The open Altar;' The war and the call
for a nev- Ghristendom"sermons by
George Chalmers Richmond.
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1915

Sermons by
George Chalmers Richmond

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THE OPEN ALTAR"

"THE WAR AND THE CALL FOR
A NEW CHRISTENDOM"

1814 1914
'The Open Altar"
THE SERMON PREACHED
Sunday Morning, November 1, 1914
All ^atnta lag
AT THE
CENTENNIAL SERVICES
COMMEMORATIVE OF
THE FOUNDING OF
pytlaMplyta
BY THE RECTOR
The Reverend George Chalmers Richmond (Yalen)

Printed by THE VESTRY, 1915

INTRODUCTION
DURING November, 1914, St. John's Parish observed the
100th anniversary of its founding by Bishop White.
It was a most successful celebration in every way.
The supreme thought in the mind of the Pastor was to impress
on the citizens of Philadelphia that even in these days of in
ternational war and denominational partisanship real Chris
tian unity exists among many of our Churches, and that the
expression of that unity may be easily set forth. So we
opened our pulpit and chancel to all the clergy of the city.
We were highly honored by the presence of Mayor Blanken-
burg who, from the midst of unusually exacting public duties,
left all and came to our "civic celebration" on the night of
November 13. He praised our Parish for its activities in
recent years in trying to bring to pass a better political situa
tion and more justice in industry. The Rev. Dr. Joseph
Krauskopf , the Rabbi of Keneseth Israel Temple, spoke as a
prophet of old. Dr. Jesse H. Holmes, professor in Swarthmore
College and President of the Liberal Club, charmed the con
gregation by his deeply spiritual address. Edgar N. Black,
Esq., of Franklin Lodge, F. & A. M., No. 134, and Mr. Charles
F. Bower, representative of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania,
brought sympathetic greetings. Mr. Daniel Test, Superin
tendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital, read a paper urging
spiritual and moral progress. Prof. Daniel Batchellor, of the
"Friends," brought a greeting from that body. Mr. George
Ulrich, President of the Central Labor Union, of Philadelphia,
(of which the Rector is a member) , sent a letter of congratu
lating our Parish on its recent interest in organized labor.
This civic night in our memorable celebration will never be
forgotten. Bishop P. M. Rhinelander was not present and
did not send even a message of greeting. During our entire
anniversary he failed to put in an appearance. His absence,

of course, created a bad impression, and our vestry has since
passed resolutions denouncing his conduct. The impression
has gone out, and I cannot blame men for so thinking, that
in reality he is not a believer in Christian unity, except when
our Church gobbles up all the honors, all the privileges, all
the rewards for service and obtains the highest canonical
position among all the churches. The Bishop needs a deeper
experience in the reality of life's unifying problems. But
what was his loss is our gain.
During the month of our celebration we had the pleasure
of welcoming to our pulpit the Rev. Dr. John Archibald Mc-
Callum, Pastor of the Walnut Street Presbyterian Church,
who spoke on "The Near Approach to Church Unity"; the
Rev. Frank P. Parkin, D. D., Superintendent for the Central
District in Philadelphia of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
who gave an address on "Church Unity as Methodists See It" ;
the Rev. Dr. J. Clarence Lee, Pastor of the Church of the
Restoration (Universalist) , whose subject was "Some Religi
ous Gains of the Year"; the Rev. Charles E. St. John, D. D.,
speaking on "The Appeal to Human Nature," and Dr. Scott
Nearing, Professor of Economics in the Wharton School of
Science at the University of Pennsylvania, who gave a note
worthy address on "Serving God, From the Modern Stand
point." The celebration as a whole and the practical emphasis on
Church Unity brought forth many letters of congratulation
from all over the country. One of these came from that heroic
apostle of Christian fellowship who, in days past, was ill-
treated and persecuted by his brethren within our Church,
the Rev. Dr. R. Heber Newton. As Dr. Newton within the
past week has passed to his future work, his words will have
an increased significance. He says: "All such celebrations
are interesting historically. The breadth of fellowship mani
fested in the list of speakers appeals to me strongly. I con
gratulate you on the vision which this 'getting together'
implies. May that vision be shared by ever-increasing num
bers." G C R
December 28, 1914.

COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE

"THE OPEN ALTAR"
THE ANNIVERSARY SERMON DELIVERED SUN
DAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 1, 1914, IN ST. JOHN'S
EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, BY THE RECTOR,
THE REV. GEORGE CHALMERS RICHMOND (Yalen).
THE OCCASION BEING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE FOUNDING OF THE PARISH.

St. John 10: 10 — '"I am come that they might have life, and that
they might have it more abundantly.''

