Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-05-02
A "Get-together"
Scheme to Find
Gods Purposes
"Friends in Council" Aim to
Help the Religious Revival of
Which the Dawn Is Seen.

In book recently published by the
Sturgis & Walton Company, New
York. there are suggestions in plenty
for the get-together clubs. a favorite
form of organization among the
younger element of the churches of
Newark The full title of the work
is Essays by Friends in Council on
the Regulative Ideas of Religious
Thought"
That among the youthful clubs of
this city there is any profound medi-
tation of the regulative ideas of re-
liglous thought is doubtful, but those
who study young men, those who are
willing to put themselves on their
plane of ratiocination, will soon dis
cover that their intelligence scars
higher than one would imagine; that
the sexual idea, which naturally DOM
mates them and gives them enthus1-
asm and strength and manhood, as
! 1t awakens the mind of the maiden,
is sometimes subordnated to a re-
| lgious fervor in a degree far more
efflcacious and inspiring than the pic
ture of the man of mature years.
Method of the Essayists.
We read in the Introduction to
Getting Together that each ESSAY
| ist has freely developed from his own
| point OF view the thesis of his choice
from the series of propositions agreed
to by all"
The propositions are not set forth
! in the book, but the general view
point of the Friends in Council is a
/ - nTnp
towards the fulfillment of the prayer
| of Christ for the advent of Gods
kingdom here on earth. 1t Is impos-
sible to express appreciation of what
| these Friends in Council have done,
better than by saying that through
| their manner of putting Into words
those tendencies of thought which
are bringing back religion into daily
life and are one of the causes OF that
great reviva. of religious belief OF
! which we have thrice stated in these
columns that there are signs all over
the world the writer's have assuredly
made themselves agents towards tAat
| fulfil ment.
| What are the tendencies which are
bringing back in daily, common,
everyday life the influences of re-
| ligion-the harmonizing, softening,
ameleorizing religion of Christ. not
I
nor of the infallible doctrine of the
| Catholic? But not in the compass of
such a modest restricted article can
these tendencies be explained.
| The Work of Today.
But 1t seems to us that the highest
achievement of our highly distinctive
re igious thought is surely some better
RECOGNITION OF the purposes of God
/ DIT n
the church is yet conscious of this
advance. At least its ministers in
the pulpit have not yet adopted the
plan of interpreting Gods an and
purposes with reference to the age In
which we live Neither do they speak
/ with the grand simplicity of lam
guage, the forcibly expressed dignity
which made of the style OF a Jeremy
/ Taylor a model for all ages. Indeed
! in this day the idea prevails that
| the most intricate phraseology and
| the most complicated construction in
composition is the highest mark OF
scholarship, which assuredly 1t is
not. 1t might be well, indeed, If
some among the clergy could go back
! to their classics for lessons in sim
plicity and eloquence of diction. Per-
haps some of them could not read
Tecitus of Thucidides if they tried?
| But the main objection to modern
argument and Christian thought is
| that II Is expressed in a language as
| far apart as the poles from the
| language of Christ Himself. And,
| ritifui 1t Is to say that those very
Chris tlike ideas which are enshrouded
| in the unintelligible rodomontade and
affected phraseo!ogy of the ambitious
word-monger of the pulpit are the
very truths which would be most
easily understood and most eagerly
accepted by the bewlldered people
who hear them were they only
couched in the style of a Newman OF
a Lightfoot.
ProIixity Of the Preacher.
Another point about the modern
mode of the expression of the most
transcendentally beautiful of religious
truths is the prolixity Of so many OF
their opponents, men, most of them
who have INDUCED in authorship on
secu ar themes. Such men have only
one object. namely. to exploit tn Ii
own cleverress. Their place in the
pulpit is a mistake.
These men cannot understand thai
the speaking voice of most individ-
uals becomes a WEAKNESS to the cal
after a short space of time. Here are
one or two pronouncements. of 1.-THE
Friends in Council"
ITO attribute a finite personality
to God Is no more than to employ an
imperfect symbol for the infinite"
Satan and Satanic works exist
not in spite of but by permission OF
the Almighty One, but whv by this
permission is still the riddle, and II
leaves the mystery no less dark thar
of old"