The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-09
PEACEER QnEIs fS NiMIiNISk Dr. Barbour, at aArist Church, Says That Greed Lacks
 Vital Features.
THE EPISC0PALIAM
 CONCEPTION OF CHRIST
Now oRe Gan Believe the Unconceivable in
 Religion.

Rev. Dr. Henry k Barbour, of the Church of the Beloved Disciple, New York, was the preacher at Christ church yesterday morning. pr. Bar bour took for the subject of his sermon Christ as compared with the divinities of other religions. During the course of his remarks he took occasion to re- fer in a critical mood to the Unitarian church, saying that it had not grown in even a normal degree of late and attributing it's decline to the fact that it had no personal diety, no satisfying element, such as the religious side Of man longs for and such as Is found in the Episcopal church in Christ.
 He prefaced his remarks by explain ing the belief of tho Episcopal church creed as to Christ, who is conceived, he said, not as a man who was in- spired after birth and then made the Son of God, but rather who was the Son of God at birth and even before In that very thing Christianity, he ex, plained, stood So far ahead of other re- ligions. The latter invariably found their beliefs upon a man who has been inspired as god at some time after his normal birth as an ordinary man. With Christ 1t Is the Word that has been made flesh, not the flesh inspired with the Word,
 Even the idolaters he said, believe in the principle of inspiration. It is just that inspiration that they worship, Ask an idolater at worship before his images whether he is lowing down to the gold and the silver and the wood and he will say that he Is not, but rather that it Is the lhsoiration from above, the essence of god that has made its abode within that gold and silver and wood that he worships. It is because the other religions are founded on q belief Of a man insnlred after birth into being rod that these same religions do notaast. Such god Is created out of the intellect of man and, at best, cannot be other than a man f The spiritual side of man yearns to be satisfied Christianity, as lnterrret- cd by the creed Of the Episcopal church said the speaker, was the most | satisfying and appealing. It did not ask one to believe ltsiteachings blindly and against ones reasons but sill It did have things among It's beliefs that every man cannot prove for himself Satisfy yotirself' said pr. Barbour, that Christ Is the sort of q man whose word can ba relied upon, that his preliminary teachings are sound and good, then caniyou not rely upon his truthfulness In ahls promises and teachings about things which perhaps | you and I cannot comprehend? That
 is just what we all are doing all the | time In the ordinary relations of llfe 1 we know Of e certain mans reputatioa flor trGthfulness, Unon his return rom l ~ lO4 4SlBH CouHtFyi 10 WHICH Wo cann0S
 SC, we take what he tells us atout tAe | customs and tho character of that | country as tho truth We do not, each
 of us, questions the statements Of tho
 scientists about the distance from the
 earth to the sun. We know thelf repu-
 tation for truthfulness ard we admit
 as the truth what they tell us IL
 must be tho same way with Christ in
 the religious life lie coin5s from q
 country where we have not been and
 tells us of things beyond our conp-e-
 hension. If in matters we do know
 about we find Him reliable, then why
 not In other matters?"
 pr. Barbour fonhd fault with the In
 itar!an church because It da not have ! ths personal slle st relisitn inst the l Episcopal and oth.r church. creeds
 have. There is not in flo Uhit'rlan crce] he thought, that wli,h can alone
 satisfy mans religious nature,