As Christianity entered into the life of the world two
forces became operative as never before. The fact that
humanity had in its own possession the power of the super
natural and the beautiful revelation that humanity was des
tined to be bound together in ties of love and divine kinship.
The power of the eternal and the power of human love were
the two great legacies of Christ to the world. Not the power
of imperialism or the love of property, but the power of God
and the sweet sympathy for our fellow-men — these were the
great gifts of a greater Christ. It is no wonder that men
were drawn to Christ by feelings of an unearthly love which
entered the human system and revealed itself later on in wills
of adamantine strength and in ideals and ideas of miraculous
conception. Men were not concerned about Christ's birth;
they knew that he was filled with the power of God, because

the divine spirit in men's souls answered to the works and
words of Christ. The Apostolic Church was a Church of great
relationships. It knew the very heart of God, for it was the
product of an intense love for Christ. It was not denomi
national zeal, but spiritual hunger which was present in the
early Church. Then, too, the men who loved Christ loved
each other. The nearness of the early followers of Christ
to one another was a miraculous revelation of a new kind of
friendship which the world, up to then, had never beheld.
Immortality and equality were the superb notes of early
Christianity. With the men who knew Christ, church organi
zation was of little account. It must be so arranged that men
may be able to have a continuous nearness to the spirit of
Christ. Sacraments were not made of such great importance
that brotherly love could not continue. It was life and love
men wanted, not ecclesiasticism nor sacramentarianism. For
almost 2000 years men have been trying to bring in the
kingdom of God in just those ways Christ avoided. Mechani
cal organizations, eccelesiastical apparatus, dogmatic creeds
and closely confined altars with pulpits barricaded except to
those in the ecclesiastical succession. We have been afraid
of God and we have hated our fellow-men. Today God's pity
is being visited on a sinful world. We have never allowed
God to have his own way in our daily affairs so long as we
could hold him off; at times, as now, God steps in and de
molishes our faith, our beliefs and all that we have prized
so religiously. For it was all wrong and contrary to his will
and purpose. God lets us go along just so far and then he
steps in. He is doing so today ; we hear the footfalls of God
all around us ; the world is filled with anxiety and fear. Well
may it repent! Steam and electricity have been regarded
more highly as civilizing forces during the recent generations
than prophetic vision and moral leadership. Edison and Stein-
metz are placed above Beecher and Brooks. Our boys put the
emphasis on the man's salary, not on his spiritual power, his

personal influence for good and his zeal for justice and right
eousness. This is peculiarly true of Philadelphia; if a man
receives a big salary he is regarded highly by a large majority
of our citizens, even if he is known to be a thief and social
vagabond. Our institutional life here is cursed by the pres
ence on our boards of trustees, corporations and vestries of
men who stand high in political circles and in the financial
world, but who are known to be moral renegades and political
tricksters of the worst type. You see our moral life is filthy ;
it needs the reinvigorating smell and sweep of real Christian
life and influence. Our city today is not a Christian city.
Our ideals are not Christian ; our leading men in all the walks
of life seek to get along in every way possible without clashing
in the realm to high ideals. When has our city had a real
live Christian Mayor till now? Did you ever hear of a Gov
ernor of Pennsylvania being a warrior for Christ or fighting
for the inculcation of his ethics? Our sense of real values
is low and I can't see that we are improving much. Our lead
ing business men value tariff laws more highly than the
Sermon on the Mount. When it comes to a pinch between
Penrose and Christ the ordinary Philadelphia clubman, church
man and financial magnate prefers Penrose. The President of
the Baldwin Locomotive Works comes out for Penrose and is
doing all he can to elect that political incarnation of all that is
devilish in Pennsylvania's industrial and social life, and at
the same time this "splendid specimen" of our financial life
is hurrying to and fro working for the descent upon our city
of "Billy" Sunday, the Western Evangelist who, men like Mr.
Johnson feel, is needed in our midst in order that the toilers
in the Kensington mills, and the low-paid workers at the
locomotive shops, may obtain a glimpse of a future heaven
and be taught the gospel of Jesus in such a way and with such
an emphasis that the "humble life" will be a result and no
industrial strikes or disturbances ensue. Although I disagree
with "Billy" Sunday's theology and, in a way, deprecate the

necessity for his coming to our city, I have voted in the affirm
ative for this reason — I earnestly hope that the toilers and
workers in our mills, factories and stores will get a vision of
the revolutionary Christ and of his morally radical gospel, so
that in the future life of our city they will think and act
independently of bosses and in the interests of economic sal
vation. The people of Philadelphia have followed Ben Frank
lin's philosophy of life more than the gospel of Jesus. As a
result our moral and religious products are partly pagan and
partly Pennsylvanian. They are not pre-eminently Christian.
I know that my words are unpleasant to many and will disturb
some ; but some one must speak the truth, even in church, once
in a century, and I seem to have that opportunity. You see,
the trouble is at the spiritual sources of our life. The abun
dant springs which Christ intended us to have have been
weakened and, in some cases, made impure. I have a right
to speak as I do, for today our eye goes back over an entire
century of life and work. At this time 100 years ago men
and women were working for Christ and his Church out here
in what was then, not a part of Philadelphia, the great city,
but a small village, the "Northern Liberties." Here was found
a great company of people eager to have the Church built up
in their midst. The present large Church, as you see it today,
with minor changes, is the Church they built and paid for
at once ; such was the strength of the organization that it was
fully equipped as a Parish. At the Diocesan Convention, in
1815, it was instituted as a vital and independent part of what
has always been in our American Church one of our greatest
dioceses. The Parish sprang out of the life and thought of the
people. It was a Sunday School, established by Bishop White,
our first Bishop in this Diocese, that was the originator of
what is today the fifth oldest Parish in this Diocese of Pennsyl
vania. It was a Parish of wealth and high breeding; the
people were refined and, according to Pennsylvania standards
(not Boston), of some degree of real culture. Today we find

