The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-01-17
CONSECRATED
THIS MORNING

Heaven when the stupid follies OF
religious proletariat have finally ex-
ceeded the criminal plumbers of a sell
fish hierarchy. 1t took the world
eighteen centuries to replace the ty
ranny of the Caesars with a real con-
stltutional government-only to find
that the Caesars were still fighting for
their privileges and the uneducated
peasant was playing into mis- hands.
The kaiser and the Bolsheviki are still
the enemies of constitutional govern
ment in the state, as are the pope and
the sects in the church.
Bonds and Affections.
80, bonds and Affections awaits
you. The bonds OF having your hands
tied by the parsimony of your own
fiock--and the 'affiiction' of seeing Inn
perialists and anarchists well financ-
ed and heavily armed by the zealots
that support these.
"'But none of these things move
me, neither count / my life dear unto
myself
For like the overseers in Ephesus
whom ST. Paul was sending forth. you
are confronted with the results of con-
ditions of which he warns them. For
know that after my departing shall
grievous wolves enter in among you
not sparing the flock and any one who
has read the history of bishops from
the earliest days until now realizes
that the large percentage of shepherds
have been greedy wolves. Also of
yourselves shall men arise, speaking
perverse things, to draw disciples after
them which is exactly what the re-
action against grievous wolves has
been.
The church has indeed suffered first
from the shepherds who have been
wolves, and secondly from the sheep
who have been made bitter and per-
verse by the Fleeing. To keep ones
head and ones heart requires a head
that is not easily turned and a heart
that is not easily soured.
Nov to meet this situation de-
mands the wisdom of the serpent, or
in modern phrase common sense,
How are you going to meet the situa-
ton? Do you think that you are go
ing to bind up the church's wounds by
affecting the regalia OF discredited
royalty--on the one hand-or by try
ing to satisfy the Unsuitable demands
of the never satisfied anarchists on the
other?
GUIDING Traditions.
we have only two traditions of the
Episcopate to guide us and believe
they are both bad, the English and the
Italian, and with this further limita-
ton on our part-that while we have
the same spiritual Office as the lord
bishop Of London, or the cardinal bish-
CD of Rome-we have behind us Meth
er the secular power Of the one nor
the ecclesiastical authority of the
other. Manifestly habits which might
be tolerated in my lord bishop Of the
court of ST. James or st. Peter (that
is habits that belong to that world in
which the Gentiles seek pre-eminence)
have no place in our modest encourage
as bishops Of the Protestant Episcopal
church. When a man who really rules
someone puts on the livery of his au-
thority. he may inspire some senti-
ment of awe; when man who rules
no one puts them on he arouses senti-
ments Of ridicule.
"It is part of diplomacy that we
make not the Office which we hold II
diculous. Many may hold us in con-
tempt for our lofty claims; let us see
to it that they do not laugh at us for
our foolish pretensions. 1t would
seem that unusual symbols of author
ity-whether those of the street or OF
the sanctuary had better be omitted
in the interests of diplomacy, for we
are living among republicans who have
dethroned their tyrant. We shall win
neither their respect nor their coop
GRAFTON by restoring unnecessarily the
signs Of all authority that is indissol-
ubly associated with cruelty and greed.
We can afford to discard the trappings
of royalty If we wish to win the suf-
frages of reunited people. OF course,
L do not presume to draw the line OF
demarcation, but common sense must
determine the fitness of our garb and
manner. I am very sure of the fact
that thing IL Roman or Anglican
does not mean that 1t will be in good
taste in an American environment.
How Church Wins.
"If this church is ever to win Its
way into the heads and hearts of Chris
tan people. it will be because it will
have demonstrated that which the
constitutionalfsts must ever demon
strate, that the greatest freedom and
the most effective liberty are attained
by a system which while clinging to
! traditional authority is responsive to
changing needs. The weakness OF
such constitutional parry always lies
! in the fact that part of the consut-
uency is half imperialist and another
is nearly all Bolsheviki-while a very
small number are loyal to the prin-
ciples for which we stand, and the only
principle which could ever win out in
the effective unifying of Christendom.
In this way the full Joy of ones min.
istry is not that one has been popu.
lar nor that one has had transient
numerical success, but rather that one
| has built upon the traditional founda-
/ tons and that he has done some build
/! inc that is not hay and stubble.
"But to build church of granite is
a very different thing from throwing
tup a straw stack and requires patience
! 1f.,11 - =,