New Britain herald., 1923-01-22
DR. GRANT EXPANDS
 ON HIS THEOLOGY
Does Not Retract. Hint al Clergy
 Control by Money

rflfhnrA hHahts tfARNF " sAAN E"f ant Episcopal Church 0f me AseshH sion, Finh avenue and Tenth street is Id be tried for heFesy for his hls teFanees from the pulpit disappeared yesterday when DF- Grant, before NeFy large crowd that was plainly mare curious than religious, not ehls reiterated the expressions ta Whleh Dishop William T. Manning had obs ieeted, but augmented and deiehaea them. About the same time tilshan Manning was preaching in New Ha, ven ta the text "he lhea tal1hip' unte death" ,..-,..
 Speaking in a quiet way, haiilhglS al times, and with occasional refer enees 10 notes, DF, Grant said in etr feet that he not only believed that Jesus Christ was without the power of God, as he had stated previously hut that he felt the time had come for an such ideas to be eliminated from religion as impossible of VeFih- cation, incapable of assimilation ana avalid, But his sermon was not .fense, for more than once he ass sumed the offensive. intimating. for one thing, an attempt by moneyed ih- terests 10 control the churches
 Prepared for Trial.
 Dr.. Grant expects to be tried Tor heresy. Al the outset he referred 10 Dr. Briggs. who. as Presbyterian was tried for heresy. After the serV' ice. when handing 10 tho reporters some Of his notes he said
 fhGFH be trial then l shall need all my reference notes"
 There are members Of the congre- eation. too, who expect, and seem- ingly would welcome, a heresy trial. One woman ssid plainly that the hope of the workers in the church was that Dr. Grant could have the church "for his own"
 Toward the close pr. Grant drew wave of applause from his audience with a reference to bunk spoken in the churches. Handclapping. almost unknown at regular services in an Episcopal church. lasted several sec onds. Incidentally pr. Grant made 10 reference to his previous statc- ment. also objected to. concerning conservation.
 Long before II o'clock, the hour set for the service, mob had gath cred at the church. When the serv- ice commenced there were at last 25p persons trying to get in the already overcrowded edifice. The church holds $40 people comfortably. There must have been nearly 1900 inside
 1a af doorways. In the audience were Chinese, several negroes and a sur prisingly large number of Jews.
 Police Take a Hand.
 After the service groups of men and women stood about for an hour discussing the sermon. taking sides, and in one instance getting into noisy altercation that the police, Of whom there were five present at the time, had to interrupt.
 For his support Dr. Grant drew on history, theology, philosophy, politics and psychoanalysis. He mentioned Senators Lodge, Borah and La Fol lette. Freud. Jung and William James, Prof. Leighton, Bishop Henning or London, Dean Inge, Napoleon. Roose- welt, Darwin and the apostles Mat thew, Mark and Luke.
 The actual text of the sermon was from the fifty-sixth chapter of Isaiah.
 Behold I have given him for witnesses to the people, leader and commander of the people"
 Next he quoted pr. Leighton: ideas are checks drawn on the bank of experience. If they are returned marked no funds they are false and William James, psychologists True ideas are those that we can as similate, validate. corroborate and verify" Then contending that his tory is a record of progressive ideas that progressively supplant dead ones," pr. Grant said that the method of growth is a supplanting or get ting rid of ideas that aren't good for us and getting ideas that are good for us" He added: Any one who as- serts that progress is hindering civili- zation you might say is blackjacking your soul"
 Religion, he went on, should not be troublesome, but comforting It should be simple, and man should not be held back in his mental path by fantasies, beliefs and customs" The Christian religion. he said, needs only the testimony of the soul. Tt has the miracle in the sense Of revealed wonder working laws of the human spirit" As Bishop Henning had said he ouoted There are multitudes Of clergymen who can get along without To aaf nn al length to speak of instances in which science and religious beliefs had clashed.
 The psychologists have taught. he said, that we want to be centrally or ganized and to make our environment meet the needs of our natures" In this connection he mentioned the de- mand of working people for plumb ing in their houses and clean streets Today. he continued, there is more reason for loving the God of life .han there was in the past for loving the God of death. Today, we don't have to 'creep through life on some sort of a milk train of energy, we want to 20 from place to place on express trains to go pretty fast and to go long distances"
 "A great deal of my mature life has been spent getting rid of what was taught in my youth,P said Dr. Grant. and he went on 10 say that religious belief in the past was like a pebble in the shoe. unpleasant and painful.
 Cites Modern Instances.
 In several ways he referred to prog ress in ideas and the different times. He spoke of Lodge, LaFollette and Eorah as of the same party but hold-