THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ETERNAL COVENANT This Brotherhood offers to all men and women who are strong enough to take, or are willing to try to take, the Eternal Covenant as their acknowledged standard of life, a definite means, and all the earthly assistance they will require, to reach their highest hopes. The following Covenant is the Gate to the narrow path of the Brotherhood: I hereby devote, consecrate, ana sacrifice everything I am, have, and hope to be and have, to Thee, o Divine Father, to be used for Thy purposes, both here and beyond, now and forever. I reserve nothing. I will obey immediately, if the Still Small Voice will guide me. I am weary of myself, and of my human purposes. Do Thy Will in me, that I may be conformed to the eternal purposes. Use me as a band to do Thy Will; I only ask to remain Thine forevermore. The management will be in the hands of a General Secretary, who will appoint Group Secretaries as needed. No fees of any kind will ever be permitted, but a stamp should be enclosed with any communication when an answer is desired. The Brotherhood will hold a General Meeting on the 22nd of every month. Members can report to the Secretary by mail. Nonattendance at six General Meetings constitutes suspension; re-admission in the hands of the General Secretary. The purpose of this Meeting is to review the life of the past month, and to adopt definite plans to increase the fruitfulness of the future month. The General Secretary will answer communications as will be best for all. The Weekly Meeting takes place on Tuesday evenings, 8 p.m., Eastern time. Its purpose is to renew the Consecration Vow, keeping before the mind the thought, O that I might know what God's Will for me now is, that I may do it immediately. It may be kept either in groups or separately, and all non-members who desire to do so are invited to join in this, wherever they may happen to be; it can certainly do no harm, and unity is strength. Reports are beneficial, but not required. Blank applications for admission to be had of the Secretary, Dr. Kenneth S. Guthrie, P. O. BOX 9, Medford, MASS., U. S. A. WHY I MUST LEAVE THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION. * * KENNETH SYLVAN GUTHRIE, Why I Must Leave The Protestant Episcopal Organization. On taking the serious step of forsaking the sheltering arms of that Protestant Episcopal Mother which we all love, I owe it to my friends to make a concise but accurate statement of those principles that have animated me. The past confidence, affection, and loyalty of these friends deserves a reciprocal openness and confidence. This statement is not headed, Why I must leave the Church, because I neither am leaving nor could leave the Church. Out of the pure and spotless Church of the Living God, of the God of all the prophets, all the saints, all the saviours, of all the ages and races, and Who still speaks through His prophets today, no man can drive me. God alone can, and to Him am I ready to answer on the Day of Judgment. But I desire to state here at length those reasons that have moved me to sever my connection with that civil institution recognized by law in the United States as the Protestant Episcopal ecclesiastical organization. Why should I leave it? I not owe it some loyalty? Do Loyalty, properly speaking, can only be reckoned as existing toward some one ideal to which a man has devoted himself; as, for instance, to a nationality, or to an organization, or to an individual. My loyalty must be judged wholly according to the standard I have set for myself. If a man identifies himself with an organization, it is proper he should conform to its rules and regulations. If certain problems connected with its principles are full of difficulty, let him "stop thinking," till his mind is diverted from them, or some probable theory has suggested itself. And thus irrespective of the actual validity of the grounds of argument, a man can, with tolerable mental integrity, belong to the most different organizations; as, indeed, is the case, in the several Christian denominations. But if a man identifies himself with a principle, he will connect himself with an organization only as a means. He will abide in the one so long as it forwards that principle, no more and no less. His loyalty to truth, to intellectual light, suffers no rival's existence. All organizations are only means through which he works; he owes no loyalty to them, any more than a workman owes loyalty to the tool he employs in laboring. He will pick it up, use it, reject it, and select another in the degree that utility dictates. The work, the purpose is the only object of his loyalty. The aim to which I have consecrated my life is Truth. If I remain loyal to that, I have fulfilled my destiny. I know of no loyalty to any organization. I have no more compunction in stepping from one organization to another than the laborer would have to change pick for shovel. As long as I remain loyal to the truth, I am well pleased. If the clergy generally should spend less of their time and energy in seeking preferment, and more in analysing what they preached, it were better for all concerned. Nevertheless, it stands to reason that a clergyman who consciously or unconsciously has made worldly success his object, or the success of the Church-should with blind obedience, accept and preach any doctrine set forth by the religious body to which he has subordinated himself, and through which he seeks preferment. Only he who insists on absolute, literal, and unevasive truth, success or no success, will either have the strength of mind or the courage of heart to forsake the land of his fathers, and to seek the land only promised by faith in the guidance of the Supreme. What is Truth? Investigation. The only crime against truth is to stop investigation. How easy, after a man has attained a settled and comfortable position, to stop thinking! How easy, amidst the pleasures of the home, the smile of the bride, and the kiss of the babe, to be lulled by mental laziness! How easy to rest content on the oars of a course of study, basking amidst the smiles of approval of the brethren, and of an affectionate congregation! But he who would be loyal to truth must overcome all these temptations, and must think continually. However correct his opinions, if a man has ceased thinking, investigating, he may be sure he is on the wrong road. Selfgratification is the grave of investigation. And self-gratification is death. Life is thought; thought is life. Το The very fact that the Church's formularies and symbols are fixed unalterably, and present a "dead line" beyond which all thought is contraband, deadens, partially at least, thought. be loyal to investigaiton, to thinking, to truth-this loyalty conflicts with adherence to any standard. Let us paraphrase this into the religious dialect. Is it not a farce to pray to God after this fashion: "Dear God, I pray thee to inspire me, and to reveal me thy truth. But remember, if thy revelation is not orthodox, I will have none of it." And yet this is in substance the meaning of those who, while bound |