ourselves in the most difficult field for Christian work in the
entire Diocese. Bishop Whitaker so spoke of it to me when
I became Rector in 1908. "Richmond," said he, one day in
December of that year, "you will never be able to do a great
work at St. John's, for the people there have not in recent
years been accustomed to great things, but whatever you are
able to do will be appreciated by them and by me."
In any Parish three things must be present for a com
plete success. A good, honest and encouraging Bishop, whose
zeal for liberty and unity surpasses his longing for safety,
security and peace. A man of greatness and power in the
pulpit and at the head of the Parochial affairs ; and, last but
almost greatest of all, a loyal, true and consistent vestry, who
follow out their Rector's leadership and uphold him financially
and morally. All these features of a progressive Parish were
present when the Rev. George Boyd, D. D., became the first
Rector of the new enterprise. For many years Dr. Boyd labored
here and set a fast pace (for those days) in moral and religious
leadership. So prominent was he in the affairs of the Diocese
that at the convention which elected Alonzo Potter Bishop of
Pennsylvania Dr. Boyd almost captured the honor. Two
things were against his election; his independence as a theo
logical thinker and his extreme democratic views in regard
to the Church; for, although originally a low Churchman,
Dr. Boyd became a sympathizer with Pusey and his followers,
and caused quite a break to exist among his many friends,
who, up to that time, considered him orthodox and a safe man
to tie to. He also made a stand for free pews and incurred the
enmity of many who wanted the Parish to remain like the
rest of the Episcopal Church in those days, aristocratic, socially
exclusive and politically on the side of Bourbonism in Church
and state. As a result of all the intellectual tension, moral
strivings and spiritual depressions, the Church of the Advent
was founded where, in a short time, Phillips Brooks was to
begin his world-famed and glorious ministry. If Dr. Boyd

had been a dull, mediocre preacher, he never could have
thought his way out of Low Churchism into Puseyism, the
break with his people would not have occurred and Phillips
Brooks would not have come to our city, for it was here that
people first responded to his preaching in great multitudes,
so that his fame went throughout all the churches and the
demand for his services began, which never ended till Mount
Auburn claimed his body.
It is not my purpose this morning to dilate or discuss the
quality and characteristics of the several Rectors who followed
Dr. Boyd. A Parish never expects but one great preacher in
a century. But there are pastoral and social qualities which
every Pastor must have in order to advance the success of his
Parish. This Parish has been blessed in days past by the
men who have occupied this pulpit. No clerical scandal has
ever disgraced our Parochial life; the people have been min
istered to by such men as Lattimer and Logan, wise and
prayerful men, whose spiritual fruitage still abounds and
whose influence may yet be felt among those who attended
this Church in the days long past. Mr. Logan I knew per
sonally and shall never forget his pleasant letter welcoming
me to the Rectorship and his kindly words of greeting the
few times we met before he passed to his reward. There is
a great difference in clergymen on this point; some welcome
new minds, new leaders and new movements, others seem to
hate more than love. The clerical mind is not so socially
elastic as the legal when it comes to differences of opinion and
method. My message, then, today will be one for the entire Church
rather than the narrow limits of our Parochial life. I want to
strike a deep and lasting note. Dr. Boyd did such work from
time to time and was scoffed at by those lesser minds of
mediocre type which usually occupy the salaried seats at our
various Church houses. To be hissed at and reviled, how
ever, places one in the true apostolic succession. It would be
10

well if our ecclesiastical leaders of today had to bear more
severely the blows and brunt of public opinion. But our ec
clesiastical leadership, shielded by big salaries, living in
palaces and traveling in limousines don't even come in contact
with real, live, red-hot public thought, manners and determi
nation. The Episcopal Church during the past century has
lived a sequestered life, away from the great living problems
which distort and distress the minds of men. Only now are
we coming to face those missionary questions which for years
have been taken up and solved by the great Protestant
churches of Europe and America, and in our discussions and
management of our missionary matters we are like children
playing with some new toy, or like retired country gentlemen
who are willing to help save the souls of Chinamen and Japa
nese, so that the stocks and bonds already invested by "Morgan
& Co." in those far-away lands may be saved from an in
dustrial perdition; we are not soldiers of the cross, we never
have been. We have placed property before Christ, property
rights above our fight for the Kingdom of Truth, and our own
ease of mind far beyond any idea of saving the world for
God and his children. Now we face a world catastrophe!
Today we hear world-voices denouncing the Church and all
ecclesiastical leadership. In Europe the working men are out
of the Church. Socialism, with its spiritual riches and moral
imperfections, is a gospel for increasing multitudes and no
blatant denunciations by a falling Church can keep men from
giving Socialism their study, sympathy and solicitude. The
Papacy has lost her hold both over the people and their princes.
No longer is the voice of the Vatican heard with respect or
reverence in the imperial halls of emperors or kings. Papal
Bulls are laughed at and fires kindled therewith, for the Popes
are out of date, and priests have no hold on the real life of an
advancing people. The ecclesiastical mind is alien to the mod
ern ways of life and the great democratic principles of freedom
and progress which mark the onrushing mind of modern men.
11

