Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-11-04
ELLIOTT SCORES METHODIST.
Harvard President Says They Are Too
Emotional.

Harvard President Says They Are To
Emotional.
Boston, Nov 4.-President Eliot, o
Harvard, stirred up a tempest at tn
meeting of the Methodist Ministers
Association in the Bronfield Stree
Church today. He declared that tn
Protestant seets, especially the Metho
DIST, are too emotional. which does NJ
good. and that the Sunday school sys
tenn is all wrong. He found also othe
grave faults with modern religious sys
TENS. AT the close of his remarks Rev
James Boyd Brady, of Worcester tool
the speaker to task.
II have read and studied as much a:
President Eliot he declared with con.
siderable emphasis" and the Metho.
dists need not be mortified by what ht
| has said
Other clergymen present also entered
| protests against President Eliot'S views
President Eliot said in part:
THE work of education, I have felt
is nearly akin to the work of the church
1t is lamentable fact that the influ-
ence of the church is beginning to de-
cline seriously in our land. There are
millions of our people who never go into
a church, and therefore do not have its
| heneficent influence"
| The first civilizing influence, said DR.
Eliot, is steady work. Next is the pro-
motion Of refinement and culture.
I'VE must admit" said the speaker,
| that the church and the university en-
counter difficulty at the very opening
of the Bible, for the story of the fall OF
imam represents labor as a curse. That
story has had the profoundest effect on
theology until within the last 100 years.
We find this false idea of labor run
ming thru society.
On Value of Work.
For thirty years have tried to teach
that the best of work is that it is en-
joyable. I believe that is the test. ]
value highly the distinction between
work and play. When youth works
let him work. when he plays let him
play.
rs this principle observed in church
es? Is the Sunday school the place of
strenuous exertion on the part of the
pupils? Is it work or play, or a mixture
Of both? I always find this mixture an
undesirable one.
tivity. AS l see them in the various
churches their activities seem too intel
lectual and emotional on the part of the
preacher, and to call too little for the
work of the recipient of the teaching.
eat the Sunday school / don't learn
that the children are working actively.
They only have half an hour a week,
and no other subject could be dealt with
in that way by any pupil. So distrust
the method of the Sunday school and
the attitude of the pupil. He is not
called on to produce anything.
Arousing Of Emotions.
"The emotional side is developed, per-
haps, most largely in the Methodist
church. Is that wholesome for getting
labor out of individuals? ! find it does
me no good to get my emotions stirred
up unless 1 can dc something about 1t
all. This church has made great efforts
to get means to apply in young people
the force of this emotion, but has it
been successful?
''This seems a desirable thing to
study. Jesus was trying to bring out:
that issue, and how many times He said
Go thou and do likewise
"This is what all churches should do;
give the young people power to act The
church needs to reconstruct. the forms
of teaching children and youth. For
children as for the heather 1t seems
to implant doctrines, prin-
ciples and imagery drawn from war,
fighting or sacrifice.
Our scriptures contain a good deal
of warlike imagery One of the most
&Jl "a %.~ ;,, ,,ln
church militant 1t is allying the most
force with the most barbar-
GUS.
1.-THE idea of sacrifice is barbarous in
the highest degree, especially when in
Guiding the human sacrifice. Yet the |
scriptures and religious poetry are |
illed with it.
1.-THE conception of sacrifice and war; |
are ought to be omitted from all teach
ngs for children. The church should /
each natural poetry, that of human
affection and the common sentiments of
mankind. The child can learn this and I
give it out in the family circle, thus
bringing home these sentiments to the
elders. Give to children the Buddhist
thoughts of kindness to animals, and
If looking up to nature and God thru
nature, and at 20 years of age let them
,e taught the graver matters of COM
,arative religion.
"In what other grave subject do we
lave amateur teaching? Can parents
II children respect the Sunday school
the teacher is less skillful than the
eacher in the secular school?
1.-THE problem is large and difficult.
,ut in the solution lies the church's
york In the coming century,"
xNccMIrE,c p,ccNuEDED nran