Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-11-14
For Sunday Reading
al Sorts ofObiniions
Preachers, Odd Mistakes.

Lie ulOSl lISluSAl Su0'9S "a AAASH
propriate petitions is no doubt the per-.
sistence of habit Certain phrases are
used again and again, until they come
to be repeated with tout any thought OF
their immediate application. We may
similarly explain the stories of the
workhouse chaplain who prayed that
those present might not trust in un-
certain riches and the prison chaplain
who besought the Lord that he con-
duct the worshipers in safety to their
respective places of abode. At the Con-
gregational union meeting at Blackpool
last year the minister conducting tire
deyotions at one service so far forgot
his surroundings as to refer to the
place Of meeting-the theater of the
Winter garden - as this halloWed
spot."s
The sense Of humor must surely
have been lacking in the old man of go,
supported by crutches, who regularly
included among his petitions at the
weekly prayer meeting the request that
he might be kept from running with
the giddy multitude to do evil. Fam
iliarly with conventional phraseology
was the undoing Of the minister who.
dICeF IIlt SGIIilOI IlEC AAeiAAs'SS OAAN
the publican, asked that there might
be poured out upon his hearers a dt'u-
BILE portion Of the publican's spirit. Not
very complimentary was the use OF q
we'll known Scripture passage made by
a minister at a wedding:
MAY these persons live together in
such harmony in this life that they
may finally attain unto that state OF
felicity where they neither marry nor
are given in marriage" AS a concluding
example of the thoughtless use of fam
iliar language one may quote this re-
narkable amalgam: ooh, Lord, we
praise thee that we are thine; we feel
that we are thine; we know that we
are thine: Lord, make us thine"
The Emmanuel Movement.
Mr.. Hawkins points to the divided
mind of the church concerning the
Emmanuel movement, and the feeling
of a great number that 1--WE are not
ready to commit the church to such
large movement as the one outlined by
DIR. Worcester" He adds that ''the very
chaotic condition of the American mind
makes it imperative that the clergy and
CHo physician o1oVlu ueAiAAS SNShy "
portunity to educate the people in GER
tain principles to save them from the
exaggerations and errors of the heal
ine-cults on the one hand and to pro-
mote conditions of greater health on
the other" 1t is necessary, he asserts,
to bring people to regard psychoterapy
as a science rather than a religion. We
read:
Before people can think sanely on
this question it must be made clear
that the cure of certain diseases by
moral and spiritual forces isl indie
pendent of any philosophy Of life or
creed Of religion. Cures are wrought by
Christians Science healers, faith and
mental healers, Roman Catholic relics,
Buddhist and Mohammedan priests,
Lutheran and Episcopalian clergymen.
No one of these creeds has any advant-
age over another in the curing of dis
ease. They all cure disease and they
all fail to cure. Sometimes people who
have tried the faith and mental heal
ers and have found no relief will be
cured by the Christian Science heal
err. and vice versa. If these cures de-
pended upon any particular creed of
religion one would be more successful
than another, but this is not true. In
those classes of diseases where cures
are wrought there are the same per-
centages Of cures by all the methods.
Indeed, those who have no religion are