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Show ANOTHER HERESY HUNT. Rev. George A. Cooke, pairtor of the M. E. church In Mlllburg, Massachusetts, Massachu-setts, has entered formal protest against the further continuance of ProfesEor Hinckley G. Mitchell no an Instructor in the Boston University School of Theology, Theolo-gy, which la under the control of the bishops of the M. E. church. Professor Mitchell io under a five-year contract with the school, and this contract will expire next spring. At tho expiration of his former five-year contract, there wao opposition to the renewal of It, but Mitchell was continued by a majority of ono In the board) of bishops. Since then, however, his teaching has been virulently virulent-ly assaUed In Methodist conferences in different parts of tho country, and' opposition op-position to him has been widespread. And now Pastor Cooke openly assails him, and protests against the renewal of the contract with him. The objection, to Professor Mitchell is that he Is an adherent of the higher criticism of the Elble, and haa published a book entitled "The World Before Abraham," Abra-ham," in which he sets aside the traditional tra-ditional view of the origin of man and the earlier narratives In the Pentateuch. Penta-teuch. Pastor Cooke claims that it ia ruinous to young men's faith and morals mor-als to come under the teaching of such a man, though there does not appear to be anything taught by Professor Mitchell Mitch-ell but good morals. All he does Is to tell his pupils the facts of modern research re-search and the discoveries of modern scholarship, and let the students judge for themselves. But this is not at all what Pastor Cooke wants. He wants the students taught the traditional view, ignoring all new discoveries and scientific exegesis. He Is of the same order of mind as those who Insisted that the Ptolemaic or geocentric theory of astronomy must be taught In the universities of Europe, long after it was known to bo untrue and the Copernican system was demonstrated demon-strated to be correct. The idea of Insisting In-sisting on adherence to Ideas that are not only obsolete but are demonstrably erroneous, merely because they are traditional, tra-ditional, and the foundations of a system sys-tem are supposed to be laid in that error, er-ror, is something which can be maintained main-tained by main force for a time, but must eventually be dropped or the upholders up-holders of It made too ridiculous to. bo tolerated in modern enlightenment. |