The Washington herald., 1911-05-29

In Washington church circles consider
able comment has been caused by the
unusual pulpit exchanges of the past
week.
Unitarian and Methodist, Methodist
and Jew, Jew. and Lutheran have freely
shared the pulpits Of their respective de-
nominations.
Rev. DR.. John Wesley Hill. pastor of
Metropolitan Methodist Temple, New
York City. yesterday morning occupied
the pulpit of All Souls Unitarian Church.
while DR.. Pierce, of All Souls, preached
in Metropolitan Church in the morning
and il the evening at Calvary Methodist
Episcopal.
Meanwhile, President Taft, Unitarian,
and loyal one, was participating heart
lily in the memorial military field mass
conducted by Catholics on the Monument
Grounds, necessarily absenting himself
from All Souls service, which he regu-
larly attends.
At the Lutheran Church Of the Ref
ormation Rabbi Abram Simon, Of the
Washington Hebrew Congregation, ad-
dressed the Bible school Of the church
at what is known as 1t preparatory
service"
week ago Rabbi Simon's appearance
in the pulpit of the Metropolitan Me-
mortal NJ. E. Church with DR.. Shannon,
its pastor, was the occasion of comment
as to the broader and more appreciative
spirit which pervades the churches.
DR.. Hill in his sermon yesterday morn
ing a All Souls Church, on The Verdict
Of the Centuries" did not hesitate to
point out the reason for this newer spirit
Of fraternity and appreciation which
these pulpit exchanges betoken.
"Dogmatic walls are disappearing; de-
nominational asperities and theological
controversies are vanishing before the
better dawn" said DR.. Hill. Never so
much free thought: never so much free
dom of thought. Christianity is no long
er novelty.
Man Is Impulsive.
Man is all for immediate results. He
measures progress by the tick of his lit
tie timepiece. He demands immediate
results; right must be rewarded now;
wrongs must be redressed now; hope
must be fulfilled now; the millennium
must come now.
This line of reason is explained by his
limitations. Finite, he sees but seq
ment of life's circle; shut UP to time, he
is sense-bound; listening to the dribbling
of the hour, he dwindles into a pygmy.
The effect is disastrous in many
ways. 1t produces distortion of vision.
The secondary becomes primary; Provi-
the values of eternity are weighed in
the scales of time.
Waiting involves faith in the invisi
BILE and unseen. 1t results in security
and rest. The man whose argument Is
final whose position is supported by the
facts, is calm in the face Of opposition.
II is this subtle relation between GER
tainty and quietness that gives such dig
nifty and report of character.
we feel the power of the man who
can keep quiet in the storm, who can
wait for the thunderbolt OF opposition
to burst, and then, with a divine majesty.
go about his work.
Power is never boisterous; noise is
the result of friction. 1t has no measure
in vociferation. but rather in silence"
President Taft was praised for his part
in promoting international peace in an
address made yesterday morning by Rab-
bi Abram Simon, of the Washington He
brew Congregation, before the teachers
and officers of the Sunday school Of the
Lutheran Church of the Reformation.
Dr. Simon strongly supported the move
ment for universal peace, and said in
part:
We shall have peace International
when we have peace spiritual, when the
individuals of all nations have peace in
their hearts. Then men will beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears
into pruning hooks.
'Bloodshed shall then have passed
away, and the soldier shall become a
citizen of peace and a producer, not en-
gagged in killing, but in the protection of
life and property"