CHARGE OF HERESY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 58, 7 March 1912, Page 8

CHARGE OF HERESY.

AT METHODIST COXFEKEItCE. A RHETORICIAN'S FLIGHTS. _\ .hargc of heterodoxy, made by a i.i, ■., ,:i u uile Hi'' Methodist Conference n"■ .tiing in lonimittee, agaii'.st one of . imsLeia of trie tliurc'i, has been ~< .- :_.ued I>.' ine conrvrencr, whose ~.:,,._':, to Inc etieel ihai the nights u: ■ icturiv whuli the preacher adopts ~].;;,■ l!ic heterodoxy more apparent i: ■:: real. The finding add* that it is ,k->heJ to suppress courage and c ire-ly. but it i.- undesirable for those V...H .iille.r from 'the views of the clergyii;.. ii ; i show unnecessary antagonism. i he allegations were based on the fo! lowing extracts -from the minister's sermons: — ".Some Christians would be miserable it | hey did nut believe that millions of their fellow creatures were in everlasting flames. This awful doctrine of eternal torments is the grossest, libel on the character of God ever imagined. A man who would do to any one person what this doctrine 'teaches that God due-' to the majority of the human race would be an inhuman monster. Is (iod worse than man? Would any mother consign her child to endless suffering? Is I iod worse than woman? Can you believ" that He who exhorts us to love our enemies, btrrns his own? Anyone who believes so riiould Devor marry, or bring fresh victims into the world. A mother, brokenhearted for the loss of her son by an accident, told me that the worst trouble of all was the fear that Cod had sent him to hell. 'He was a gnod son to me. but he professed no fairh. Do you think Cod will put him in hell?' 1 said. Would you put him there?' She was horrified -at my suggestion that-she would do what she-believed God would do."' "The Bible contains the Word of God, but it is not correct to say that it is the Word of God. There is much in it that revolts your moral sense, and which therefore cannot be tbe word of Cod. Much of the Book is simply ancient—opinion, as when it "s said that a plague -was caused by taking the ctnFirs or am when the she-bears that tore forty and two children in the days of Elisha weTe said to be sent by God "to do ii. Much of it is repealed and superseded by later parts, as Christ shows by protesting against some ancient sayings. Much of it again is parable and allegory, and has for ages been treated a.-, history. The writer of Genesis never dreamt that there would ever be people so foolish as to treat the story of Rden fis history. It* magic trees, the talking snake. God walking in (lie garden, and the llaming sword are all obvious drapery ami machinery. The essence of the story is the birth of conscience in man. We must judge the Bible as we do anv other book. What is unintelligent must be rejected by our reason, and what is morally shocking must )*> rejected hy our conscience. W r e have a standard wMhin us that must not suffer itself to ■be h-uw-lieatpn by any ancient book." "Sin did not bring death into the ■n-orM. That is a poetic fiction. Death n ■. -i .-gcs before there was any creature o* "<irth capable of sinning." "Christ was not punished for our sins, evrept as a father suffers for the sins of b ; -r>ns." "I ini not concerned about orthodoxy. The wish to square teaching and truth w Uh old standards has been the bane of l':e Church from the beginning. Thfe n;ti"l be an age-of emancipation." "I have great admiration for Blatohforrl and for Bradlaugh. They have a fi.- Letter chance of heaven than mnltiLMfx of orthodox people." "When T was a child I hated Lazarus fl-irl Abraham in the parable, and pitied ■no. r Dives in his flame. T wished that T i ml,l have given bim a whole bucketful of water."

The complainant said that this kind of leaching was driving his familv away fmni the Church, and that it did not ennfomi to the legal standards contained :n -'Wesley's Sermons,' - and his "Notes on the New Testment."