The San Francisco call., 1904-12-20
DR.. ABBOTT
LAUDED AND
DENOUNCED
Clergymen Discuss
His Harvard
Sermon.
UnitarianS and Universal
lists Say His Views Are
Not Original.
Two Presbyterian Pastors Bitterly
Criticize PatriaIch'S Rejection
Two Presbyterian Pastors Bitterly
Criticize Patriarch's Rejection
of Biblical L.W
Special Dispatch to The Call.

NEW YORK, Dec. 19-Has Rev. DR..
Lyman Abbott broken away from the
Christian theology? is the question
clergymen of every denomination were
asking to-day. In making his views
known to Harvard students yesterday
DIR. Abbott confessed that he expected
to be branded a hereto.
II wonder If you students in Har-
ward will understand me when I say
that l no longer believe In a great first
cause?" said Dr. Abbott. My God is
a great and ever-present force, which
Is manifest in all the activities of man
and all the workings of nature. 1 be-
lieve In God who is in and through
and of everything; not an absentee
God, whom we have to reach through
a bible or priest or some other outside
aid, but God who is closer to us than
hands or feet"
Rev. DR.. AIinot ]. Savage said to-
day: I'VE Unitarians have been
preaching just this sort of thing year
in and year out, yet when some one else
comes along and says it the public ac-
claims it something new. That SER
mon might have been preached by any
Jnitariasssinlnist i * the land"
Rev. Robert CoIlyer also expressed
pleasure that DR.. Abbott had put him
self on record in such a pronounced
manner.
1T is an Interpretation of the heart
and head" he asserted. THE outlook
is growing brighter and brighter for
the great, good, grand fatherhood of
God"
UNIVERSALISTS PLEASED.
Universalists are as ready as Uni
tarians, to whom they are so closely
related, to rejoice over the broadsreve-
ations expressed by DR.. Abbott.
Rev. DR.. Parkhurst was unwilling to
commit himself to an opinion before
reading DR.. Abbotts sermon in full,
further than to say that if DR.. Abbott
had been quoted correctly he had blum
dered in placing evolution before crea-
ton, as there must be something from
which to unfold to make evolution pos
sible.
When Dr. Abbott was pastor of
Plymouth Congregational Church in
Brooklyn several years ago, he made
a considerable stir in theological circles
by his remarks from the pulpit of that
church on the Bible story of Jonah and
the whale.
The Congregational denomination has
slight Jurisdiction over its clergymen
and DR.. Abbott cannot be tried for
heresy in any such official manner as
would be possible in the Presbyterian,
Episcopalian or Methodist church. A
die
pense with his services as pastor and
ministers of other Congregational
churches could meet and agree to re-
fuse him the use of their pulpits or the
privileges Of fellowship, but that is as
far as the punishment could CO.
DENOUNCED IN PITTSBURG.
A special from Pittsburg says that
DR.. Abbott's sermon yesterday has
caused great indignation among Pitts
burg clergymen. Rev. DR.. ]. T. Nc
Crory. pastor Of the Third United Pres
byterian Church Of Pittsburg and prob
ably the leading divine of that creed
to-day, said:
abbott Is an infidel. He does not
believe in Christianity. He simply ut
ters his true thoughts"
IF 1 were to form composite pic
ture of the devil as an agel of light
and Of darkness, could easily imagine
Lyman Abbott and Bishop Potter In
the composite" said Rev. DR.. Wilbur
F. Crafts of washington, D. c., who is
in Pittsburg In the interest Of the Pres
byterian Reform Bureau while both
men are clean and probably sincere
their ideas work more harm to the
moral world than those of any two
men living. have always found thai
when a. man becomes loose on theology
he becomes loose on ethics. Lymar
Abbott, besides his attacks on this
Bible. favors wine drinking and oper
saloons on Sunday"