Had the Papacy paid more attention to the Gospel of Jesus
with his demands for social justice, industrial righteousness
and progress for all men, instead of putting her emphasis on
diplomacy, neutrality and casuistry, this war would not have
come. The whole affair is a result of a lack of moral boldness
on the part of ecclesiastical leaders, world-financiers and world-
rulers in declaring the whole Gospel of Jesus. Our morals have
been fine, but our heart wrong. For a century the Church has
gone hand in hand with the world. Whenever a war has
arrived for human freedom, rights and justice, the Church, as
an ecclesiastical organization, has become neutral. It was so
during our Civil War. President Lincoln got no inspiration
from the Church as an organized body. From Mr. Beecher,
Archbishop Hughes and Bishop Mcllvaine he got sympathy
and encouragement, for these men acted as men and not mum
mies, as Sons of God and not children of the devil. It is so
today — the Church in this city, on the whole, is afraid to come
out and declare herself for the men who ought to be elected
on Tuesday. All glory and honor to the great Methodist Church
that has, in these recent days, entered the political arena, and
has declared herself as being on the side of personal purity,
civic sanctity and honest, unbossed government. The
Episcopal Church can't take such a stand at present, for part
of the gang have us by the throat. The same is true of the
Baptists and Presbyterians. Both Churches are run and con
trolled by dirty gang political leaders, whose spirituality stinks
and whose moral tone reminds one of a certain animal one is
afraid to touch and yet from whom one hardly dares run away
for fear of a greater calamity. The reason why "moral reform"
makes such slow progress in Philadelphia is not because the
common people are corrupt and contented, but because, for
years, some of our leading preachers, Rectors and Bishops have
worked hand in hand with the gang of political perverts, who
have brought disgrace on our city. Our educators are little
better. The University of Pennsylvania is in league with the
12

gang. On its boards of trustees are political thieves and trick
sters of the basest sort. I have the evidence. If these men
desire, I will give it out. One great Baptist preacher in our
midst, a man of very great oratorical talent of a former age,
and an executor of no mean ability,* has built up a great
Church and a college for poor boys and girls from money given
out of our State treasury by Republican gang officials, in return
for the pulpit compliments he gives the gang before each
critical election. For years this preacher has upheld Quay,
Durham, Penrose, McNichol, Bell (our Attorney General), the
Vares, in all their evil work and wicked designs. He is today
on the side of our worst moral forces. Of course, he is for
"local option." That means nothing to those who know. The
people are being tricked again. The gang has put up a so-
called educator of the McKinley period of morals (which is
not ours) , who is in league with the gang, and his great message
is personal righteousness and local option. But these are not
the great questions of this election. What are those questions ?
Listen. Do you place the tariff before Christ? Do you value
property and property rights above the principles of Jesus in
the Sermon on the Mount? Do you look forward to a future
Heaven with more enthusiasm than on the attempts being
made to make this world a heaven for men to love and live in ?
Are you afraid to come out and denounce the devil to his face
or do you like to palaver with him? I never read of Christ
going around Galilee in company with the devil. I never hear
him speak from the same platform with the devil. Oh, my
friends, here is the real truth. We people in Philadelphia place
our own interests over and above Christ's and his kingdom.
The Church is in the lead in doing this. We have dogmas and
doctrines of the Cross, but of the Cross itself we are afraid.
Here is our great heresy today. We have lost the power to
work miracles. And so this old world is going back to devilish-
ness, old-fashioned hatred and wars. The whole world is at
?Rev. Dr. Russell Conwell.
13

war, and yet a few simple-minded folk in the United States
are crying peace when the conditions that make for peace are
not present here, or in any other part of the world. We do
not know yet whether the Bible and the Christ we have are
able to save mankind when placed in our hands as the agents
of salvation. If we can't do the job, then God will drive us from
the face of His world and raise up another race of servants of
His truth. The call is not to contentment or self -congratula
tion, but to new strivings, new moral enlistments and a more
heroic consecration.
In the presence of the greatest war of all history, and that,
too, among so-called Christian nations, it becomes us to find
out the real, secret, spiritual sin which is the undoing of our
present-day civilization. I will tell you what it is. The world
is afraid of Christ. So is the Church. As of old, we worship
him, we respect him, we place him high in the pinnacles of our
thought, but for his real presence, with its deadly curse on
sin, selfishness and human pride, we do not long. "Depart from
us, for we are men of sin," is the cry today, as of the ancient
time. We love our own ways, our own thoughts, our own
methods. The Church life of today is wicked, sinful and in
human. We have put Christ into our dogmas, doctrines and
canon law, so far as he would go, and the best part of Him is
out in the world among men who have no connection with the
Church. I meet every day or so Jewish Rabbis who breathe
out a more human sympathy for what we call our Christian
ideals than the House of Bishops. I meet social service
workers here and there who have dropped all alliances with the
Church for fear our canonical requirements and ecclesiastical
technicalities might prevent them doing Christ's work. At the
time of a recent threatened coal strike in the anthracite regions
I appealed to our Bishop in behalf of the men who were strug
gling for greater human recognition and more of the enjoyable
things of life. Dr. Rhinelander listened to or read my appeal.
In his written answer he frankly confessed he could not see his
14

