Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-02-04


sensational lecture. the Times Herald
tells us that Prof. Charles w. Pear
son of Northwestern University has
written Il book. 1t is named "The Car
penter Prophet" In It he goes far be-
yond anything that he before has writ
ten or said touching his belief. He
specifically denies the virgin birth,
the miracles, the resurrection and the
ascension into heaven.
The Carpenter Prophet is COM
plete but it is still In manuscript form,
publication having been deferred The
doctor has held the subject matter back
but has allowed few personal friends
to read what he has written. The book
was offered to a Chicago publishing
house several months ago, but was
Withdrawn for correction.
Professor Pearson in The Carpenter
Prophet absolutely denies the divinity
of Christ save in the sense that all men
of home qualities of mind and heart
have In them spark of divinity. This
denial in the face of the Methodist ar
ticles of belief makes a Unitarian of
4 Professor Pearson. He states specifi-
cally in his book that Christ was
great leader, great teacher. in fact
the true elder brother of mankind, but
that he was of human birth and of a
| lineage like unto other men.
! In his chapter upon The Birth and
Boyhood of Christ" Professor Pearson
| 1epudiates utterly the story of the yir-
gin birth. This statements in itself, a
| prominent Methodist said yesterday,
carries with it at once statement that
Christ was simply man and is the
| strongest kind OF denial of the mir
| acles, because "if the virgin BIRTH, the
| greatest miracle of all, We're accepted,
belief in the minor miracles would be
simple matter.
one long chapter of the book is de-
voted to the miracles. They are re-
| iected root and branch. The Methodist
teaching holds that without the resur-
rection of Christ the whole fabric falls
to the ground. DIR. Pearson repudlates
the resurrection as strongly as ne does
the virgin BIRTH He maintains IN rath-
err terse language that the story OF the
resurrection is myth.
He takes up the different attributes
CT Christs character and treats them
separately, but always with the under
standing between his reader and him.
self that they are the attributes of
human being who was practically per-
feet and Godlike. but was human be-
ing still. The friendliness of Christ is
the main theme of one of the most SYM
pathetic chapters of the book.
Still another chapter of DR.. Pear
sons "The Carpenter Prophet" bears
the simple caption Prayer" He does
not hold that prayer is directly an
swered but he does hold that If no 9TH
er good can come from praying than
the relief which 1t gives to the bur-
dened mind and conscience the simple
act of praying is beneficial and
strengthening.
In speaking OF the book yesterday
friend of Professor Pearson said: 1.-The
Carpenter Prophet is tie work of
man who. while he does not believe
that Christ was God. has been able to
present the beauties of the life of Jesus
and of His teachings in way that is
more lovingly sympathetic by far than
are the books of many of the so-called
orthodox writer's"
The Chicago Tribune's record of
hangings and lynchings for 1901 as
usual is food for criminologists. 1t
says:
The dark records of hanging and
lynching are made up for the year 1901.
The former shows a CLEAN of encour-
ngement. The latter, in some respects.
is distinctly discouraging. There We're
11S legal executions during the year
one less than those during 1900 OF
those executed. seventy-one were ne
groes and forty-seven whites. The
crimes which led up to these executions
were as follows: Murder 107; criminal
assault, nine; attempted criminal as
sault, one: train robbery. one. In 1900 /
only five were hanged for criminal as
sault. This increase in executions for I
criminal assault would apparently in
dictate that this crime, which is falsely
assigned as "the customary crime" in
the south, is coming more and more to
be punished by the law instead of by
the mob, but the increase of lynching
for the year makes it difficult to deter
mine this with absolute correctness.
The lynchings for the year number
1875, as compared with us in 1900, an
increase of twenty. OF these, 12l oc-
cuTFeQ III Tile SOuti anu loaieSSh III shS
north, as compared with 1O7 in the
south and eight in the north in 1900, an
increase which is not creditable to the
FIVE northern states. California Idaho.
Montana, Kansas and Indiana. The
of negroes lynched in 1901 was
lO7, the same number as in 1900 Be-
sides these, one Indian and one China
man were victims. Curiously enough
the principal crimes which led to these
lynchings are almost the same in the
two years, being thirty nine for muir
der in 1901 and thirty nine for murder
in 1900; nineteen for criminal assault In
1901 and eighteen for criminal assault
In 1900. The six southern states which
have the largest number of mob muir
ders are: Mississippi, sixteen; Louisi-
ana, fifteen; Alabama. fifteen; Georgia,
fourteen; Tennessee twelve; Texas,
eleven. Three of these states, however,
show improvement, Mississippi having
four Louisiana five and Georgia two
less than last year; but Alabama has
seven; Tennessee five; and
Texas, seven. Discouraging as the fig
ures appear. there are many causes at
work in the south which promise inn
provement. 1t is not encouraging that
the number of lynchings in the north
should have increased as much.
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