The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-11
ThEBO0K SHELF
Fly THE BIBLTOPHILII

By THE BIBl THE CALL OF THE CARPENTER
 REVIEWED FOR THE BOOK
 SHELF BY REV. GEORGE EAVEs, PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATION AL CHURCfD.
 By Bouck White. resident of Trinity | House, New York Doubleday, Page X Company New York.
 | I have been asked to report the inn pression made on my mind by the Rev. Bouck White, a gentleman who is carry ing on valuable social work for the sps- copal church in New York city, and who has apparently gathered the gist of many popular addresses into this permanent form. His avowed intention is Ito make Jesus the most Interesting person in his tory, and he attempts that task of su- pererogatfon by attempting to show that the chief object of Jesus was to make this world, just and an honest world Incidentally he proves it's terrible cruelty. and devilish despotism. Alas, we knew that, l confess that the English lan- guage suffers quite unnecessary tortures at the hands of MT. White It is very odd that educated persons like this, who have read widely and who bring a real message should be so grossly indifferent to the anguish of dislocated style and of grammar thrown to die on the dust heap But another pecularty of MT White book is it's needless irreverence, employed in the laudable effort to make Jesus vivid to modern men, Both these pecu- liarities are sufficiently illustrated in the frontispiece a picture of Jesus dressed and tinted as a Scandinavian carpenter in New York workshop, with the title, "The Carpenter of Nazareth was work man that needeth not to be ashamed. Are the Scandinavians of New York so stupid that a decent picture of Jesus in Syrian dress, amid more primitive s'if- roundings and with Jewish face, would have been for them more difficult to identify and understand? By reverence I mean jolting the old time story from it's historic setting, instead of adjusting it's spirit to changed conditions.
 | Stifl more do I protest against that vicious derangement in the quoted title of the "sequence of tenses.' It IS possl- ble that Mir White does not know that ''needeth'' Is a present tense and has no place at all following an imperfect. As though one should say, ''1 was he that | liveth." which is nonsense. For the same reason Ishurnbly appeal lfor mercy when a man hurls vocables | like these, sort of literary boulder, loosened from rocky heights across the fair landscape of his pages 'Demar- cated," ''concededly," 'itnsane,p hug Izah" Gas q sverb) ''teacbment," chris
 
 metropoli (save the markD typed Gofl typifed) "stressment." It \ proves how strong he is but not how wise or now well taught.
 To the same appeal belong the multi tude of pages that fairly reek with the word ''proletariat.' and sentence after sentence that commences quotations in this way: Speaks Renan,i Said Ste phen" Reported Josephus.' 'Inauire the auditory" means, in this book, seek ito learn what sort of person composed the audience" These are needless cruel ties. %.,+tf frs
 But I should not grieve so much about the inordnate vanity or carelessnesss of the style, were I less impressed with the fundamental value of the book. MT. Bouck White has raised a barrier where he should have removed the existing barriers already too numerous. Why has he added to the. worlds prejudice against which his plea must struggle, worlds of intellectual confusion and irr- tation in the minds of men and women who know that bad English generally means ignorance? Whereas in real sense MT White is not ignorant, but appar- ently a self educated man who has risen from the ranks and identified himself with. the task of justifying Christianity to what he so insists on calling the proleta rians," that is to say, the labor ing people. Deeply. fervently. do I re- gret the sumptuous carelessness, she paraded slovenliness. no less than the hare brained breathlessness manifest on every page.
 Nevertheless 1t is possible, by discount ing all this, to acquire a systematic in- sight into MT. Bouck Whites propagan- da Exaggerated it certainly is But there is room in the church for man who will interpret the Lord Jesus Christ as the creator of an economic revolution. MT White is not so much of a heretie as he thinks he is, nor so likely to go into tho Index Expurgatorles of the saints. It is a fact that he explains away the Immaculate Conception, and it is a fact that he knows. Matthews gos- pel He tries to saddle on Luther the re- sponsiblity for the outrages on the peas ants in their war against the German princes, and his scorn of the church as a social institution in history knows no bounds. To him the gospel of Jesus Christ is neither more nor less than A social upheaval, the assertion of the supremacy of the human soul as against the usages of all government. No Rus sian nihilists could more passionately disavow relations with human organiza- lions for governmental purposes He has breathed the air loved of anarchists.
 But is he dangerous? Not at all He is simply vocalizing for us what needs to be made audible, the superstitious re- sentiment of vast masses of American city populations against the present social order. Our orthodoxies must shift for themselves while we try to understand the anger of millions with our pretended and belauded democracy. They come seeking freedom and. behold. sweat shop, If MT. White can help Jan and Fritz and Ernst and the rest to admire and obey Jesus. the carpenter. that is so much gained to them and to all of us. Rut shall be surprised if his main ser vice does not prove to be among those of us who want to know how the other half lives and thinks.
 I could prove over and over again that Mir. White does violence to the historic f;sct. just as his frontispiece would indi- cate But that is of little moment in comparison with his letting us see how A thorough paced Maxian socialist, for instance. or Russian nihilist or pro- nounced anarchist, could be induced to tell his impression of what Jesus means to him.
 Have the preachers left out something in their conventionalized presentation of Jesus of Nazareth? It Is probably even SO. And yet MT. Whites picture Is still further from being complete or adequate. It is a worse caricature still But the true Jesus conplete in every character