The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-30
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL. Issued Thursday. One Dollar a Year
NOT SO pREApFU1.

It is gratifying to the friends of Rev. Dr. George H. Ferris, formerly pastor of the Calvary Baptist church of this city, to know that his book, recently issued from the press of the American Baptist Publication Society, is receiving considerable attention A review of this book was printed in last Saturdays issue of The Journal and Courier. The book has been mis- represented by some. It is usually very easy for some persons who have not read a book to jump to con clusions concerning it. In several in- stances this has been the case in crit icisms concerning Dr. Ferris book, '"The Formation of the New Testa- ment." It is always to be regretted that snap judgment receives any at tention, but restrictions of the sort after all are not likely to do more than lead to larger interest in any work. Yet there are some who are influenced by hasty conclusions be- cause of the same order of mind as those who hasten to publish views founded on supposItions largely.
 There are some who are always ready to scent heresy, or detect a deviation from the regulation the- ological views. Apparently they have little else to do and are usually self-appointed custodians of proper doctrinal lore. It cannot be assumed that truths that had application to- the conditions and needs of centuries ago have necessarily the same per- tinency to to-day. Truth is many sid- ed. Because a man sees only one side he is mistaken in declaring there is no other side.
 In these days some excellent people are very nervous about what is called thew theology" If any thinker ven- lures on a new interpretation of some truth in way consonant with the spirit and progress of this age he is at once haled as an exponent of thew theology" and a feverish ex- citement is immediately in evidence. The book of Dr. Ferris is only one of number of books in recent years that have been charged with having the heretical odor of new theology" Of course those who are defenders of the idea of a fixed, unalterable the- ology, are dead sure that all has been said on the subject that can be. This is the amazing thing about it all, Having decided absolutely what is to be believed, there is no room left for the perceptions of larger knowledge of God in human history and the ex- perience of the developing human consciousness. As God in this way becomes the better known there must of necessity be such an interpretation of Him as will modify, if not recon struct the older views Theology is in of research. A man will welcome the electric light as a great improvement on the tallow candle; the locomotive is far ahead of the stage coach; in a hundred affairs of human life he en- joys his share of the general progress made, but suggest to him that his theology should be amended some- what to keep pace with the general progress, then at once he is alarmed He scents ''new theology" or some- thing else equally dreadful. Such was the charge against Dr. Ferris book when as matter of fact his work is historical in method and character.
 In later report of the reception given to Dr. Ferris book in Philadel- phia the president of the board of trustees of his church declared that he liked the book and that the writer of it was liked because his preaching is unique" He further made a statement that has much of truth in 1t. Select at random one hundred preachers and ninety-nine will tia1ti along the same old rUts" In other words they will con over the ideas de- veloped in the fourth or sixteenth centuries. Without doubt the thinkers of those periods, which were transi- tional in character, provided the best interpretations for their time and produced theories consistent with life as they understood it. But the con- tent of human consciousness has very much enlarged since then ana new points of view have been ol,tain- ed. Moreover there is being developed social consciousness which is requiring restatement Of Christian truths Consequently a