Evening star., 1928-10-10
Sees World Betterment as
True Interpretation Of
Christ's Gospel.
INTOLERANCE DECLINES
DwelIs Lightly on Hereafter !;
Views Work as More
Practical.


pervaded the bishops library.
A thorn-crowned head of Jesus with
wiStful eyes looked down upon narroW
shafts of Autumn sunshine across the
red carpet. Rows of literary and theo-
logical classics. interspersed with many
volumes of the yearning philosophical
literature of the present, lined the walls
1t was place for contemplation and
peace-neither the retreat of seclu
Sive scholar nor the Office of an &C.
clesiastical administrator-but the home
of a twentieth century philosopher and
a practical business executive.
The bishops library is place Of cul
ture-both physical and mental. There
one can smoke cigarettes while i'm
mersed in the lives of the saints. There
PHILOSOPHERS are humanized with the
aroma of tobacco. The atmosphere is
expressive of broad-shouldered mascu-
Unity as well as of profound, winsoine
scholarship.
Here the interviewer waited for Right
Rev. James e. Freeman, churchman,
man of affairs, builder of temples for
the greater glory of the Lord, student
of books and of human hearts, dreamer
and pilgrim Of Christ.
Library Expresses Man.
The library expressed the man. An
individuals books are the clothes of
his mind. 1t is safer and more prac-
tical to judge one by his library shelves
than by his coat and trousers. This
is true particularly of bishops. Most
bishops dress alike, but they don't read
alike When Bishop Freeman entered,
tearing himself away from an avalanche
of calls on his time and attention in
connection with the coming convention,
he did not belle the picture.
The Bishop of Washington long has
been a notable figure in the religious,
civic and social life of the Capital of
the United States. The five years Of
his administration of this Episcopal
diocese have been marked by degree
of progress unknown before. His rec
ord makes him one of the great Amer
ican churchmen of his day-a great
preacher, a great Interpreter and
great builder.
On his way to the bishops house ON
the street car the interviewer had scrib-
bled a set of questions which might
we'll have aroused the antagonism OF
a lesser churchman.
This particular reporter, not at all ir-
reverently, had got into the mental
habit of looking upon religion from the
logical phenomenon-much the same
as one looks upon electricity and mag
netism as physical phenomena. He
did not look upon it from the inside
as a personal, spiritual force.
This is a difficult attitude to explain
to a bishop without giving offense-
unless he happens also to be tolerant
and understanding man. To most pro-
fessional churchmen religion is not
phenomenon, but the first cause and
final purpose of all phenomena.
But the reporter found That ne couio
talk to the Bishop or Washington-the
host of the present convention-without
any fear of indicating an irreverence
which he did not intend.
When he was very small boy TINS
interviewer used to be made to kneel be-
side his bed in a big. windy chamber
of New England farm house ana say
that cruel old prayer of the nursery:
Now I lay me down to sleep,
pray the Lord my soul to keep;
If should die before wake
pray the Lord my soul to take.
Over the bed hung a picture -
rather crude old chrome which was in
tended tn represent a st. Bernard
dog guarding child. The dogs face
was benevolent. In fact, the way the
light used to fall upon it. 1t didn't eX-
actly convey the impression of dog,
but of a futurist conception of 1ncar-
nate benevolence.
The little boy used to Ak his eyes on
the dog when he was saying his prayers.
In some way or other he got the ldea
that it was a picture of Coda kindly.
protecting God, who was watching
over his bed all night. GOD was
lust DOG spelled backward.
II I should die before wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
Guardian of the Night.
Then the kerosene lamp would be
blown out and the child tucked under
the comforter and left alone With the
terrors of deaths twin sister, darkness
child. The black-winged demons OF
death, horrible shadows Of swaying
spruce branches drifting across the
moonlight, would lurk about his beo
until he finally fell asleep. But his fears
were made endurable by the certainty
that God. the old ST. Bernard dog, was
watching over him.
1t is a cruel thing to blow out the
light on children after they have re-
peated such prayer, with It's terrlIy-
ing fixation of the mind on death. FER
haps God doesn't always find the pic
tured face of benevolent dog con-
veniently located in which he can ex-
press his great and comforting love.
Later on somebody must have tolu
the child that it was silly to think
about God as a dog-.that the Deity
really was a big old man with long
white whiskers, like the pictures OF the
prophet Isaiah on some colored cards
awarded for attendance at SUNDAY
school. This was far from an improve
ment. There was just such patriarch
in the neighborhood-a most irasciple
old chap.
Still later the boy learned that God
was neither St. Bernard dog nor an
! old man with white whiskers. But
these conceptions remained in the
depths of his mind and probably. are
there today. He never has formulated