ECHOES FROM A CHURCHGOER'S CONFESSIONS

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HANK you for your letter of March 21 with copy of a letter commenting on my "Confessions of a ChurchGoer."

some

It has surprised me to see that so many people are concerned about the things in it. The article has brought me all sorts of opportunities to change subof your churches, which scribers seem to think is a quick and businesslike way of handling the matter. I am flattered to feel that at any time I will be received and welcomed by the Quakers, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians, the Christian Scientists, and numerous Freethinkers. However, I've decided to stay Congregationalist. GEORGE L. MOORE.

Boston, Massachusetts.

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CONFESSIONS OF A
PARSON

ERE in Glasgow on the 16th day of March I read in your issue of February 28 an article by Mr. George L. Moore on "The Confessions of a ChurchGoer." My reply, therefore, must be rather belated, excusably so because it comes from afar.

The gist of Mr. Moore's criticism of the Church and parsons is that churchgoing leads nowhere. It begins with an interrogation, and ends with an interrogation. The sermons are nebulous, indefinite, mere smatterings of all sorts of subjects, and these smatterings generally ill informed. Mr. Moore is not told in church that he is a sinner, far less has he his pet sins unearthed. There is not in the pulpit a clarion note of certainty. He looks in vain in all his ecclesiastical peregrinations for a prophet.

Mr. Moore wishes ministers to be prophets. By that, I fancy, he means them to speak as inspired of God, out of their own individual convictions and experience. Let him recall that ministers are trained in theological seminaries. They grind up their Church creed, criticise theologies, memorize Church histories. Then they are sent out to preach the creed-preach it as a cog in an ecclesiastical system, preach it for a living and to people who for the most part would resent the smallest departure from the traditions of the elders. How could that system make a prophet? An odd man runs the risk and gets a passing fame by criticising the creeds, or by expounding Einstein or mythology or the labor question. Mr. Moore is quite right in saying that the minister who does this is rarely a prophet. He is more likely to be a sensationalist and an ecclesiastical jack-of-all-trades. I assert, then, first, that it is exceedingly difficult for a modern trained

THE MAIL BAG

minister to be a prophet; and, second, that it is very doubtful if any church, even composed of such good folks as Mr. Moore, would tolerate a prophet.

In extenuation of both ministers and congregations, I can honestly say from a thirty-five years' experience of church work in different lands, in the home and in the mission field, and from some nine years' experience of America, that I have never seen a kindly, human, deThe cently industrious minister fail. creed, the ritual, the quartettes, the socials, and all the rest of it do not interfere so long as you get the man with the right spirit. The people will tolerate his oddities and his opinions, and be tremendously unobservant of his mistakes, even of his falls, if "his heart is in the right place." So, say I, send us men into the ministry.

But a minister who is a man will not stand patronage and amiable toleration from the laity; nor will he endure for a day the degradation of being "hired" by his hearers. If he is to be a spiritual leader, he should not be asked to be the

nature, and is such that every de thinking man feels the truth of it his bones.

Let the Church throw off its age-von creeds and rituals and effete meth sweep its house, get down to solid and workable things, play the game through, and try, above all, to develop men and women spiritually, so as to make this often humdrum world a place worth living in.

Mr. Moore, I shake hands with you across the seas. Yes, let us encourage the minister prophet. But don't we need laymen prophets as well? We als! fancy, agree in the prayer of the theat Lawgiver, "Would God that all men were prophets!"

(Rev.) WILLIAM A. REID, Glasgow, Scotland.

A SUGGESTION AS TO HERESIES FROM THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE

In all fairness, I must answer, at least generally, these questions. Well, Christianity is to preach and live the Gospel of the kingdom of God, which preached and lived by Jesus, its founder. Its basis, thesis, creed, if you will, is, Love God, or Good-the God or Good you know-with every energy and capacity you possess. Regard Jesus as the one who lived and taught this Gospel, who demonstrated that we never die, that we reap what we sow, and that, though we are not let off, we are always helped up. Take Jesus, as the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it, as the Prince Leader of the Witnesses, and let the Church be full of witnesses.

That programme is simple, sane, direct, scientific, closely followed in all

HE charge against Dr. Fosdick by the Rev. Dr. Robertson, of Cincinnati, before the Presbytery of New York, was that he "subverts our Constitutional Westminster Confession of Faith."

That seems to state the case very fairly and honestly for the heresy hunters.

No one accuses Dr. Fosdick, and others, of not preaching the personality and teachings of Christ as the great need of nations and men to-day-only that they are not preaching our "consttutional confessions and creeds."

Only a little over fifty years ago I received my degree of M.D. from Harvard. Great "truths" were presented in our teachings; but if I were to practice medicine to-day according to those "truths," ignoring the teachings of to day, really I do not think I'd be tried for "heresy." I think the charge would be "wholesale murder," and would be justifiable.

Really, are not the "heresies" in those old "Confessions" and "Creeds" and "Articles" formulated from two hundred and seventy-five to over fifteen hundred years ago (all as the result of bitter controversies), which the churches per mit to remain as their constitutions and require their ministers to subscribe to?

