The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1910-01-20
Apple and Theology Culture.

To THE EDITOR OF The JOURNAL: The
recent discussion over President Eliot's
New Religion reminds me of the pro-
gress that has been made in apple culture
in the last half century. When was
boy we raised hundred bushels of ap
pies in the hay field, ground them into
cider and sold the vinegar for ten cents
per gallon. Today my neighbors are
raising thousand bushels of apples per
acre and selling them at two dollars per
bushel and upwards.
This is the result of systematic culture.
Why should those who refuse to con-
slider any progressive movements in soul
culture attempt to criticise the life-work
of President Eliot. Let his critics 20 to
farming and. attempt to compete with
the modern world by using methods of
their ancestors. Let them attempt to
compete in manufacturing by their anti
quated methods. Fifty years ago, we
planted apple trees and gathered such
fruit as nature produced. Today a tree
needs intelligent care every month in the
year. Without care, tree will grow
more in Maine than it will here on ac-
count of our dry summers. In grain
field tree will grow about foot year.
With good care, have trees taller than
my head that were only six inches high
last spring.
President Ehot's theology requires
development Of all the elements of HUI
manity, while the old method was merely
to accept faith cut and dried ready for
use. Despite the many hindrances
light flashes out here and there and lights
the world forward. Catholicism he'd
sway, but the Infallible Pope gave way
to the Infallible Bible. And now it is
being discovered, as maintained by the
Quakers, that there is in the world today
the same Spirit which inspired the
Scriptures
Every nature study is the study of the
manifestation of that Spirit. Darwin
said his theory Of creation was in har-
mony with the Bible. 1t is as easy for
God to create man out Of the dust of the
earth by series Of creative processes as
to do it by single process. If we place
before our imagination all the elements
of earth in a melted or gaseous state
similar to the elements of the sun today
and watch the cooling process age after
age we may read the Mosaic account of
creation in new light.
Most Scriptural illustrations have an
application today. At one time the
Hebrew had brazen serpent to look to
for life. Later Christ was compared to
the brazen serpent. Now, as this same
question whether all the visible universe
may not be compared to this brazen SER
pent. Here we learn something of the
nature of the Creative Energy by His
work and by this means, add to our life.
To learn of God through nature as we'll
as Revelation, and to adapt Biblical in
CSl PlCIe1eiOii W tliC ~ CSClll dSC, % oCllCi
history is adapted, is the present relig-
ious wave which President Eliot is aiding
to move forward.
Those wishing to know more of the
Theology of the future should write for
free tracts to American Unitarian Asso-
citation, 25 Beacon street, Boston, Mass,
or to Mrs. Willis H. Ropes, ia Federal
street, Salem, Mass.
A building is painted red on one side
and white on the other President Eliot
approaches the building on the white
side and affirms it to be white. Those
of the old school approach on the red side
and affirm it to be red. Both believe in
a Supreme Being. Both believe in an
appearance of that Spirit in the hearts
Of men which is called in Scripture the
Holy Ghost. Both believe in a Son of
God. Both believe that these three are
manifestations of the same Spirit. Those
who believe that God has more than one
Son or that His whole being was not in
carnated in flesh, or that the Holy Spirit
speaks as forcibly and audibly to man to-
day as He did in Bible times-all these
are declared by those on the other side
Of the house to be non-evangelical. If
both parties would go on to the other side
and try to get into sympathy with those
possessing different degree of light, we
might see some real progress, fully as
great as the difference between the cider
apples harvested when boy and the
high priced apples of the present day.
GEO. M. COLE.
Husum, WASH, December &C. 1909.