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Show PASTOR'S SERMON STARTLES THE C0NGRE0ATI0NALISTS. . (Sait Lake Herald.) IN HIS initial appearance as pastor of the First Congregational ehurcH j'esterday forenoon Rev. Eln.er 1. Goshen made an address that startled his hearers. He laid down his doctrinal doc-trinal views, and some of them were so radically different from those usually usual-ly expressed In the pulpit that scores of his hearers turned and sazed at each other almost breathless. Facing one of the largest congregations congrega-tions ever seen in the church, in direct and forceful language he declared that while he was pastor of that church he would not preach belief in the divinity of Christ, nor the doctrine of th'a atonement, nor baptism as essentials to Christianity. "The only essentials on which I shall stand," he said, "are the fatherhood of God. the brotherhood of man, and the need of man for the guidance of a higher power." He announced that he would not join the Ministerial association, would fight no special sect, and that his church should be open to the poor as well aa the rich. Prefacing his address with a reading frorn the thirteenth chapter of the second sec-ond epistle to the Corinthians, he spoke in part as follows: t- "I wish I had the eloquence to express ex-press to you today my appreciation of your effort in bringing me here, but I shall have to let the future with its work show what has been the consequence conse-quence of your step. In coming before you today as your pastor I hope you realize the responsibility resting on each of us in our new relationship: for there is a tremendous responsibility on both sides. I come to give you my best efforts as your pastor, and I come into a full and a busy life. I shall have little time for many things whic'ri I know you will not require of me, but for the sick, the suffering, the poor or the distressed I shall have all the time there is. Theirs shall be my care and to them I shall try to minister. Place for Doubters to Come. "I shall do the pulpit work of this church without help and without dictation, dic-tation, and I shall expect you who have called me here to do the pew work. It is for us to make this place an element for good in the community. It is for us together to make it a place where honest conviction shall have room for its expression and where honest doubters doubt-ers shall come with ' their unsolved problems. And this responsibility rests not alone on a pastor, but on a congregation. con-gregation. Whenever this church shall have become in such a condition that it is not a growing church and an element ele-ment of growth and thought in the community it will be "time for me to sever my connection with it. I shall expect such of you. I shall require that you make it a church of Christ, in that it shall be as free to the poorest and the most downtrodden in your city as it is to the wealthiest and the most respected. I shall require that you make it a pleasant place for those who have withheld themselves from all church Hfe, ' Will Preach Modern Doctrine. "Tou, in turn, have a right to expect much from me, and a right to know today what doctrine Will be preached from this pulpit to which you have called me. And it is of that that I shall speak to you this morning. The doctrine doc-trine which shall be preached from this pulpit will be first of all a modern one. It will conform to the ideas of enlightened enlight-ened men and women of today, not to the dogmas laid down by theologians a century or more ago. It will require of the people but few essentials, a belief be-lief in the fatherhood of God and a love for mankind. It will be a doctrine of God's love ' and power, and will teach the brotherhood of man. It will have nothing whatever to do with the nonessential non-essential differences of the various sects. It will discriminate by word,or deed, against no particular sect either Ir. this community or elsewhere. It will aim to hold to that motto of one of the ablest of statesmen: 'In essentials, essen-tials, unity;, in non-essentials, liberty, and in all things, charityA "Among the non-essentials I would class many of the so-called important differences of the various creeds. Take the matter of baptism alone. One man will maintain honestly enough that baptism must be by immersion, while another equally honest will hold that sprinkling is sufficient to save the soul of a man. I believe that baptism by-water by-water is a non-essential except as a form, and signifies nothing unless a man's soul is baptized by the fire of God's spirit, and I recognize no such thing as a saving ordinance. Christ's Divinity Non-Essential. "Another so-called important difference differ-ence is on 'the divinity of Christ. Unitarian Uni-tarian and trinitarian alike have made themselves misunderstood on this matter mat-ter for years; and yet it is a non-essen- tiai when considered as an element in the life of Christ. I wonder how many of you have studied the matter and have seen that only two of the gospels ! mention the fact of the immaculate conception? It was a small matter to the anostles as to whether his coming was miraculous or not, and it matters j less to the enlightened people of today, Iam too busy trying to live the life he taught to discuss with any one theologian the-ologian or layman the unimportant manner of his coming, it is enough for me that he stands today the central figure of all history, it is enough for me that he came, the great teacher of mankind to lead the" children of God together as the sons of a universal father. fa-ther. 1 Opposes Doctrine of Atonement. "The old doctrine of atonement will not be preached from this pulpit. The theory of Jhe forefathers that God became be-came so angry with his own creatures that he- refused to forgive them for their sins till he had taken the blood I of a victim was a monstrous doctrine ' and is not in accord with our ideas of a righteous, a just and a loving Father. The people who are satisfied with the ; old-time religion will find no comfort here. They are well pleased with the progress of the world is making, along all other lines, but there shall be no progress for them in religion. They are "like the man who, when asked if he thought this nation was sufficiently advanced ad-vanced as a nation to do away with capital punishment, said: 'No. Capital : punishment was good enough for my ancestors and it is good enough for ' me.' The doctrine of atonement is good enough for them, but it does not satisfy the question in the minds of the thinking think-ing people of today as to the, coming of Christ and his death. "No association of ministers will be responsible for what is here , taught, ! and this pulpit will not be responsible for the doings of any such. I come to ! you as no special make of man to be specially honored as the occupant of this pulpit. AU I ask is to be treated as another man among you; and the only essentials on which I shall stand are the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood brother-hood of man and the need of man for the guidance of a higher power. It is still as true as it was in the time of Christ that all that is necessary for a. true life is to 'love the Lord with all thv heart and thy brother as thy-, self.' " |