemplate and in-
famous, notinly In the eyes OF the wise, but
in the unl"essl Judgment of the multitude
The diseourses Oft the priests contained little
else than Fictitious reports OF miracles
and prodigies, insipid fables and illiterate
largon. "
For a century the government OF England
had been in the hands of gang OF cor
rupt and constituencies JnaraudeIs 1t
bad been a century of wars melted, not
by patriotism, but for plumber, the pillage
OF farms, the sacking of cities, the ran
SOM Of captiyes, mere massacre and
hrisandage. II was an age or constitu
iionai retrogression. in which the slow
work of preceding centuries was rapidly
undone. Justice was degraded by the wide
extension OF the judicial power OF the royal
council The crown alone lowered Ia
solitary greatness Loyalty to the hber-
ties OF the people meant treason TO the
king, and the punishment was death. Des-
potism was impregnahly intrenched The
darkest hours of the dark ages had come.
Just then there appeared on earth man
of mighty intellect, a counsellor Of mar.
Vicious wisdom, legislator of nnfaltering
patriotism, a statesman of incoIruptible
fnsppy-itv Iea dor af ir.ln Z, 10 rpurape--
Thomas More.
Then Mr.. McCIeery reviewed Utopia"
lie referred particularly to such portions
of the hook as reveal and express the
principles of civil and religious liberty,
which More sought To inculcate Mr.. Nc
Creery said: I'VE are justly proud of our
institutions, but perhaps not many of US
are ware that Thomas More $50 years be
fore the Declaration of Independence out
lined as = model for his king a form of
government ia rmorecompletelyin the hands
Of the people than is ours today He
then sketched The form of govern ment OF
Utopia.
Mr.. MccTeery said that the most APP
propriate Summary of the religious belief
OF More would be to say that he was
Freethinker. Utopia showed him to be
the freest thinker that ever trod the planet
1t has been unfortunate for More's repu-
tation that he was so far ahead OF his
age IN religious thought Because he
was hominally Catholic, and never
became distlnctively a Protestant Prot
estants have not deemed themselves
called upon to glorify him as one fof their
heroes. Because he denouncedth e ma china
tons Of priestcraft and ruthlessly trod
under foot the traditions of the church.
the Catholics have never placed his name
among those of their saints. Because he
believed unquestionably in G cd and Christ
and a hereafter, Atheists ana Materialists
ana gnostcs have looked askance at him,
not being able to claim him unreservedly
as one Of them. And it is Well that it
should be SO. A soul so mighty right
fully belongs not to the Catholic Church,
not to the Protestant Church, not to IN.
believers in both, but to humanity.
The religious exercises were led by
Mr.. George A. Warren, and the sacred
music was conducted by William P. Hughes.
Mrs. Nina Vera B. Hughes acted as or
ganist.
IMPOSSIBLE TO HIDE FROM GOD.