The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-10
DISCUSSION
 OF RELIGION Canon Henson Raises a
 Storm. ATTACKS OLD TESTAMENT
incredible, Puerile and De-
 m0ralizing Narratives.
Agitation for a Revised Christianity Which has Shaken England Led by We'll Known Re-
 ligious Students.

London. April 9.-Canon Henson. one of the chief dignitaries of Westminster Abbey, and a select preacher of Oxford and of Cambridge Universities, has raised a storm of criticism by an article in The Contemporary Review, in which he en- tered into the question of the future of the Bible. In this article Canon Henson impugned the inspiration of the Old Tes- lament, referring to its incredible, pue- Tile or demoralizing narratives" which are regarded as being "a pack of lies too gross for federation"
 Letters, interviews and resolutions by church and lay bodies denouncing Canon Henson followed the article. Sir Oliver Lodge added fuel to the fire by an article entitled Suggestions toward the re-in- of the Christian doctrine"
 For Revised Christianity.
 This agitation for revised Christianity. led by such well known men, whose re- ligious principles even their critics do not dispute, threaten to stir the church to an degree.
 Canon Henson declares that inspiration was not allowed to testify to the truth of any statement in the Bible which cannot be substantiated at the bar of reason and evidence" but whether much or little 1t will have to go the way of the Olu leStdHlSHI piOulSicS.
 He recommended supplementing the reading of the Bible in church with Christian compositions which have se- cured the approval of general accept- ance," declaring chat ''indiscriminate reading of the Bible in public is an ex- tremeiy perIlous proceeding" and that ''the rigidity which restricts the modern English church to canonical Scriptures Is as intrinsically tr.~~.ensibie as It Is prac- tically mischievous"
 Despite It's misuse. however. Canon Henson holds that the Bible will con tinue for all time to be "the best man uai of fundamental morality and the best corrective of ecclesiastical corrup- tion," besides heinz ttae most effec- tual check 3h tue nnatlrialtstie ten6en- cies of modern life"
 In a striking analysis of the present social condition. Canon Henson Attributes the spread of anarchy. the ulcer that Is eating the vitals of society," to tho dis appearance over large areas of civilized life of the religious bases ot morality. !"
 The "Non- Moral Multitudes.
 Yet. he finds m excuse for these non moral multitudes'' who, from the cradle to the grave have faced the severe pres sure of competition, the squalor of pov- erty and tho miserable exigencies of un- merited want" and who inevitably com pare their condition with the oetentation of unearned wealth. the profusion of un- checked luxury and the insolence of un- chastened power"
 The canon says that when 1t is re- membered that these "cruel. shocking contrasts arc no longer regaT|ed with the dull stare of fatalstic ignorance. but In the full light of those doctrines of equal ity which are the ccmmonplaces of Dem- ocratic politics" it is no wonder that "the minds of thousands are predisposed toward the sophistries of anarchy"
 "It would be idle to deny,' he con- cludes, that the credit of the Scrip lures Is seriously shaken in the public mind, nor can it reasonably be doubted that the tendencies of popular life as at present prevailing, arc in the main hos tile to Christian traditions.
 In another and similar article, Canon Henson, dealing wi.h Christ's resurrec- tion, asks:
 Foundation of Christianity.
 "Is the faith of the church in the Di- vine Christ, living. present and active, really built on an empty tomb For my self prefer to believe that no such int.- mate vital connection exists between the truth of Christianity and the traditional notion of its historicl origins.
 Sir Oliver Lodge asks, Now that re- ligion is becoming so much more real. whether the formal statement of some of the doctrines we have inherited from mediaeval and still earlier times cannot wisely and inoffensively be modified? And shocks many of his co-religionists by de- claring that he regards the doctrine of atonement in its concrete form as sur vivaI from barbarous times, repudiating the belief in an angry God appeased by the violent death of Christ, and maintain ing that human nature now Is rising to the conviction that We are part of nature and so part of God. In this sense the union of Divinity Is what science soWe day will tell us is the inner meaning or the redemption of men"
 These outspoken utterances have caused public and private appeals to be made to the Archbishop of Canterbury, but So far no action has been taken.
 The upshot of Canon Henson's bold dec- laration that current and generally ac- cepted versions of Christian truth are becoming inadequate and unsatisfactory, is awaited with keen interest.