New Britain herald., 1925-01-15
BISHOP BROWN IN
 AV0WAL OF FAITH
Protests Belief in God and in
 Jesus Christ
MAKES PERSONAL PLEA
Methodist Clergyman, Appealing From Hercsy Conviction, Takes Occasion to Score Those Who Idealized War.
,y The Associated Press.

Idealized War.
 By The Associated Press.
 Cleveland, Jan. 15.--Pleading in his own behalf for a reversal of the verdict which found him guilty of heresy Bishop William Montgomery Brown today addressed the board of review of the Protestant Episcopal church.
 Referring to printed memorial submitted to the court he said: "I I can at this time content myself with repeating that confession of my faith.
 T believe in God.
 Not, to be sure, In a God with arms legs, and with that human at- tribute which we call personality; but in the all-in-all, in whom we live and move and have our being, and to whose laws we must all con- form if we are to attain the most abundant life.
 T believe in God. the Father AL mighty.
 Uses Term SymbolicaIly
 "Not, to be sure, in a literal, bi- ological sense, is my God a father. not as being with masculinity, as every father must literally be. I use the word symbolically--a previous symbol of the infinite reality which has brought us and all things into being as parts of itself. Maker of heaven and earth. Not, to be sure, a manufacturer or sculptor. as the minds which first codlfed this creed conceived their anthropomorphic god to be. Be- cause of the revelations of science, which were denied to them, my heaven and my earth are infinitely more complex than theirs. And the symbol maker must be applied to those universal laws which govern infinite cycles of change, of which heir great but ignorant minds were wholly unaware.
 - Believes iD Christ "And l believe in Jesus Christ, His only son, our lord.
 "Once again, not literally. In mat ters Of history. must be guided by ttle researches of historians, who were necessarily ruthless in their criticisms of ecclesiastical lore. New ertheless, regardless of what con- elusions historians shall reach, ac- cept and reverence the symbol of the son of God-the human manifesto ton of all that is true and beautiful and good
 "Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Birth
 Not literally, of course. Mod ern biology has made the literal ac- ceptance of this belief impossible for any of us. But In stripping us of this literal interpretation, it has released the symbol for greater use- fitness.
 'I believe in Jesus, not less than do the literalists, whether modern ists, or fundamentallsts but more. Jesus, to me, is more than g. historical character, and more than a third term in an ancient theological equation. What ever this court does. it can not strip me of my belief in Jesus. I See in Jesus the man of sorroWs-every man of sorrows from the first dawn of human intelligence and oppres- sion: and who, in every instance, was villihed and punished and put to death.
 "I see in Him the eternal serv- ant. I see in Him every toiling, sweating bleeding son of man. I see in Him the uncounted. unnamed and unknown workers of the world, despised ad disinherited and cruci- fied-my God made manifest in suf- fering flesh.
 No Crossword Puzzle
 This faith of mine is no cross word puzzle. It is beyond words. For words at their best are but symbols of the truth. You cannot imprison God within q literal creed, You cannot limit the truth to one incident in Roman history. x
 'I want you to know that l am including in that most holy of all names, Jesus, all the victims of in- justice, all the toilcrs whose unpaid labor has given leisure and luxury to few: and all those millions who have been sent to war to bleed and die.
 The Crime of War
 Let us not excuse ourselves. We as a church did help to send them to their myriad crucifixions. We blessed the war. We told them that God was on our side and that they were doing a holy thing in fighting his battles for the good of the world, Their blood is upon us. We sent them into shambles of torture and into hell's hat. They were serying their country. we told them. And in our literal al-mindedness. we d. rected them 10 a tribal divinity, in stead of 10 a universal God. I want that fact to burn into your conscious ness. If the idea of conforming me for my unbelief crosses your minds As between Christ and Caesar, the church chose the state"
 Concluding Plea
 Concluding the bishop declared: ''Yes, contrary to the chief point raised against me by the prosecu' tion, I believe In God-with all my rational mind and with all my emo tional soul, I believe In God. Be