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Show AT THE FSB IF Rev. Frank Fay Eddy Uses This as His Tlieme for a Sermon. ORTHODOX ROAD IS MUCH-WANTED ONE Second Guideljoard Points !.o Nov Orthodoxy; Third to Heterodoxy. At tho First Unitarian church Sunday Sun-day Rev. Frank Fay Eddy preached on "At the Forks of the Road In Religion." Unity quartette sang an nnthem and the offertory solo was sang by Joseph E. Poll. Dr. Eddy said, in part: Xow'EnKlnntl roads meander; they nro care-lcna care-lcna and lelsuroly. Thoy wander for miles "-side "-side tho Dtrcania and rivers crofjlne at somo natural ford or whero a brldgo could bo constructed con-structed wllli the lonst difficulty In them tliero fn no slavish dovotlon to th ulraltrhl lino, oh Is tho cneo In most Western Stalco. They novcr surrendered to tho pods of plumb-line plumb-line and compass. A New Ew,-IuihI roiul lici no uncomfortable convictions about a straight lino bolng tho shortest dlnUuico between two polnln, but rathor uooh around trouble, nvoldlng tho bocs and hills, seeking consistently the lino of least resistance. Characteristic of these road a are tho corners. Those are the points whero the road forkj. Theso corners arc not nquaru corners, by any mranH, with two uncompromising uncompromis-ing nnd undovlntlng highways Intersecting each other at rlnht angles In Xow England tho now road seems to part company with tho old ono with roluctance. It usually goes In tha r.ame Kenoral direction, and the strnnper Is cften puzzled as to which one lo pursuo when tho slcnboard Is weather beaten, as ll often Is, nnd tho corner Is not of sufficient Importance Impor-tance to have on of th queer HtUo Kcncral stores with a postolllco In ono corner, which are located over' fow miles. Where Modern. Man Stands. Let tho above stand for un Illustration. Tho modern man, It seems to me, la Just ai present Ktandlng at the forks of tho road In ro-1 ro-1 Irion. Ho Is advancing Into a new country from the land of post experience. Dy many roads and paths he haj advanced this far, and Nuddcnly theso many ways, which ho long conceived to bo divergent and distinct, seem to have merced together But not for loni; can wo be contsni to travel this broad hlsh-vsay hlsh-vsay together. The travelers from many roads, thus unexpectedly mat, have hardly crlc-d Good day" to each other before they reallzo that thy must part onnln. Metaphorically they are standing .it the fork of the roads which enter tho .land of the future, and Fato says choose. Let me hero Introduce my text. It Is tho proclamation of Jesus: '"1 am tho way, th truth and the llfo; no man cometh to the Father except by mo." Wo may lmaglno that this enigmatic eentenco Is painted on threo KUldcboords pointing toward thrco roads leading lead-ing from Present-day corners. Below this sentence sen-tence on each guldeboard wo may supposo other directions to appear; on ono would bo written "To Orthodoxy." on another would be 'To New Orthodoxy." nnd on tho third "To Hotoro-doxy." Hotoro-doxy." In accord with our Interpretation of Jrsus Christ we must separate and tako our various ways, which appear to go In tho sam general direction, and for aught we know may again bring us together farther along on tho Journey toward tho Kingdom. The Eig-ht Way. Tho wav of orthodoxy Is the way of authority. author-ity. Orthodoxy means the right way, and It follows that conicwhcro tliero must bo an authority au-thority to determlno the Tightness of tho way. Tradition playo Its part here, but usually when fashioned out of tradition cr bused upon tradition tra-dition wo get a holy church or n racrcd book. Thus tho orthodoxy of Christianity Is of two kinds, each supported by authority; ono form, that of Roman and Greek Catholicism, assumes as-sumes to be authorized by tho Bible or tin- sucred beok, and by the church or the holy Institution; tho otlior form, that of evangelical Protestantism, relics for authority upon tho i:bla nlone. In a general sense eat-h of these would Interpret In-terpret our txt In a xlmllnr way. They would say that Jesus Christ come to redeem a fallen humanity from tho penalty of their sinful nature. Chrli.1 becomes Hie dlvlno Instrument of salvation, and wo nro told that thcro Is no other wny. This Is declared by tho authority of revelation and expounded by tho church. The way of orthodoxy Is a much-traveled