The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-08
TREAT PREPARED IN
 RELIGIOUS HISTORY
DR. JOHN B. PETERS WILL SPEAK UNDER THE AUSPICES OF PAS TORS UNlON-AN INTERESTING MEETING HELD YESTERDAY.

The meeting of the Pastors union yes
 terday morning was mainly taken up by an interesting discussion of the pastoral duties of preacher. The Rev. J. W.
 Canty Johnson. president of the union, spoke for about ten minutes on the sub
 1eet and "as followed by the Rev. l. D.
 Steele. the Rev. J. F. Diekenson, the
 Rev L. S Handley, the Rev. J. A. Dun
 can, and the Rev. Lloyd Dobbs.
 A slight difference of opinion arose
 when the pastors of two large city
 churches stated that on account of lack
 of time it was impossible for them to
 make social calls. Although the other
 speakers sympathized with them, they
 strongly enforced the belief that preach
 ing is only half the duty of a minister.
 The subject of the next meeting will be
 on What Should be the Dominant Note of the Preaching of This City?' and was
 assigned to the Rev. Sterling J. Foster
 and the Rev. J. H. Mccoy
 pr. Stagg. the chairman of the commit i tee to arrange for the Lyceum lecture course under the auspices of the union,
 reported that the committee had engaged
 pr. John B. Peters of New York to give
 series of lectures on "The Early Re
 liglon of Israele covering the period which will contain the Sunday school les
 sons for the next six months
 The morning lectures which will be a study of the religion of Israel before the
 written prophets win be: 1. The primitive religion of the Hebrews. ?. The work oi
 Moses 3. The religion of Canaan; it's in- nuence on the Hebrews. 1. The develop
 ment of priesthood and ritual. 3. The be- ginning of prophecy. G. The earliest Writ ings and the first codes
 The evening series will be of a more popular nature and will treat of the re- i ligious history of Israel illuminated by archaeology, geography and history l. 1 Palestine; lantern talk. ?. The land and the people 8. The early story of Palestine as learned from ancient clay libraries. l.
 The literature of Israel. 5 An historical sketch. G. Babylon; q lantern talk.
 l Dr. Stagg called attention to the fact that all of these topics bore directly on 1 the lessons for the Sunday school and l thought they would do great good, not l only for the edhcation of the preachers, 1 but also of the Sunday school teachers l and scholars. pr. Peters, said he, is one of the few men in America who know this | period from first hand study of the sources, and was equally distinguished
 as a scholar and lecturer. He hoped that the people of Birmingham would avail themselves of the opportunity to get ae- 1 ouainted with the vast and impoStant new light which has been unearthed, and was
 fso great value for the appreciation of
 the scriptures from this scholar, who was so thoroughly versed in the facts.
 $The lectures will begin on the 1Gth of l the month and continue six days. Con- siderable expense had been assumed by
 the union in getting these lecturers to
 come to the city and give the benefit of
 their learning, and so the committee would | expect every one to take scholarship
 These scholarships, admitting two were sold at $5, and were transferable and ad-
 mitted to every lecture. Scholarships to
 one course only admitting one would be i sold at s. Admission to one lecture only would be at the rate of $1.
 l pr. Peters will have with him pictures of interesting scenes and furniture and books of ancient eastern life which he will show and explain the life of the peo-
 pie. The lectures will be in the lecture
 room of the First Presbyterian church. Prof John Savage will have charge of
 the sale and distribution of tickets, and will call on any one who will drop him
 postal card at 2225 Arlington avenue, city.