The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-03-23
ON CHRIST
THE PROFESSORS LONG AWAITED
BOOK, "THE CARPENTER
PROPHET" Is QUIZ
HE AsSAILs TRADITION
Book Is Optimistic and Prophesies
Brighter Day for Religion
Reason and Conscience
Are Supreme.
Special to The Globe.

CHICAGO, March 22.-The long expect
ed declaration Of belief from Prof.
Charles William Pearson, the Northwest
ern professor who relinduished his po-
sition because his religious teachings
created a furore in Methodism, has APP
peared at last 1.-The Carpenter Prophet"
is the title of the book, and In 1t Prof.
Pearson vigorously fays tradition. The
book is eloquent and earnest, and evil
denty written from honest conviction. It
is the result Of nine years of labor.
In it he disputes all miracles, and de-
clares reason and conscience supreme,
and halls decay of supernaturalism as
the dawn Of brighter and broader re-
ng1on.
The intention of Prof. Pearson in writ
ing this book Is not that of the agnostic
the pessimist, or the willful hereto. He
writes to reasSure those whom the spirit
Of the time has won from the worship
Of tradition, as he believes 1t to be, those
who are emerging from the "Inesmeric
influence Of special education"
He starts out with an appeal to good
sense, that is, to so much knowledge as
men possess. He says:
There are some laws to which we all
think there are no present exceptions,
and but for the overpoWering influence
Of early teaching, which often paralyzes
the mind and makes it ABSOLUTELY incapa-
BILE of free and rational action in refer
ence to some subject, we should at once
pronounce many Biblical narratives as
false.
1.-The gospels he affirms, themselves
contain the principles by which the
church works out its redemption. They
assert the supremacy Of the reason and
conscience over law and tradition
Reason, he concludes, defeats the theo-
ry Of Christ's miraculous birth; reason
confutes the miracle; it will not support
the theory Of the trinity; 1t rejects the
idea of transubstantiation; it makes i'm
possible the belief in the resurrection,
and disproves the ascension into heaven
Of Jesus, son of Joseph.
OF Jesus he says:
Jesus the man Is inexpressibly beauti-
full and attractive; Jesus the demigod is
still a fascinating creation of art; but
Jesus Of AthanasiuS and Calvin and their
followers, the angry and pitiless Deity,
is a revolving conception, essentially and
basely pagan"
Brightest Day for Religion.
In regard to the decay of supernatu-
ralism he says:
''The decline Of this spurious glory will
be the beginning of a new epoch in the
real power of the life Of Jesus in the
world. We are not, as some timid per.
sons seem to think, waking upon the
sunset Of faith, but are witnessing the
sunrise of an immeaSurablY more glori-
Gus day, millennium in which religion
will not be an affair of one day in seven
in the church, but Of every day and every
place; In which men will not serve with
lip and knee only, not say Lord Lord
and neglect justice and mercy, but one
in which the spirit of Christ will be car
ried into the everyday life, into all the
industries, all the business and all tho
governments Of the world
The readers must, in view of these SEN
timents, absolve the author from all de.
liberate impiety, and recognize the fact
that neither egotism nor bravado inspire
his open heresies.
His conclusions are optimistic, and
as said at the outset, the author has had
no Intention of divesting any man of his
faith to leave him naked to the winds Of
distrust.
Truth Winning Its Way.
In spite of all obstacles" he says, "the
truth is gradually winning it's way. The
doctrine Of the humanity of Jesus is
keeping pace step by step with every
The Roman theology, built on the
ruin of an empire, venerable by it's an
tiquity, sanetifieds by the blood of mar
tyrs and adorned by the greatest mas
and music, is now rapidly deeaying. It
took a thousand years to build up the
mighty edifice. apd its massive walls,
like the ruins of the Coliseum, may long
DEFY the forces of time.
The slighter systems of Luther and
Calvin were bHiltsaup more quickly, and
their collapse will be more rapid and
complete. In the very church at Geneva
where Calvin sonee preached his narrow
dogmas and cruel DEGREES, Unitarian con-
gregations have now for fifty years lis
tened to rational eKpositions of Scripture
and to a gospel of good will. Ali the
Protestant churches have softened ana
attenuated their theology. OF the doc
trine Of the trinity, the browning folly
of orthodoxy, a twin absurdity with
transubstantiation, there Is now very
fense.'
At his best, his utmost of sincerity and
kindness, Mr.. Pearson explains his po-
sirion thus:
Every man is quotation from all