Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-06
S,TONEMEN RESENT
DR.. STEELE'S ATTACK
roiscopal Rector Compares
fellowship Movement to the
nRilly" Sunday Campaign

Members Of the stonemen's Fellowship
r.dlenant today because of a public
az. ~ an their organization made by the
~ mr. David NJ. Steele, rector of the
,..on,I Church of st. Luke and the
-f,-t.,v IL is the first attack of like
.s.,oeter made against the club by an
,--,.,onalian clergyman. While 1t has
- Known for some time that the fell
..n,n has not been hailed with delight
,o,re quarters Of that denomination,
- steele Is the first minister to voice
-. oninions of the opponents In public
statement .-.
comparing the fellowship movement to
-, aplly" Sunday campaign. which he
,,.ored last winter with columns of ar
,,,es Doctor steele pays his respects to
,,s Rev Mr.. stones propaganda. AT the
- time he discusses the value of the
,.,aobina Missions that has been in prog
-. in the Episcopal churches of the
s,ocsse of Pennsylvania during the last
week. and questions the good that might
come from the preaching of some of the
a,onplar', ministers who participated in
IT,
..somo of these services have been so
.r,,i attended and some Of this preaching
has been so well done, while on the other
hand at some points the attendance has
heen so discouragingly small and the eff
,orts go artificial and conventional as TO
l.ave in the minds of many the open
question with regard to the wisdom of
Tho whole undertaking." writes Doctor
steele in the monthly magazine of the
parish.
RAPs POPULAR PREACHING"
He refers to the sermons by the Rev.
DR.. freeman and by Bishop Rhinelander
in the Church of st. Luke and the Eplph-
any as a part of the preaching mission,
saving that sin so far as preaching of
This kind is concerned, too much cannot
be said in praise. It Is profoundly true
that preachers of that kind will always
have mission because they have for
men a message" Then Doctor Steele
makes his attack on the popular" kind
Of preaching done during the progress
Of the mission and drifts into his attack
on the Stonemen's Fellowship.
preaching) of which the world is grow.
Ing weary" he continues. Some of this
Is done by so-called popular preachers.
To thrust this more and more upon the
people Is only to drive them with more
and more reason away from the church.
II this Preaching Mission In the Epis.
ecpa Church has been to any extent,
or whatever 1t shall be to that extent,
mere aftermath or afterthought or in
he eli oh Mt n
plicate or initiate kind of revival cam
paign that we mad In this city last year
In the form of n detrimental emotional
dehauch, 1t Is a yielding to temptation,
an attempt to count souls in terms of
50 many bodies and a lowering of the
dignity Of the pulpit by employing, in
stead Of theological truth, religious con-
yiction, normal aids to devotion and stern
ethical Discipline of right living, the psy-
chology Of the crowd and such mere mob
movements as are meretricious."
ATTACK ON sToNEMEN.
Al this point Doctor Steele makes his
assault on the Stonemen in the following
words:
Incidentally, we have not only had
much of this sad sort of thing in the
year that Is past; We are having all too
much of 1t in another one at present. |
The habits of thought that this pseudo
religious but wholly ridiculous move
manifests-or rather the extent to which
1t Illustrates the fact that a movement
may proceed without the aid of thought |
al all and with neither understanding |
nor enlightenment-are the methods of
the cavemen, and the place where all |
such foregather Is truly, in the language |
OF the Scripture, a cave of Adullam. Ref |
erence and cross-refernce to a couple of |
verses in the ancient, indeed almost an
tediluvian, chronicles, to be specific, in |
the books of Samuel. will illuminate this |
thesis thus: Il
Then three men of the city came |
INTO Blank in harvest time; and the |
troops of the Phillstines pitched in the |
valley of Rephaiam. And Blank was
then In hole, and the garrison OF the |
Phllistines was then In Bethlehem. This |
man, therefore, departed thence and es-
capped to the cave of Adullam; and when
mis- brethren Ohey of this kind heard of
II they went thither to him. And every
one that was in distress, and every one
mat was in debt, and every one that was
clscontented gathered themselves unto
MIN; and he became a captain over
themi and there We're with him about an