way clear for action and seemed absolutely helpless in the
presence of the industrial monarch which holds sway over
the coal mines of Pennsylvania. The coal barons of Pennsyl
vania have done more to stir up anarchy in our midst than all
the Emma Goldmans and Berkmans of our entire nation. The
I. W. W. movement in this land is a direct result of selfish
financiers, worldly business men more intent on profits than
human progress and a Church glorying in social and industrial
conservatism more than in the growth of democracy and the
enrichment of the workers. When some of the leaders of the
I. W. W. were in this city last year I had the good fortune to
be thrown in with them at several conferences. I found them
no more intent on practical devilments than the directors of
the Steel Trust or of the New Haven Road. The leader of the
movement here told me that he was brought up in one of our
large Episcopal parishes in this city and attended Sunday school
quite regularly. Here he got his moral training, such as it was.
In those days the Superintendent of that Sunday school was a
very prominent banker connected with the New York "House
of Morgan."* The churchman and religious leader made mis
sions his fad and doled out thousands of dollars yearly, so that
the missionary work of our Church might have prestige at
home and abroad. When a new Bishop was to be elected this
banker had his say in the matter, just as Mr. Morgan used to
do, and as a result some good souls fell down and worshipped
the very feet of this so-called generous banker. But do you
know that this banker caused one of his Sunday school boys
to go astray? He did. One Sunday, while the school was in
session a telegram from the Church Missions House, in New
York, reached the hands of the banker-superintendent. It was
the announcement of an awful massacre of the Jews of Russia.
The civilized world went mad over the news of this terrible
slaughter of the innocent people of God — more God's children
than the princes around the Czar. The message of horror
•Mr. George C. Thomas.
15

and crime was read to the school as it gathered for its closing
exercises. And what do you suppose was the comment of this
eminent Christian, banker, friend of J. P. Morgan, the trusts,
bishops and high clergy? Was it a note of condemnation that
he struck? Did he denounce Czars and evil-minded emperors
who keep down their people in intellectual and moral degrada
tion ? No. None of that. He condemned the Jews for strik
ing for their rights. He said, "It's time for the Jews of
Russia to understand that Russia is a Christian nation and that
before the Jews can secure any more rights or freedom than
they now have they must bow the knee to Christ." Think of
it. This moral slush and spiritual degeneracy coming from the
platform of an Episcopal Church Sunday school. Such a leader
is a disgrace to our Church and well are we rid of his moral
vaporings and religious hypocrisies. Do you wonder that that
young man went out of that Sunday school that day with
anarchy in his heart? He felt within him the indignation of
the Christ. Something which Christ's Church seldom has and
less often expresses. My brethren, too long has the Church
boasted of her spiritual possessions, social exclusiveness and
religious conservatism. Too long have we veiled our Christ on
the altars of the Church. We have placed him in our dogmas
as a dead Christ, once living, but whose life now can be read of
in a book. We have enthroned him as an idea in spacious
cathedrals till he was so high above ordinary humanity that
men failed to see him. Perhaps God intends to show the
Church her error here by smashing to shreds the great cathe
drals of Europe. We have made our canon law so narrow,
exact and formal that Christ would have nothing to do with it
were He in our midst, for we have killed His spirit in the
framing of it. At our General Conventions one never would
suspect that the sweet, serene and revolutionary spirit of
Jesus had propelled these passe statesmen, old-time financiers
and corporation officials to assemble for the work of spreading
abroad the radical ideas and ideals of Jesus, and they don't
16

