The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-03-05
PASTORDESTROYS
CREED NEED
Of BROTHERHOOD
Canadian Methodist Declares
War Has Taught Him
Church Needs Embrace All
Peoples.

w. ttAS aANS'A a'N''
Church Needs Embrace All
Peoples.
MOUNT DENNIS, ont. Mar. 5. Cspl) |
= have burned my creed is the
startling statement made by DR.. Hen
dry, of Reformation square, yesterday. !
Yes, l have burned my creed re-
peated the doctor, "and its smoke shall
go VI TO God as IN everlasting memo
rial against the days Of my ignorance.
prejudice and malice. This great and
terrible war with all its bloodshed,
death and sorrow, has been necessary
to break down thise inyincible bar
riers, man-made creeds, and TO make US
call all men brethren. Our boys have
learned out yonder on the plains OF
Flanders the true meaning Of brother, |
and are now returning to teach us the
true meaning Of brotherhood. Yea, they
will not only teach us but they will de-
mand Of us a broader fraternity, a no.
bier humanity and a wider religion"
This is New Years. continued the
divine, and the church bells are peal
ing forth their message TO the world, |
ring out the old, ring In the new And
as we listen to their echoing tongues
are there not many things which ought
to be rung out? Are there not many |
feuds between our several denomina-
tons that r sapping the very life Of
church energy and vitality? And are
there not on the other hand many
changes which might be rung in that
would energize the Christian church to
accomplish more speedily and more
completely that w%hereunto the Master
hath ordained it? Could there, then, /
ask you, could there be a more fitting
time for me to break the letters of
dogma and orthodoxy, to snatch my
self from the ruts Of creeds and confess
slons, and to embrace a simpler religion
which has the word of God as its creed, |
Christ as its leader, and Christian char
acter the only test of membership?
Il have always been a Methodist l
have always congratulated myself on
coming from n Of the best Methodist
homes in North America. l attended
Victoria college, which Is saturated in
Wesleyanism to the core, where John
Wesley Is as often quoted as an au-
thority as Christ Himself. ! have been
a minister of the gospel for 80 years
and had never once noticed the incon-
sisteneies OF our church ritual until
John. my eldest son. whom you all
know so we'll. returned from the firing
line last october, and gave me living |
pictures Of he realities Of life, as per-
ceived by the men who have faced the
livid breath of the laundering cannong.
All for Democracy.
These men have seen the world.
They have seen life in its true per
spective, and have drunk the dregs as
well as the sweetly favored juices.
They have met men in camp and field
as brothers, as members of a common
democracy, not as sectarians. They
have learned hat the Wesleyan creed
with all its Celebrations does not make
Its deyotee any Drawer soldier, nor does
1t free him from the pangs Of death or
future uncertainties. They have found
that neither the 80 articles 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 h a can the con-
fession 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
their religious 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
1t Is as near to heaven by Calvin as by
Wesley, by English church as by Con-
g~regational, for all must tread the val
ley of the shadow OF death alone save
for the never failing presence Of the
meek and lowly Christ who said. I am
the way, and no man cometh unto the |
Father but by me- and for aught I
know my other boy has gone that
way" !
Here tho doctor heaved a sigh and
many a sympathetic handkerchief
caught a 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 tryan-
ny OF autocratic Germany, tore him.
along with his brother from his fathers
breast and thrust hin into the trenches.
The fates were against him, He was
taken prisoner at Mons n then--and
then the great father heart burst into
sobs as he recalled the fiendish treat
ment 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
filithiest 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 a 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 with
out resentment? Not a bit of It! Be
fore long he made his escape and
threaded MS way toward switzerland,
sleeping by day and travelling by night,
At last he could see the Swiss con-
fines in the distance and in his eager
Ventured a little too far in the
gray dawn of that ill-omened morn
ing. He was captured and taken back
to the factory. There he was flogged
and lacerated before his trembling com
rades as an example Of German dis
and humanity. Thence he was
hurried to a prison cell, dark, filthy
and stanch, where he remained three
he was sent to the coal mines, where
found two other prisoners OF war,
a Canadian and an American. Here
they received most brutal treatment /
They were often kicked until
could not walk or work, and then
their %rations. which were abominable
at the best, were cut to half till they
their tasks again. They felt
the sting Of the lash almost daily, and
thunp from a spade or a shovel wa
not uncommon. /
But Two Are Returned.
They bore it all as best they could,
,ut upon, the first opportunity made
md stealth they had reached the Ger
nan frontier, as they thought, but
we're suddenly confronted by two Ger
nan officers who attempted their ar
est. The American escaped into
switzerland. but the other two were
TO German brutality or per-
laps to an unspeakable death.
Since tho pastor Of Reformation
square learned of these events through
communication from his sons Amer-
friend last August, he has been
different man. Ills step has lost
Is spring, his manner its buoyancy.
lie has become thoughtful and at times
His people have ques-
among themselves the advisa-
illty Of giving him a rest. But not
nth New Years morning were they