Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-04-29
s!s
/ LITERATURE AND LIFE
a. j. n.


THE Carpenter Prophet, a book just
from the press written by Prof. Charles
Charles Pearson formerly of the North
western University, is a Life of Jesus
and Discussion of His Ideals. The
| book is we'll written, the argument log
| zeal and we'll arranged as was TO be
Expected from this progressive theo-
| Logan. But it contains nothing new.
The ground has been well threshed
over by Unitarians and other liberal
scholars 1t even goes beyond Chan
ning's thought, which held to the SUI
perhuman quality of Jesus, and rests
itself upon the Unitarianism of Theo-
dore Parker, announced to the world
sixty years ago, whose views are still
held by the conservative wing of mod
ern Unitarianism.
| In his book, the eminent hereto
states frankly his rejection of all the
supernatural elements attached to the
person of Jesus; tn. immaculate con-
ception the miracles, and the resurrec-
ton of the body as told in the gospels.
| OF the miracles attributed to Jesus he
says:
The evangelists did not do Jesus
| Justice. They embellished his actual
| life with mythical incidents which they
supposed suited to his character, and
even necessary to establish his right to
| be the Messiah They intended to ex-
alt, but they actually degraded him.
st ,ries of turning water into wine. of
the miraculous multiplication of loaves
and fishes, of walking upon the sea, are
| tawdy and melodramatic marvels. They
| chill and ALLEVIATE us, and greatly mar
the simple beauty of the soul of Jesus. =
| The author rejects the entire body of
doctrine on which evangelical Chris
tianity rests, and declares the pagan
ism that still fingers in the blood. colors
the religious life and thought of today.
Hs says: Jesus the man is ineXpres-
sively beautiful and attractive; Jesus
| the demisod is still a fascinating Great
ure of art; but the Jesus of Athansius
and Calvin, the angry and pitiless diety
| is a revolving conception, essentially
and basely pagan. Against this doc
trine of the trinity he proceeds With his
Iarraignment: 1T is purely for show.
| 1t arouses no enthusiasm. 1t makes no
converts 1t is an incubus upon the hui
man Christ whom the world loves as
| the noblest son of our common Father.
1t gives barren eulogy for practical
obedience The Reputation of this
spurious glory will begin new epoch
| in the real power of the life of Jesus in
the world
The atonement dogma, also, gets
some vigorous blows: I'VE are all de-
| sceidants of generations OF pagans.
1.-The blood of the cave-dwellers, who
Thought the thunderbolt the dart of an
angry god. is in our veins. Our nerves
still trenble with superstitions which
made affairs reek with blood to pro-
pitiate the vengeful duties who scourg
! ed men with famine and pestilence.
And so we still have fading theology
that makes Christ mediator between an
anfry God and suffering race of men,
and his death an atoning sacrifice
But Prof. Pearson's work is not Who'll
ly destructive. Like all liberal theo-
logians, he is constructive in thought.
AS he announces in his preface, he
knocks down only that he may the more
effectually build UP the larger, ration
all and more glorious faith. He be-
lieves in q personal God, in the human
soul, and in the power of communion
between the two. He rejects the deity
of Jesus but only to affirm his divinity
Ia distinction usually ignored by the
opponents of liberal thought. In fact,
he devotes pages and chapters to en-
phasizing this divinity. In his most
eife tive chapter on Jesus as Man, .
he pays eloquent tribute to the genius
| of the Carpenter Prophet"
"EIe must be compared only with
Moses, Socrates, Confucius, Buddha
and Mohammed. And, tho the world at
large has not yet attempted full and
| impartial comparison of these foun-
ders and their systems. it seems prob
able the comparison that will inevitably
be made in the future, while it will
raise the great prophets of other ma
TONS who are now, among us, unduly
depressed by an ignorance and preju
dice, will also serve to bring out more
clearly the superiority of Jesus as the
pre- eminent son of man." And he sums
up the results of the Nazarene's work
as follows:
Jesus is triumphant in defeat. He
Hives by his death. His work did all
the prophets have declared. 1t abolish
| ed. 1t abolished the sacrifices of JUDI
asim; it overthrow the PHILOSOPHERS of
Greece; it conquered the armies of
Rome; it dethroned and banished the
gods of Olympus, not by any magic,
but by the omnipotence of faith, love
and truth
Prof p is an optirnist in his outlook
| for the future of the religious world.
"Christianity.' he says, lis yet in its
early morning. The shadows of pag-
anism still inger about it and obscure
| It's brightness. The clouds of mythol-
ogy still invest it with gaudy, unsub-
stantial splendor. But the shadows will
| fly, and the scarlet tinge will fade, and
the white and holy light of truth fill the
MONDAY sky" *a 1--WE are not as
some timid persons seem to think, look
| ing upon the sunset of faith, but are
witnessing the sunrise of an unmeasur-
ably more glorious day in which relig-
ion will not be an affair of one day in
seven in the church, but of every day
and of every place; in which men will
not serve with knee an: lips only; not
say Lord, Lord and neglect justice
and mercy; but one in which the spirit
of Christ will be carried into the every
day life, into all the industries, all the
business, and all the governments of
the world"
A Nearly Fatal Runaway
Started horrible ulcer on the leg of j.
b. Orner, Franklin Grove, ILL.,. which
defied doctors and all remedies for four