gather for that purpose. No, indeed, you needn't think so.
They come together with a soul-struggling idea that it is
their duty to keep Christ in check, to make the Gospel con
servative; just the kind suitable for American business con
ditions. Wall Street has always kept tight hold of the
Church, so the Church would not let Christ do any damage
among stocks and bonds. Christianity, if allowed full swing
anywhere, will, at times, close the stock exchange. Our
financiers can't control God when God really gets going. The
spirit of progress has in it the essence of the spirit of God.
In all our new social movements, even the I. W. W., I find
much more of the spirit of Christ than among our old-time
leaders in politics, in education and in finance. Their look is
toward the past. Ours is in the light of the Kingdom of
God. During the past century the Episcopal Church has not
been a leader in any great national movement. We were on
the fence at the time of the Civil War. We don't stand up
for the Negro even now. We won't allow him to take Com
munion with us in our Churches at the South. For that reason
the Church at the North should snub and ostracise the Church
in the South. We are afraid of theological progress, and our
Church was the last of the great national bodies to allow the
Revised Version of the Bible to be read in our Churches. You
see, we are timid of new truth ; we prefer to have truth locked
up in the mind of some monk or veiled in a sacred taber
nacle on some sequestered and quiet altar. Anywhere but out
in life, giving moral and spiritual explosions to men who need
shocks and sensations in order to get them into line with
advancing knowledge and truth. I make a plea today, from
this ancient pulpit, for a better kind of life within our Church,
more Christ in it, so that the mission of the Church, as the
apostolate of Jesus out in life, may be more clearly perceived
by the world. The world today needs to know just what the
Church stands for. Are we an adjunct of the stock exchange,
or are we eagerly driving the false business men out of God's
17

temple, as did Jesus? Are we a mere educational institution
with a creed, prayer book and catechism doling out out-of-date
truth (a good deal of it is) to a few sick folk, feeble people and
remnants of stock once strong and good? Is it really our
highest delight to found Rescue Missions, Bible classes and
bum clubs ? I know some of this is good and necessary. But
is this, after all, the great duty of the Church ? Some of our
good Bishops and high ecclesiastics think so. But I don't agree
with them. This is not the great call of the Church. It never
has been. We have grossly misapprehended our mission. Our
work is to recreate this world after the ideas and ideals of Jesus
who became Christ. Our duty is to take society as we find it
in the fourth century after Christ, in the dark ages and at
the time of the German Reformation and change it at its very
core and center of being. If our creeds are wrong, let's change
them. If our Bible needs revising, let's revise it, as we have.
If our views of humanity are out of date after all that's been
scientifically and spiritually revealed to us by the last great
century of discovery and enlightenment, then let's not halt, but
get in line with world ideas and greater spiritual ideals. If our
"so-called ecclesiastical leadership is worldly, materialistic and
out of touch with the progressive life of the world, then let's
criticise it, shun it and finally shelve it where it belongs, amid
the dust of the ages of moral timidity and spiritual stupidity.
The times call for quick action. The Church must be
aroused to her great mission of rebuilding this world for God.
Never again, after this awful war, can we look out on the face
of the world as before. Human unity must be recognized, not
Church unity, but the unity of humanity. When we do this
then we shall have a new Church, with man in front, instead
of a machine as now. The greatness of the soul of man must
be seen and its full lesson taught and exemplified from our
pulpits and in our schools.
How can we rise to this occasion and fulfill our mission ?
In one way. By allowing the life of God, which waits at our
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altars, to take possession of our lives and sweep us out into the
channels of all life's work and thought and leadership, so that
men will feel the hot, sweet, loving life of God not in sacra
ments, but in influence, not in prayer but in vital power, not in
moralizings about life, but in grappling with life's real prob
lems. In the United States Federal Court, this week, I saw some
of the ablest lawyers in the country working in power and zeal
in behalf of the "Steel Trust." As I saw them I thought of
what a wonderful thing it would be if such men, with all their
tremendous intellectual and moral energy were working just as
hard for Christ and his standards of life and love. But they
