Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-10-31
ANCIENT CITIES
BETTER TEACHERS
THAN CHURCHES
REV. ADoLPH ROEDER.
Orange Pastor Says Important
Lessons Can Be Learned
from Relics.

The Rev. Adolph Roeder, pastor of
the New Church, orange, last night
preached the first lecture Of his third
cycle on "Cities. Ancient, Medieval and
Modern, and Their Contributions TO the
Religious Life of the Race" taking as
his topic. THE Modern City Built on
the Relics of Former Civilization, Lon
don, Paris, Berlin; Makers of Mental
History.
The speaker summarized his theme as
follows:
TT is evident that the city built upon
the relics of former civilization is teach
ing a series of important lessons, not
only by the books its inhabitants write
and the sermons they preach, but by its
very life and outward circumstance
When the modern City, like Berlin or
Paris. oVerilows its old fortitications
and plants parks and public ~esplanades
on them IL breaches a sermon on the
. cessation Of war. that no other sermon
can outstrip in eloquence. When 1t
breaches a sermon on the duty of state
and church to their. children by cre9t-
ing better methods of sanitation, recre-
alton centres and such things, it gives
a better lesson on that duty than a
hundred Sunday schools, graded and
ungraded.
but its main contribution comes
about in the changed view of theology
and religion. which this city gives to
the world from its advanced pulpits,
platforms and rostra. Summarized,
these views may be thus given:
Changed View of Theology.
There is a new view of God. 1t is
still anthropomorphic. 1t has changed
only in one essential really. Men with
minds worth while are trying to under
stand tina God Is a God of love, rather
than a God of anger ana of hate. They
may not yet have quite reached the
point where they can bring this new
view into exact and satisfactory on
sonance with the evident inequalities
Of Divine Providence, so-called, or the
evident and ~palpable distortion of
moral and ethic forces in the complex
structure called human society
Somehow, somewhere, there must be
love, fairness, mercy and kindness back
OF those appearances which distort and
distress,
"There is a new view of Christ. For
He is certainly the centre of attack
Just now. The camps of theology are
torn to shreds with doubts of His
words. of His works, of His actual ex-
i~stence. and ever of His human char
acter. Biblical criticism. good, bad n
Indifferent. has created havoc with the
old ideas. The world OF theology is
undergoing earthquake shocks and the
sun is dark in heaven and the moon red
as blood Yet underneath of that dis
tress there is a growing wave of intel
lectual and loving grasp of the Saviour
as an actually.
There is a new view of death, i'm
mortality, heaven and hell. 1t is grad
ually dawning upon the race mind hat
death is an orderly step in life; that i'm
mortality is a necessary sequence of
life and that heaven and hell are men
tai conditions, of peace or unrest, both
here and hereafter. And there is a
new view of the Bible. Like a rock
about which tumble and roar storm
tossed waters, It still looms quiet.
strong, unimpassioned above the waves,
And. finally, there Is a new view of
the church. The old church Is dead.
The old dogmatic church has ceased to
exist. and IN it's place has arisen an
institutional church with entirely new
views of its obligations toward God and
man.
1T is for these changes in our mental
world hat the city built upon the relics
of former civilizations stands. 1t Is this
new view of things which it typifies."