Salt Lake Telegram | 1923-11-18 | Page 20 | An Adventure in Faith

I I An Adventure in Faith I Glen Frank the editor of the Century Century Cen Con tury Magazine said recently that what people need most Is the re religion re- re ligion of or Jesus not the religion about Jesus It was tas s ia some such thought as aa this that led Lynde Hartt upon a great spiritual spiritual spirit spirit- ual hal adventure a quest of the r real al religion of the Man Ian of Nazareth divested of the superstitious creeds and conventions that have accrued throughout these nineteen centuries Trained in the higher criticism and ordained a a. preacher r Lyman Abbott Abott delivered his ordination eer- eer mon he had entered the ministry w with the tha consecration and flaming zeal of a crusader But the dIscrepancies discrepancies dis CIa between the faith as he saw it and the granite fundamentalism fundamentalism that th t his parishioners de demanded demanded de- de verp ver so disheartening that after bitter experiences es In two parishes parishes parishes par par- b he h began to doubt his own fitness t to t fight the the hing through When Walter H. H Page the editor of the Atlantic Monthly offered himan him an opportunity to write for that magazine the young m th seized It Later he edited features on the Boston Transcript where h he discovered ds- ds covered Mark Sullivan and Rich Richard Washburn Child He Is now on the staff of the Literary Dig Di Di- g gist gest st st. With the 3 years ears the desire to find again the simple vital religion which once revolutionized a world persisted Time and again he promIsed promised promised prom prom- himself that some day when he could go away way to a quiet place and have unlimited leisure he would read the Bible through uninterruptedly uninterruptedly from cover to cover fir lr attempting to rid his mind of all aU prepossessions and to approach the the- book as though he had never neve neverseen neverseen seen it before The opportunity came and with it the great adventure Ir Hartt spent a year in an nn old Ne New England farmhouse farmhouse six miles from a raIlroad railroad railroad rail raIl- road There he read the tho Bible Dible through uninterruptedly It was a revelation The Old Testament ap approached approached ap- ap preached In that way was no longer clogged with and In the New Testament Christ stood tood cl clearly clear clr ly forth with an impressiveness the creeds had failed to give the give the Ian Man Himself a a. majestic figure Incomparably Incomparably incomparably the greatest religious ge genius genius genius ge- ge of al all all- time He was not the Christ of theology His faith had little resemblance to modern Christianity He could not b be admitted to men membership In any orthodox church today or orthodoxy orthodoxy orthodoxy or- or so Mr H Hartt declares res has turned its back upon upun Christ lt the theMan Man 1 and substituted a n. divinity ty of its own creation I In the white heat of or his discovery I with the beauty and majestic sim aim simI simplicity of the actual historical NaI Nazarene Nazarene Na- Na I before him Mr Hartt re Hartt re removed I I moved to the to-the the former home of Percy i I Mackaye in Shirley Mass and be beI began began be- be gan to write I could not could not help dOIng do doIng doing dO- dO I ing it it he said afterward In In InI I reality I didn't write the book The i book bool wrote me me As the work advanced adI advanced ad- ad I he read the open opening In chapI chapters chap chap- tors tera to Benton Mackaye e the poet poets poet's s I brother who asked What do you intend to do Publish It if Yes why not not said Mr Hartt Its a n. pretty high percentage of truth to print Mr Mackaye l warned him Although Mr 11 Hartt had a secret misgiving that it might be years ears be before before before be- be fore he found a publisher who would bring out the book the first publisher r to read the manuscript accepted It So The Man Himself which has Just come corne from the presses of Doubleday Page and Company is not only the record of ofa ofa ofa a hardy spiritual adv adventure but buta a al ao o one mans man's satisfying fulfillment of or a quest in which are engaged many thousands of earnest people tople who are wandering in the maze maze of I spiritual misgivings because they cannot bring themselves to accept I I the tenets tenets tenets' of orthodoxy orthodox