Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1913-09-06
Exposes the Real Attitude of His
Followers Toward the
Church.
Given Stern Rebuke by Pr0tes-
tant Minister at Labor Sun
day Meeting.
CREATES AN OBNOXIOUS SCENE

Last Sunday afternoon Charles
Dobbs, author of the scandalous
article that appeared in the Courier
Journal some years ago about the
sacred relics that repose in st.
Martins church and Socialist candi-
date who receives but few votes,
created a rather unlooked-for and
deplorable scene at the Labor Sun
day meeting held in Central Park.
BY some unaccountable means
Dobbs had been selected to speak
for organized labor, but instead he
made a violent attack upon the
Church and Christian religion, un-
Willingly showing the real attitude
of the Socialists. His statements re-
flecting on the ministers and the
Bible were warmly disputed by the
Rev. DR.. Julian S. Sibley, pastor OF
the Stuart Robinson Memorial Pres
byterian church, who. declared that
"the worlds problems, whether
those of labor or not, never will be
solved by crowding God and Christ
out and yielding to gross material
Ism." The daily press furnish the
following from Dobbs' address, and
they are pronounced the words he
uttered:
"In the first place it must be
admitted that there is separation
between the laboring masses and the
church. The laboring class has al
ways had a resentment for eccle-
siastical authority, which takes a
text from here and there in the
Bible to make the oppressed con-
tented and to keep them in subjec-
ton. We are tired of hearing that
old text, Servants Be Subject to
Your Masters We want no mas
ters. / believe that the people are
getting away from the churches be-
cause they hate the idea Of having
any priest or preacher stand between
them and their God. We need no
such mediation; man can have di-
rect access to God. They also deny
to any priest or preacher the right
to utter anathemas against them or
to upbraid them in any way IL they
are not faithful to their masters.
Probably the reason back of all this
is that modern, scientific criticism
has completely demolished the old
doctrine of the verbal inspiration of
the Bible. The people no longer are
interested in your talk about the
spiritual life or your vague meta
physical speculations; they care
nothing for the doctrine of the Trim
ity or ransubstantiation but if the
gospel of Jesus Christ means the
brotherhood of man then they are
nightly interested in it. Otherwise
not. If Christianity is really inter-
ested in the brotherhood of man it
had better begin to show IL. II the
churches can not see that the basic
principles of the labor movement
are those of Jesus of Nazareth they
are way behind the times and are
but mumbling over the dry bones
OF theology. The world long ago has
tired of this. We care not for what
you preach and what you sing, but
for what you do and what you live.
Rev. Dr. Sibley, when introduced,
declared he came to the meeting not
Intending to enter into an argument
but to preach to Christian people.
"But | want to say" he said, "for
the benefit of the gentleman who
has just preceded me that not on
scientific or any other grounds has
the verbal inspiration of the Bible
been demolished. He too easily
sweeps aside the very foundations
of the church of God. We Christians
believe that the Bible is the word
10 CA ood fnon{ra1 frnu, aouar fn
cover. II l did not believe II I
would not be preaching the gospel
here today. I resent the insinuations
and the slurs directed against what
/ and every other Christian minister
represent, the greatest labor organi-
Eation in the world. the church of
the Lord Jesus Ccr.st. This churcn
does not promise men ease and lux
ury and license, but rather II ele-
Yates and ennobles them, because
II makes them colaborers with AL
mighty God, the Master laborer Of
the universe. II strikes me that
many who are crying their panaceas
for all the evils of the day are too
much concerned with making a
living rather than with right living.
n all men but lived right there
would be little difficulty in those
who wished TO make a living. Men
Of this class are seeming to forget
the teachings Of Him who said that
our lives do not consist of the things
we possess, but in Righteousness. /
deny that II is the church's business
to follow every philosophy OF the
A -. 4.
above all things is to train men 10
live for God and eternity. II Is
summed up by its Divine Founder,
Seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his Righteousness, and all things
else shall be graciously added unto
you.'"
The following day this fellow
Dobbs made lame denial Of hii
utterances, bdt those who heard him
insist that he was correctly re.
ported. Any who read his article
on st. Martins church know the