road; In It the mar&halcd ranks under leaders tramp steadily and stolidly on Where Next Guidehoard Points. The next guldcboanl points to the way of new orthodoxy. .vo-cUIed, but which would bo better named, perhaps, the pseudo-orthodoxy. This Is a now nnd Indotcrmlnato phase of faith, and likely enough a transient one. H seems clar enough, however, that tho now orthodoxy hns lost the old Biibmlsslvi) belief In tho authorities as expressed In a holy church anil a sacred revelation. It le Also plain that It In Inclined to lay stress on ethics with tho corrolnry of ralv.illon by character. It la a phase of religion that Is Just emcrg'-hiK emcrg'-hiK Into Mlf consciousness. Wo of the out-and-out liberal camp havo thought that thoso who were striving after a new scheme of values In religion would find the simplicity and rationality ra-tionality they needed In our fold. But apparently appar-ently our faith Is too slmplo. and thero nre ludlcntlons that they will travel for a time nt least upon another road. And at last they begin be-gin to reallzo something- llko deflnlter.ess In their thought. Perhaps their bent spokesman 'Is Lyman Abbott. In his last book on "The Christian Ministry" he states as clearly as can bo stntod tho position jf the new orthodoxy In regard to Chrlet. Ho begins by nccoimng unx Muller's definition of religion, which, by tho way. Is anything but Inclusive, that religion ' Is th perception of the Infinite under such manifestations as are able to Influence the moral character of man." Tho Christian religion re-ligion is then, he says, such a manifestation of tlv Infinite In the life ajid character of Jesus Christ as will result In Chrlslllknee3 of life and character. Admitting this. It follows fol-lows that such a religion must be cxtromoly narrow and limited unless the Incarnation of tho Infinite In Christ If complete. Ilcnco, ho assumes the completeness of this Incarnation, tellevlng thai the dlvlno energy, the eternal lver, from which all things proceed, has entered, as ho says, "Into, one human llfo. filled It full, lived, loved and suffered and dlctl that we might know who and what ho Is. and how ho who Is Intangible, Inaudible, Invisible, Is operative upon us." Parts Company With" Unitarian. It Is to somo such conception of Christ that tho now orthodoxy Is coming apparently. And hern It purls company with tho Unitarian. Jrsun becomes Christ, tho Godman, deity posing pos-ing aa an oxnmplo, his existence no longer justified an belnff an instrument In u mechanical me-chanical scheme of salvation. To us It aoems much simpler to think of Jesus as ono who aspired, suffered, achieved, as a man, as a man who was horn as other men aro born, who lived as other men live, and whoso death has no other significance than that of martyrdom. martyr-dom. To deify Jesus and construct a theology about him is like adding an axtra piece to ono of the chlldrjn'o puzzles, which depend upon putting pieces of cardboard toffether so us to form n figure. This can bo done because tho pieces have been cut out of a perfect whole, and consequently, with patience, that design can bo reconstructed. But cut out an extra pleco or replace one of thoyo originally uaod liy one of another shape, and tho solution of lhi puzzle becomes an Impossibility. The same thing occurs when wn Introduce Into our world of law and order an irresponsible being not fcubject to our Infirmities or amonablo to our discipline. As to Heterodoxy. The way of heterodoxy Is tho way of rationality ra-tionality and logic. It Is na yet tho least traveled trav-eled of tho roads of religion. But Its Interpretation Inter-pretation of tho text Is that Jesus was. Indeed tho way, the truth and tho life. But only uch In tho capacity of a man an other men hav been. Ah the, rrcat religious genius of tho ages, ho la a particularly Important figure In religion. With the egotism of a lofty nature, na-ture, he rcallzod thnt he had found the way to tho kingdom of God. and In a mystical senao riipreoented that way; In a slmllur manner ho mcido tho truth of tho kingdom his own and boenme representative of it, (ill Imcouko ho was experiencing tho llfo of that kingdom of dlvlno communion and loving sorvlce. Ar, ho ii-allzcd, eo may we, and In tho samo way. Thus Jesus becomes our human brothor. Ho wo Interpret tho text who chooso the way of heterodoxy |