Does any intelligent man or woman to-day believe in the statements regard ing "predestination," "foreordination," "election" and "infant damnation" as given in our "Constitutional Westmin ster Confession"? C. IRVING FISHER

[Dr. Fisher has served as Port Phys cian, Boston, Massachusetts, 1872-5; Superintendent Massachusetts State Infirmary, 1873-91; Superintendent of the Presbyterian Hospital in the City of New York, 1891-1914.-THE EDITORS.]

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ILLIAM T. TILDEN 2D is the tennis a champion of the world. For the last three years he has held the title of National Tennis Champion, and for three years also he has won, with W. M. Johnston, the Davis Cup. He is a resident of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and the author of "The Art of Lawn Tennis" and "Singles and Doubles," a book which was recently published by the George H. Doran Company.

W. ROYSE, ever since his experi

M. ences as an aviator during the

war, has taken an active interest in aviation and has written considerable on the subject for the newspapers. He covered the soaring contests in Germany for the New York "World" and later himself flew at the Wasserkuppe. Mr. Royse is not professionally an aviator, but a Fellow of the Political Science Department at Columbia University, completing his last year of residence for the Ph.D. in public law.

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The rule of the House has always been that no member when speaking may approach the other side of the house beyond a certain line of carpet; and this arrangement preserves a de cent distance between opposite parties, Very valuable when members rapiers. In the famous fight of 1893 the trouble was partly due to the fact that the Irish Nationalists, the Ulstermen, and the Conservatives, though differing deeply in politics, were crowded together on the same benches, where a chance word might at any time precipitate a "scrap." The troubles that then occurred were spontaneous.

It is not so certain that there was such spontaneity in the demonstration Which, ten years ago, prevented Asquith, Teas Prime Minister, announcing the King's decision to secure the passage of the Parliament Act, if need be, by the creation of peers. The demonstration was led by Lord Hugh Cecil, and was clearly organized in advance. There was no real passion, but merely a mechanical chorus of "Vide, 'vide, vide," skillfully modulated as the Prime Minister tried to speak.

The recent disorder seems to have started in much the same way. The day before, on a motion to go into Committee of Supply on the Civil Service Estimates, there had been raised a subject, selected by ballot, namely, the grievances of ex-soldiers employed or pensioned by the State. The Government had been severely unsympathetic, and, having no parliamentarians of skill within it except Bonar Law, had allowed the division to be taken at 9:30 P.M., which, in these days, is still the dinner hour. There was a defeat in the lobbies and an adjournment till next day. The Speaker then ruled that a motion

to go into Committee of Supply on the Civil Service Estimates could be again made in other words, that a prorogation and new session would not be necessary. A wise Government would have immediately accepted the view of the House on the grievances of exsoldiers, and so ended the whole affair. But there was a disposition still to make a fight of it by depending on the Conservative majority to quell resistance. The explosion came when the closure was moved. Labor then determined to "give Hugh Cecil some of his own medicine." If the Speaker does not think that debate is fairly exhausted, he is under no necessity to put the closure, but-as the phrase is-Mr. Whitley "accepted" the motion, and not only submitted it amid uproar, but declared it carried without a division.

The House was then unmanageable. On one such occasion Mr. Speaker Gully summoned the police, who removed the offending Irishmen.

Mr. Whitley, announced an adjournment for one hour. But for a further incident, it would have been enough. That incident was the singing of "The Red Flag" and other "international" choruses by the more extreme Socialists, particularly from Scotland. Here is the Irish spirit back again, in a form not less challenging. Amid such an atmosphere, a sneer, an epithet, a laugh, may provoke a blow, and as members mingled on the floor on their way to the lobbies such blows were struck. When, after the hour ended, the House again met, it was at once adjourned for the day.

It has been noted that the mere presence of Gladstone, entering the House, would be enough to quell a rising disorder. There is no Gladstone to-day at Westminster. The real guardian of the House is public opinion, and especially British opinion. The Irish, after all, were elected by an Irish suffrage and their own Parliament. But Labor depends on British votes and must reckon with a Britain that will not have a British Parliament wantonly destroyed. Hence Ramsay Macdonald's curtain lecture to his wild men when all was over. They have to reckon with constituents. And so have their more cautious and embarrassed colleagues. Macdonald knows that one day he may be Prime Minister and sees that he must keep order!

ARE THE SOVIETS
FRIGHTENED?

HERE are indications that even in

Ttheir stubborn hatred of the Church

and religion the Russian Reds have felt the effect of the world's denunciation of the recent execution of Arch-. bishop Zepliak. The trial of Dr. Tikhon, until recently Patriarch of All Russia, was to have begun April 15. It did not begin on that date, and in addition to this the Congress of the All Russian Communist Party, which was also to have begun on April 15, has, according to Associated Press despatches, been postponed until June. The reason for both these postponements, as indicated by the Associated Press despatches from Riga, based on what are said to be trustworthy advices from Moscow, was largely the astonishingly general condemnation of the recent conviction of priests and ecclesiastics in Moscow. It has been declared by Bolshevik

leaders that the trial of Dr. Tikhon would bring convincing proof of the alleged criminality and treason of the Church authorities, from the former Primate down to the simplest priest, in striving to retain possession of church property and in contending against the separation of Church and State.

