Evening star., 1923-04-29
Churches Among Notable
.4!T;>: Features of Washington
Writer in Boston Paper Also Notes Mum.
ber of Visitors at Capital and Its Array
of Learned Specialists.


So il seems that the Bolgiano class
is making a real contribution to the
religious life Of today. Here each
Sunday morning men come from
miles around and say it pays them
TO come. representing nearly every
branch of government service. the
departments Of state. War. Navy.
Agriculture. Justice. Commerce and
Labor. the scientific bureaus. the
great governmental commissions. his
torical societies and such scientinc
organizations as the Carnegie Insti-
tuition. Men will be found here from
all walks of life--lawyers. physicians,
men from the Army. Navy and the
Marine Corps. The only complaint
Is that the time given to the teacher
is TOO short. The messages are fresh,
courageous, even bold. but the men
like them, although they do not al
ways agree with the teacher.
Perhaps no better comment NAV be
passed upon the value of such works
than TO give the experience OF one
OF the most prominent neurologtsts
Of the country. Dr. f. III. Reede
When he read of the campaign of the
adult Bible class movement he began
to visit some of the classes in the
city. He was interested as psychol-
ogist and religionist. He came away
from the first class he visited. after
the good old ways. which exhorta-
tion was expressed in figures of
speech the meaning OF which the
speaker was entirely ignorant. Not
overly encouraged. he next went to
the Rolgiano class. He heard the
teacher expounding the teaching of
Christ in most modern terms. He
spoke of men as developing beings,
neither wholly sinners nor entirely
saints. but with instincts and ten
n tab ta1 yeyh mi
evolution. which conflict in their ex-
preston with the moral ideals and
standards of our civilization which
have been the product of social evo-
luton. He said to himself. Here is
a man who seems to be talking sound
sense" But we will let the doctor
tell his experience in his own words:
''rhe teaching felt in the Bolgiano
class is unique in my experience.
Forty years ago I first came into a
was the childless wife of village
blacksmith, a man given to drink and
to agnosticism. From that time to
this the Sunday school has invariably
repeated by early experience. 1t was
a delightful detachment from the
world of sin. in which teachers
strewed beautiful ideals at the feet
of children, who needed not flowers
but rough logs to make corduroy
road over the swamp of life as it is.
Sunday school which related to the
north. south. east and west of life as
il existed. OF other worldliness there
We're directions a-plenty.
1.-THE uniQueness of the Bolgiano
class teaching Is that il faces life
with none of the detachment which is
made such a travesty of Jesus atti-
tude. Christ faced life in its entirety.
Life made impressions on Him. and
He clarifie these Impressions by an
int fTll Or yIh yNh hny
in the artistic form of the parable.
In the parallels causes are no less
clearly seen than are the results, and
both are illumined by the vision of a
practical solution.
Mr. Bolgianois deputy. Prof Coll
lier. found. looked at the human ma
ture OF today as segment of the
same human nature that Jesus faced.
Men came to Christ with faces drawn
taut by questions OF their own enig-
the mystery of life bounded them to
Him. From Christ they got a great
illumination. No fiowery beds of ease
were magically woven. But insight
was given, directions by which men
could work out their salvation, and
ma intain their own self-respect while
they came into a great peace in the
love of God. So far as human psy-
sents the life of today. as seen
through the eyes of Christ, but withai
with Il great love for that life, motley
as it is, and with a great faith in the
moral nature beneath It.
Induced to Ask Questions.
THE result is that the men of the
class are driven or allured to think.
They ask questions. 1t is clear that
they have in mind the application Of
Christ's solution of life to their own
life. 1t is also clear that they de-
mand that the currency of other
|worldliness be converted into the hard
coin of now and today. They crave
their own souls, to get a sense Of self.
clean and clear and to find q way of
making those souls fit into the gen
eral scheme of things.
1.-The impression that 1 took away
from this class was that here was a
leader and a teacher who was meet
ing life as it is and as each member
of the class found it to be, and that
he was presenting solution of that
life as 1t had been worked out by
encouraged to feel that Christ was
afraid of no phase Of life and that
with His spirit in their hearts they
need not now be afraid. ! was doubly
impressed by the attitude that the
Old Testament had no solution Of life
which had not been transcended by
the intelligence of Jesus. The New
Testament and especially the report
of the Apostle John, was considered to
include the necessary illumination for
the road Of life. i carried away the
conviction that the church at last was
engaged upon what had always seem
ed it's essential task. the true inter
pretation of life, here and now. and
the presentment of solution of its
mystery. The other world. in both
for once left to the will of God and
it's beneficence.'