Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1909-09-02

than to be simply elegant. And if
as illiterate bigot as he was when
ordained can take ordination at the
hands of the Methodist church while
a man of his present scholarly attain
ments, keen perceptions and prac-
teal application of moral virtues can
not be ordained because of the creed,
ii is about the biggest joke that could
be perpetrated upon the Methodist |,
church, and relegates it to the six
tenth century.
On every hand we hear the cry, |
Why does not our church draw more
of our business men TO ii? Why do so
many of our best educated men en-
tirely ignore it? Why do so many
of our very respectable young men
women fail to affiliate with il?
Mr. Loomis met with some other
experiences while in your city. Visit
ing one of your business places where
he was a stranger, he incidentally
drew from one of your most respected
business men the fact that the latter
seldom attended church. When asked
why, the business man frankly said:
"Well, TO begin with, there are just
two kinds of preachers-one set of
ignorant fools, the other pack of
hypocrites who don't believe half they
preach" Many as the exceptions are
that may be taken TO this mans
statement, it remains painfully true.
That the old time preacher with his
theological sophistry, his iron-clad
creed, which put faith above under
standing, does not appear to meet
the modern demands for greater knowl-
edge of religious truth. The demand
today is for teachers who can lead
religious themes out of the creed bound
lethargy of a lazy preacher, class
of preachers your fellow citizen seemed
TO have overlooked. He also over
looked another class who are dip
lomats. Presumably they believe
something. Yet! they say things in
such way that both extreme or
thodox and extreme heteradox claim
them as typical leaders and opponents.
| Recently / heard from pulpit
these three propositions in the course
of single sermon: "Christ was the
son of an obscure carpenter and the
virgin Mary" Again "Christ was
| Gods hanntta,, Tho
of these prositions is that God was,
and is, an obscure carpenter. Farther
on, "Christ was the son of David
Logic, David was God, doctrine be-
lieved by his subjects. | thought il
was too absurd TO be taught now.
In another sermon | heard this
"Christ was man because he died,
and God can not and could not die. y
Then: "Christ was God, because in his
last agonies of death he cried out in
a loud voice" The first proposition
said God can not die. The second said
he did die.
is it anything strange that many
thinking people look upon the church
as perfunctory rather than practical
or interesting, that they regard it as
an incident rather than necessity?
One thing is sure, the church that
will give an open pulpit, with high
educational requirements, is the one
that will soon take the lead, and inter
est the business man, the educated
man, the young man and even the
skeptic and the atheist.
There is little TO be feared as To what
will come TO such men as Mr.. Loomis,
some Methodists will follow him. If
the Methodist church prefers to re-
main in the sixteenth century, it has
a perfect right To do so, but we do not
think it will.
In the beginning of the fourteenth
century, Gutenberg said:, ''God suffers
in the great multitudesi whom his
sacred word can not reach; religious
truth is captive in the small number
of manuscript books, which guard the
common treasure instead OF diff'using.p
Because he invented printing, and
facilitated the diffusing of truth, the
priest craft procured his imprisonment
and sought his life, but the multitude
accepted his work and progressed
Now, as then, all the bishops priests
and clergy Of Cbristendom cannot stay
for a decade the determination of the
multitudes TO apply correct principles
of ancient philosophy and logic to