This very statement of the charges against Dr. Tikhon and the other ecclesiastics is a confession (at least, as it looks to countries and peoples who respect right of free speech and free political argument) that the threatened punishment of death is absurdly out of proportion to the faults committed, if, indeed, they were committed.

Dr. Tikhon has never been an extremist. This is shown by his willingness to resign the office of Primate rather than increase the trouble between the Soviets and the Church. His title as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia was revived after centuries of disuse simply because the removal of the Czar as head of the Church made it desirable to have one recognizable Primate in Church affairs. His forced retirement was followed, as the Soviets expected, by a process of partial disillusion and dissension. Personally and as Patriarch Dr. Tikhon is described by a recent Russian writer as "an ideal man for his high position in those difficult times. He was as pacific as his name (which means 'peaceful'), but he was not weak, and he possessed an unusual amount of tact. He upheld the dignity and splendor of the Church; but in his private life and personal habits he was one of the simplest of men."

If the men now in control of Moscow and the army believe that they can terrorize the enormous masses of Russians who believe in the Church and its ministers, its symbols and its sacred utensils, they will show a boldness akin to frenzied and foolish rage. It would be an act of political unwisdom to make an innocent martyr out of Dr. Tikhon, as the Reds have already done with Archbishop Zepliak. Not without truth has it been said that the seed of the Church is the blood of its martyrs.

church, organized the Bach Choir. It consisted of about eighty voices and a small orchestra. But its years of obscurity were not many. Music lovers soon found that it was singing. Bach as he was sung nowhere else in America, and the choir grew and its fame grew with it. Then Dr. Wolle went to the University of California and the choir died-or, rather, ceased to live. But something was missing from life for those to whom the Festival was the great event of the year, and they called him back to Bethlehem. Now every one to whom music is not jazz knows of the great days when May draws toward its close and in the gray Gothic church among the trees at the foot of South Mountain the music of the incomparable Kapellmeister is made to live again. And every one equally knows that the choir is Dr. Wolle, that it lives as he gives it breath.

So the city of Bethlehem seized the occasion of his sixtieth birthday and the choir's twenty-fifth anniversary to do him honor as its leading citizen. The celebration began with a concert by the choir (including a new anthem by Dr. Wolle), assisted by artists who have sung at various times at the Festival, followed by a reception at which a purse of three thousand dollars, made up of small subscriptions from many donors, was presented to the choir-master, a tangible token of their appreciation of him, because, as the illuminated address read, they realized "that the Bach Choir, with its illuminating spiritual influence, is a great asset to Bethlehem and the world."

Truly it begins to seem that the artist is about to come into his own in America.

WHEN THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM

N agricultural writer on the Minneapolis "Tribune," Mr. Charles F. Collisson, sends us some detailed infor mation concerning the quality of the potatoes in the celebrated car-load dis cussed in our issues of February 28 and April 11. He lays his finger on one thing which has caused any amount of difficulty to both farmers and consumers We quote from his letter a passage referring to the agency which marketed Mr. Nelson's potatoes:

The Minnesota Potato Exchange, a co-operative marketing organization, has been struggling with the difficult problem of selling potatoes in face of the falling markets and enormous crop. It is operating effectively and economically, but is seriously handicapped in that it has no control, under its present system, over the grading of potatoes offered for sale by the farmer. This defect in organization it is attempting to correct by a reorganization of its plan and selling contract.

The grading of products is one of the most important steps which can be taken towards putting the products of agriculture upon an equal footing with the products of industry. The Western fruit grower, for instance, despite the handicap of continental separation from his market, is able to compete with the New York State grower because of a more efficient system of grading his products. The honest and even pack is the best reputation builder in the world. The profits in agriculture, as in business, spring not from the first order, but from repetition of orders.

The only farmers who have succeeded in building up a direct producer-consumer traffic are those who have specialized in regularity and integrity of output. You cannot grow peas as like as two Fords, but your peas and potatoes can be evenly graded and sold for what they are. The standards of agriculture have improved immeasurably since the day when Daniel Drew sold watered stock to Henry Astor, but in some cases there is still room for improvement. MAKING READY FOR PROSPERITY

HE steam railways of the United

T States have pledged themselves to

put their house in order against the day of our greater prosperity. In the course of some months ahead a tide of traffic is expected to culminate, the like of which has never before swept over our rails. One reads of record-breaking seasonal traffic now; of crippled cars already made whole by the hundred thousand; of lax operating conditions tightened everywhere; of dollars piled to dizzy heights for the purchase of new rolling stock and motive power.

The mammoth constructive pro