are not so working. They are seeking to set up in this nation
an industrial monarchy, with financial lords and subjects, with
retinues of young lords who hate the progress of democratic
ideals and are selfish to the core. But that great jurist* who
ranks highest in the Philadelphia bar made a wonderful plea
for his client when he made the claim that the "Steel Trust"
is destined to become America's industrial saviour in time of a
future war which he thinks will sweep down upon us. That was
an amazing and romantic idea. It was perfectly captivating to
the multitude of "Steel Trust" sympathizers who filled the
court room. Only a great legal genius would advance such an
idea. It's the only kind of idea that counts today. Zeal for
humanity and human welfare, even among our high-class
rogues, among the visitors to Monte Carlo and the Judge Gary
dinners, where human steals were inspired and with our rich
lords of creation who would just as soon have this war con
tinue so long as steel products find an international market.
The idea that such a corporation as the "Steel Trust" will ever
be America's defender in time of industrial warfare is absurd,
for the reason that that warfare is now on and the officers and
advisers of that Trust are not among our high leaders of moral
reform or economic progress. They stand for big business,
huge profits, enormous dividends and the oppression of the
*John G. Johnson.
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toilers who make the steel. They do not know it always, for
their eyes are closed to the new movements all around them
for more human happiness and intellectual freedom, more
power in the ranks of labor itself for solving its own problems
and for the ruling of this old world by the men who are mak
ing the greatest moral sacrifices in building up God's Kingdom
of truth and human blessing. Our great organizations of
industry, like the Church, have feelings and aspirations after
peace, happiness and righteousness, but the blinding sun of
human greed, pride and selfishness saps the life which would
give success and lead the way to the divinest satisfactions.
We must look, therefore, at the very sources of our life. The
source of our life as a Church is found at the altars of the
Church. Today I make a plea for an open altar. We have an
open pulpit ; thank God for that. I am proud that I have had
a share in the success of that movement begun years ago. The
first Rector, Dr. Boyd, stood up for free pews. Your present
Rector has always fought for an open pulpit and today enters
the fight for an open altar. What are we afraid of ? Is Christ
our Saviour and not the Methodists' and Presbyterians' and the
Unitarians'. Let us away with all our exclusiveness. Our
orders are no better than the Presbyterians. Sometimes the
Holy Spirit seems to be with them rather than with us. It's
not a question of the laying on of hands, but of the opening up
of souls. That is one of life's mysteries, and our ecclesiastical
leaders have no control over such actions. In the election and
making of Bishops we have degenerated during the past cen
tury. Some Bishops are holding office today because a certain
big financier thought best to raise them into dignity. We have
Bishops, too, whose ritualistic views caused them to be forced
within the sacred enclosure. A few Bishops have been elected
because they were such good, mediocre and spiritual men that
the lawyers and clerics who voted for them knew they would
stand without hitching. Seldom, in the election of a Bishop,
does a diocese nowadays look for a mentally great, a morally
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bold and a spiritually progressive leader. In one diocesan elec
tion, not very long ago, or very far away, it was practically
reported that the Holy Spirit would refuse to "alight" on the
one elected, unless his salary was raised to $10,000. This was
done, and an awful tragedy resulted, for the Holy Spirit went
over into the Methodist Church and rested on the head of the
Methodist Bishop, who lives in a plain house and whose salary
is not as large as our modern industrial thieves or political
thugs. I say all this to show you that all our exclusive ideas about
apostolic succession have been cast aside and exploded by the
sunlight of modern thought and the increasing sensibleness of
really religious men. The old arguments about "orders" no
longer hold. If they had not gone before August 1, 1914, the
war would have dispelled them. And so today I affirm that a
Presbyterian, a Baptist or a Methodist pastor has just as good
a right as I to stand at the altar of this Church and break the
bread of life to God's people. This belief is the result of life
and love. It comes from the soul of one who today has faith
in the solidarity of God's people. It is the result of contact
with life. It is the response of my heart to the sympathetic
spirits around me in all kinds of Churches and in no Church
at all.

