Show RELIGION AT THE FORKS OF ROAD Rev E P F Eddy Draws Line of De Demarcation Demarcation Demarcation Between Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy VARYING NG POINTS OF VIEW VI EW SIGN BOARDS B ARDS IN RELIGION THAT POINT DIFFERENT WAYS At the tue Unitarian services in Unity hall ball yesterday Rev no Frank Fay Fair Eddy preached pI on tho the theme At tho Fork of the tho Road In Religion The Tue sermon be began began began gan with an Illustration referring to New NewEl Ei El gland roads where the corners are not square but branch br off from one another as the tines tinos of f a fork Modern nan man Mr Eddy Edd said was stand Ing at the forks of the th road in religion Before him was three ways to choose from Each of them we might imagine to be marked with a guideboard on which was inscribed the text I am the way the truth and the life no man com corn comet cometh corneth et eth h to the Father except by me mo Un this sentence on the different guideboards we may suppose were writ written written written ten the destinations to which they the lead Thus on one would be To 10 Orthodoxy on another To New Orthodoxy and on the third uTo To Heterodoxy According to our interpretation of the text express expressing expressIng expressIng ing the challenge of Christ to the ious ICtus man we will choose our roads These interpretations were referred to as follows The Way of Authority The UThe way of orthodoxy is the way of authority Orthodoxy means the right way va and it follows that somewhere there must be an authority to determine the rightness Tightness of the way wa Tradition plays its us part here but usually when fashion out of tradition or based upon tradition we get a holy hol church or a sacred book boole Thus the orthodoxy orthodox of Christianity is of two kinds each supported by authority one form that of Roman and Greek Catholicism assumes to be authorized by byboth byboth byboth both the Bible or the sacred book and by the church or the holy hol r institution the theother theother theother other form that of evangelical va Protest Protestantism HJ ism relies for authority upon the Bi Bible BIble ble alone In a general sense each of these would our text in a similar way They would say that Jesus Christ came to re redeem redeem redeem deem a fallen humanity from the penalty of their sinful nature Christ becomes the divine instrument of salvation and we weare weare weare are told that there is no other way wa This is declared by b the authority of revelation and expounded by b the church The rhe way wa of orthodoxy is a much tray trav traveled tra eed road in it the hosts marshaled ranks under leaders tramp steadily and all stolidly on The New Orthodoxy The next guideboard points to the way of new orthodoxy but i which would be better named perhaps th the This is a new and indeterminate phase of faith and likely i enough a to transient one It seems clear enough however that the new orthodoxy has lost lo t the tho old submissive belief belie In the authorities as expressed in a holy hol church an and a sacred revelation It is also plain that it is inclined to lay la stress on ethics with the of salvation by char charIt character character acter It is a phase of oC religion that is just emerging into We Ye of the liberal camp have thought that those who were striving after a new scheme of values in religion would find the simplicity and aud rationality they needed in our fold But apparently our faith Is too simple and there are indications that they the will travel for a time at least upon another road And at last they the begin bebin to realize something like definiteness in their th ir thought Perhaps their best spokesman is Ly Lyman J Lyman man Abbott In his last book bool on the Christian ministry he states slates as clearly as can be the position of the new orthodoxy orthodox in regard to Christ He loIe begins by b ac accenting accepting accepting centing Max fax definition of re religion religion religion ligion which by the way wa is anything I but inclusive that religion is ls the perception perception perception tion of the infinite under such manifestations manifestations manifestations I as are arc able to influence the moral character of man manThe manThe manThe The Christian Religion The UThe Christian religion is then he lie says sas such a manifestation of the mu infinite infinite nite in the life liCe and character of oC Jesus Christ as will result in of life and character Admitting this it fol follows follows ol lows that such a religion must be ex ox extremely narrow and limited unless the in incarnation incarnation incarnation carnation of the infinite in Christ Is com corn complete complete Hence he assumes the complete completeness ness of this incarnation believing that the divine energy the eternal power from which all things proceed has entered as HS ashe ashe he says S yS into one human life filled it full lived loved and suffered and died that we might know who and what he is and how he who is Intangible inaudible invisible is operative upon us It is to some such conception of Christ that the new orthodoxy orthodox Is coming appa apparently And here lucre it parts company with the Unitarian Jesus becomes Christ the Godman deity posing as ns an example his existence no longer justified as being an instrument in trum nt in a mechanical scheme of salvation To us it seems much simpler to think of Jesus as HS a one who aspired d suffered and achieved as ns a man as a aman aman aman man who was born as other men mn are ar arborn born who lived as other othor men live and whose death has lias no other significance than that of martyrdom To deify Jesus and construct a theol theolo theology o oy ogy ry about him may be illustrated d by h one onn of the childrens puzzles which depend upon putting pieces nieces of cardboard er or r so as to form a figure fi re Thi This can con b bp done because the pieces nieces have hav been leen out cut of a perfect whole and consequently with T that desert de iSn can be reconstructed But Cut out an extra piece ce or replace one of those ori n used 1 by one of Jin nn another other shape and an l the solution of the becomes an Impossibility The same thin thing r occurs when we w introduce Into mit world of law 11 and order an irresponsible being b in not subject to our ur infirmities or amenable to our ur discipline The Way of Heterodoxy The TIll way of or heterodoxy is the way wa of rationality and logic It Is as yet Ct the least traveled of the roads of But Its Interpretation of the text Is that Jesus was waR indeed the way the truth and the Uw life But only onh such in the capacity of ofa ofa ofa a man as other men have hav beon been As the thereat great reat religious genius Kenius of the ages aes he is a important fi re in religion With the egotism of a lofty nature he re realized that he h had found the way to the Ule kingdom kin dom lof bc of God Goll and In a mystical al sense represented that way wa In a similar man manner manner mannor ner nor he made the truth of the kingdom his own and became representative of it all because he was the thc life of that kingdom of divine communion and loving service As he so may mn we and in the same samp WOY Thus Jesus be becomes b becomes comes our human brother So Sn we inter uret nT t the tho text who choose the way of oxy |