The Washington times., 1920-10-26

ern lives we live, or how TO stop
quarreling with Phil when he stays
at the office and is late for dinner"
Eleanor, ! think you're unjust
to him." said Lucy. amid the laugh
ter of the men Of the family. Most
people in St. Johns think he is .
remarkable preacher"
80 were many OF the Greek soph-
lists" George Bridges observed.
ANOTHER VIEWPOINT.
Now II 1t were only dear old
Doctor Gilman" Eleanor continued,
II could sink back into a comfort
able Indifference. But every Sunday
this new man stirs up. not by what
he says, but by what he is. / hoped
we'd get rector with modern
ideas, who would be able to tell
me what to teach my children.
Little Phil and Harriet come back
from Sunday school with all sorts
of questions, and ] feel like hypo-
critic. At any rate, IL Mr.. Holder
hasn't done anything else he's made
me want to know"
What do you mean by man
OF modern ideas, Eleanor" inquired
Mr.. Bridges, with evident relish.
Eleanor put down her coffee cup,
looked at him helplessly. and
smiled.
Somebody who will present
Christianity to me in such man
ner that 1t will appeal to my reason.
and enable me to assimilate II into
my life"
Good for you. Nell" said her
husband approvingly. Come now.
professor, you sit up in the Univer-
sity Club all Sunday morning and
discuss reconcile philosophy with
other learned agnostics, tell us
what is the matter with Mr.. Hold
der's theology. That is. If : will
not shock grandmother too much
I'm afraid I've got used to being
shocked, Phil" said Mrs. Waring,
with her quiet smile.
ITS unfair" Mr.. Bridges pro-
tested, ito ask prejudiced pagan
like me to pronounce judgment on
an honest parson who is laboring
according to his lights
go on. George. You shan't get
out of it that way"
"Well," said George, "thc trouble
is. from the theological point OF
view, that your parson is preaching
what Auguste Sabatier would call a
diminished and mitigated ortho-
doxy."
GTeaC heavens. CIlcu h'i'
whats that
IT'S neither fish. flesh, nor fowl,
nor good red herring" the professor
declared. "If Mr.. Holder were cor
nered he couldn't maintain that he,
as priest has full power to for
give sins, and yet he won't assert
that he hasn't. The medieval con-
ception of the church, before
Luther's day, was consistent, at any
rate If you once grant the prem
Uses on which it was based
What premises"
That the Almighty had given it
a charter, like an insurance com
pany, of a monopoly of salvation
on this portion of the universe. and
agreed to keep his hands of. Under
this conception, the sale of indul-
gences, masses for the soul, ana
temporal power are perfectly logi-
cal-inevitabIe. Kings and princes
derive their governments from the
church. But il we once begin to
doubt the validity of this charter.
as the reformers did, the whole sys-
tenn flies to pieces, like sticking
pin into a soap bubble.
A LITTLE HISTORY.
THAT is the reason why-to
change the figure-the so-cslled
Protestant world has been gradu-
ally sliding down hill ever since the
Reformation. The great majority
of men are not willing to turn good,
to renounce the material and SEN
sual rewards under their hands
without some definite and concrete
guaranty that. If they do so. they
are going to be rewarded hereafter.
They demand some sort of infalli-
bility. And when we let go the in
falIibility of the church, we began
to slide toward what looked like a
bottomiess pit, and we clutched at
the infallibility of the Bible. And
now that has begun to roll.
what mean by a mitigated or