The north Mississippi herald. (Water Valley, Yalobusha Co., Miss.) 1888-1929, 1919-03-07
PASTOR DESTROYS
CREED. SEES NEED
OF BROTHERHOOD
Canadian Methodist Declares
War Has Taught Him Church
Needs Embrace All Peoples.

STAR tltiiB SldlemcHt uiduS ny LII. IlGl-
dry, of Reformation square, yester-
day. eyes, have burned my creed"
repeated the doctor, and its smoke
shall go up to God as an everlasting
memorial against the days Of my ig-
norance, prejudice and malice. This
great and terrible war with all its
bloodshed, death and sorrow, has been
necessary to break down these irwin
chile barriers, man-made creeds, and
to make US call all men brethren.
Our boys have learned out yonder on
the plains Of Flanders the true mean
ing of brother, and are now returning
to teach us the true meaning of
brotherhood. Yea, they will not only
teach US but they will demand of US
broader fraternity, a nobler hui
manity and wider religion"
"This is New Years." continued
the divine, and the church bells are
pealing forth their message to the
world, ring out the old, ring in the
new And as we listen to the
echoing tongues are there not many
things which ought to be rung out?
Are there not many feuds between
our several denominations that are
sapping the very life of church ener-
gy and vitality? And are there not
on the other hand many changes
which might be rung in that would
energize the Christian church to ac-
complish more speedily and more
completely that whereunto the Master
hath ordained it? Could there, then
! ask you, could there be a more fit
ting time for me to break the fetters
of dogma and orthodoxy, to snatch
myself from the ruts of creeds and
confessions, and to embrace a simpler
religion which has the word of God
as its creed, Christ as its leader, and
Christian character. the only test of
membership?
II have always been a Methodist.
have always congratulated myself
on coming from one of the best
Methodist homes in North America
! attended Victoria college, which is
saturated Ia Wesleyanism to the core
where John Wesley is as often quot-
ed as an authority as Christ Himself
/ have been a minister of the gospel
for 80 years and had never once motto
ed the inconsistencies of our church
ritual until John, my eldest son, whom
you all know so well, returned from
the firing line last October, and gave
me living pictures of the realities of
life, as perceived by the men who
have faced the hvid breath Of the
laundering cannon.
All For Democracy
'sThese men have seen the world.
They have seen life in its true per-
spective, and have drunk the dregs as
ali &LA AL AoxvA,.aI ssx,r
They have met men in camp and field
as brothers, as members OF a common
democracy, not as sectarians. They
have learned that the Wesleyan creed
with all its Celebrations does not make
its devotee any braver soldier, nor
does it free him from the pangs of
death of future uncertainties. They
have found that neither the 80 arti-
cles by Henry VIII. nor the book Of
common prayer by his successors,
can lessen or even modify the dangers
and terrors of the battlefield any
more than can the confession Of faith
by the Presbyterian elders. They
have rubbed shoulders with indian
and Australian, have clasped hands
with French and Italian, have kept
faith with English and American
without once questioning their re-
ligious principles. 1t was enough
for them to know that they had brave
hearts fearing neither death nor the
Hun. In fine they have learned that
it is as near to heaven by Calvin as
by Wesley, by English church as by
Congregational, for all must eread the
valley of the shadow of death alone
save for the never failing presence
of the meek and lowly Christ who
said: 81 am the way, and no man
cometh unto the Father but by me,
and for aught / know my other boy
has gone that way"
Here the doctor heaved sigh anc
many sympathetic handkerchief
caught tear in its folds as he told
the story Of his second son. The lad
that was as dear to his fathers heart
as the ruddy drops that warmed his
passionate brow. Yet the cruel war
with its demands for men to defend
the rights of democracy against the
tyranny of autocratic Germany, t. re
him, along with his brother from his
fathers breast and thrust him into
the trenches. The fates were against
him. He was taken prisoner at
Mons and then--and then the great
father heart burst into sobs as he re-
called the fiendish treatment of his
own flesh and blood at the hands of
the cultured" Germans. He was
taken to the great munition works at
Metz and put at the heaviest and
filthiest work among the lowest and
toughest German laborers with a
great, brutal German taskmaster who
stood over him constantly with lash
and bayonet.
Can you imagine boy, a real boy,
the guarded flower Of his fathers
greenhouse, now lifting and piling
heavy shells or carrying great buckets
Of water or shoveling muck or filth
without resentment? Not bit OF
It'll Before long he made his escape
and threaded his way toward Switzer-
land, sleeping by day and travelling
BY night. At last he could see the
Swiss confines in the distance and in
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