New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-23
A VEGETARIAN CHURCH.
CREED OF A BRANCH OF THE BIBLE
CHRISTIANS ALLOWS NO MEAT
EATING.

/ house America
| In England it has only one meeting house and
| only seventy-iv members. And yet it is a
church nearly one hundred years old It's
American meeting house is in Philadelphia, and
| it's American leader is the Rev. Henry s. Club,
an oldtime friend of Horace Greeley
In 1907 an Englishman. the Rev. W. Cowherd,
of Manchester, founded this branch of the Bible
| Christians, and to-day after the passage OF
| nearly one hundred years. they are still ex-
fstent and are still almost unknown In their
| two churches-the English one, in Manchester,
and the American one in Philadelphia is
possible to see little children whose fathers and
mothers, grandf Ithers and grandmOthers and
| whose great randfathers and great-grand-
| mothers never once in their lives tasted meat;
little children as ignorant of the taste of meat
as ordinary persons ignorant of the taste
of human flesh For vegetarianism is the chief
article of their creed
With their century of abstinence from meat
they afford a good example of the effect Of
vegetarianism on mankind. Their records,
which appear to have been kept carefully, cover
| about three hundred cases. and show that:
The average longevity of a member Of the sect
is sixty-one.
| He is not in his old age obliged to resort to
| false teeth
| His eyes in seven cases out of ten do not ever
| require spectacles.
| His weight keeps close to the normal or
| proper weight his frame and height demand
never approaching either to corpulence to
| emaciatiOn.
| He is singuarly free from rheumatism and
| from dyspepsia. DR.. Cowherd a SwedenbOr-
| gian, d teetotaer and a vegetarian, held that
meat eating was at the base of the crime OF
| the world. 1t made cruel, and because
| they slaughtered animals daily they were blind
to the wrong of slaughtering their fellows by
| the bullet in warfare and by the moose in Grim
| inal law. II made also thirsty for alcohol.
| and only through vegetarianisrn he commended,
could total abstinence be made universal.
The unique article Of his creed requires its
members to abstain from eating flesh. fish or
fowl as food: from drinking intoxicating liquors
| OF all kinds: from and capital punishment
and slavery. So rigorous is this article that it
is hardly strange that the sect has not flour
ished
Dr. Cowherd died in 1916. and in 1917 band
OF forty-one Of his followers took ship for Phila-
deIpha to found there, in emulation of the
Quahers. a new religion in new and free land
The leader of the band was young man. the
| Rev. William Metcalfe. and the Metcalfes are
still resident in that city.
| But the emigration, far as il was a
| pronunciation OF q new faith, did not prosper
Many Of the adherents OF the creed fell away
| on the voyage to this country, but their leader
| did not lose heart. He settled in Pnildde.phia
| and opened 4 boys school at No 10 North
| Front-st and In the schooroom, on Sundays
| he preached his faith. But nothing ever great
| " prospered with him. and the faith did not
| prosper greatly nor did the school He how
| ever could not be discouraged. In ISL he wrote
| a pamphlet on Abstinence from the Flesh or
! Animals that converted to vegetarianisn that
| noted ew-EngIander. Sylvester Graham, TO
! whom the world owes Graham bread In 1870
he organized the Vegetarian Society of America,
and was elected its first secretary and appoint
| ed also editor of its ma EaZine In 49, because
/ he could not make living minister, as q
| school teacher or editor. ne obtained the
| degree OF NJ d. and in 1852 he died. poor. as
| always but none the less honOred and loved by
| the clean minded. simple hearted folk over
| whom he ruled For he had never deserted his
! church and at the time of his death some two
| score adherents of it existed in Philadelphia
and owned a meeting house Of wood in North
| Third-st above Girard-ave
They own to-day expensive meeting house
! OF cut stone in Park-ave.. below BerkS-st, for
| in 1876 Henry :. Club became their pastor. and
| under his prudent guidance they prospered
| much There are services at the church every
| Sunday morning.
| The Bible Christians Of Philadelphia are inter
! ested in the maintenance of vegetarian hotel
| for poor. homeless men at No. 30 North second