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"THE WAR AND THE CALL FOR A NEW
CHRISTENDOM."

A SERMON DELIVERED SUNDAY MORNING,
AUGUST 23, 1914, IN ST. STEPHEN'S EPISCOPAL
CHURCH, PORTLAND, MAINE.

Text, St. Matthew 5 : 23, 24— "If, therefore, thou art offering thy
gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught
against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first
be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."

The failure of modern Christianity to solve the greatest
problems of life is one of the astounding revelations of the new
century. It compels a return to the Christ of the gospels for
the purpose of studying again his own teachings and witness
ing anew his own simple and straightforward methods of
approach, attack and conquest. Christ was not versed in
"Wilsonian diplomacy" and his Gospel did not pour itself forth
in "Bryanesque phraseology." It was a gospel of truth, for
men who loved truth, for a world in need of truth and for
heroes not afraid to die for truth. It's ultimate intention was
to produce peace, but that time was not to come till righteous
ness, justice and love should abound. American capitalists
talk a great deal about peace, but as yet they have not fought
for peace and they have not, so far as I can see, helped to bring
in peace according to the methods and manners of Christ.
This world is not a Christian world, as one sees it today. Its
actions, on the large scales of political and industrial life, do
not suggest the presence of Christ in our midst or a people
'Repeated in St. John's, Philadelphia.
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of Christian love doing the business of the world. It is a world
of social hornets, political frauds, industrial lords oppressing
the poor and of religious weaklings. The Church right through
has not begun to put in practice the teachings of her Lord. In
our large cities we see the clergy arrayed on the side of present
power and political graft, as in Philadelphia. The Church up
to the present has not, on the whole, been openly on the side
of progressive democracy or genuine progress. Here in
America financial prosperity and the building up of great
properties, together with all the legal rights of property, have
taken our minds away from the inner kernels of truth which
marked the teaching of Jesus, and we have forgotten abso
lutely our vows as Christians — that our place in this world
was to set up a visible Kingdom of God, so that the world
might see a practical exemplification on earth of what Jesus
talked about and died for.
The kings of the world are not followers of Jesus and do
not uphold His ethical teachings. In Russia the Church is cruel
and vile, intellectually stupid and spiritually degenerate. The
persecutions of the Jews have revealed to the world of pro
gressive democracy the arrant hypocrisy and sinful nature of
the Czar and the leaders in his Church. The Russian Church
has no real relations with God. It boasts of a certain kind of
apostolic succession, but it is a vain boast, and mere dogmatic
assertion by a so-called Church counts for nothing today
among thoughtful and progressive men. It is the Czar's
Church, not God's. The word of the Czar never stands for
truth out among men who love God and humanity. So all his
promises just now about Polish freedom and Hebrew tolerance
are considered as Russian jokes and devilish pieces of humor.
The Episcopal Church ought to be ashamed of herself for want
ing to be more closely united with such a religious impostor.
Only the vanity of some of our rich laymen, like Mr. Morgan,
and his craze for friendly relationships with Czars, Kings and
Emperors could lay the basis for this modern hankering among
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some of our weak and silly American ecclesiastics (who are
lazy and indolent when it comes to helping our wage earners)
for closer connections with a Church which has never had a
vision of Christ. I regret that our government did not long
ago tell the Russian Czar just what the people of America
really think of him. As a Christian nation we must show forth
the courage of Christ, even if we do get into trouble, and even
if our business interests suffer. Christians expect to suffer.
Christ did. It is because Christ's Church in Russia, Germany,
Austria and England has been hypocritical, vain and morally
craven that this awful war has come upon us. When the world
forgets her God then it's time for God to thrash His world.
He is capable of it. And in Germany conditions are not much
better. Only the German Emperor is a bigger hypocrite than
the Czar. He can bamboozle our brightest American educators
and financiers. The German Church is orthodox, but not
Christian. Orthodoxy usually stands for a local or provincial
standpattism which smacks of religious and moral crooked
ness. The mere worship of deity has stunted the divine growth
of sympathy for humanity. The Emperor of Germany has
never been a follower of Jesus in the New Testament sense.
He has never been on the side of the plain people, except to
make them work harder and pay higher war taxes. He has
always opposed the growth of a larger democratic spirit among
his people at large. For years he has been the extreme personi
fication of military cussedness and arrogant pomposity.
In England, too, the Church has not been the open friend
and uplifter of the wage earner. It has not helped him in his
fight for social freedom and political progress. The Church of
England is on the side of the Lords, the landowners and the
banks. Of course, here and there a strong and bold Christian
preacher will arise, calling the King's attention to the simple,
democratic message of Jesus, but the Church, as a body, is
socially cold, morally obtuse, intellectually backward and spirit
ually a sloven. No wonder God has caused England to fight.
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Englishmen were dying of moral rot. Now they have had to
arouse themselves and fight their neighbors' battles. It's good
enough for them. This war is a good thing for Europe, looked
at from its moral significances. No wonder the Pope died as a
direct result of it all. He saw, as well as we, the awful failure
of modem Christianity to civilize the world, to make men live
as brothers and to build up on earth a Kingdom of peace, justice
and love. But Pope Pius, his Church and all bur Churches have
been working on a false and deluded basis. Righteousness on
earth must be fought for, not simply prayed for ; a Church that
Prays but never fights will fail. It's a sure thing. Our
Churches today are suffering from moral rot and spiritual sloth.
We are afraid of the shadow of Jesus. The Church prays too
much and so fails to be on the job when public necessity calls
for the outspoken message of Jesus. The Church is dull and
asleep at the altar, driveling out so-called sacramental grace,
but somehow or other the power of the sacraments doesn't save
the world from war, social disturbance and industrial uprising.
Pope Pius made two awful blunders. The modern world can
praise his simple ways and childlike simplicity, but because he
professed to be a great Christian leader the modern world will
never forget his supreme moral and intellectual blunders :
1. His condemnation of modernism, and
2. His wild and headstrong attempt to destroy socialism.
Socialism and modernism never brought on this war.
What did bring it on? I will tell you. It is a distinct result
of those ruling principles and reactionary moral ideals which
are at the base of world-wide capitalism. Romanism with its
decrees against the progress of the modern mind and its stand
pattism as to all economic reform and capitalism with its
hatred for real democracy and for the plain people who make
up that democracy. Hence,- in educated and progressive cir
cles you will hear men joke about the death of the Pope and
laugh at his prayerful efforts for peace. The Popes of today
in Church and State can't stop war so long as economic sin
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abounds and while wealth is against the progress of democ
racy. The Church must be reconverted to her Christ. The
great heresy of the Church today is not found at her altars or
in the midst of her dogmas — although some of us interpret
dogmas about as we think best and never fear a heresy trial,
because our Bishops are so afraid of publicity that they simply
won't have heresy trials — but the great heresy of the Church
is seen in her awful moral weakness when the time comes for
her to put in actual practice those spiritual principles and
powers for which we pray so long and so much. We stand
abashed in the presence of wealth, material power and corrupt
but strong leadership. We have placed philanthropy above
righteousness and our slum charities before justice. We have
squandered our strength on the saloon evil, while at the same
moment condoning the industrial sins which cause most men
to desire strong drink. The Church has placed in honorable
positions her rich men, who reap the benefits of vice and
incomes from political graft. In my own state of Pennsyl
vania a political thief is, as a rule, honored above his fellows if
he has become rich through his stealing. In Pennsylvania we
have no use for poor thieves. One of our high officials today
at Harrisburg — a Republican gangster — is a notorious thief.
He is one of several Philadelphians who overcharged our city
for land in their possession when that land was needed several
years ago for public improvements. That's a common way
for our high-toned thieves in Philadelphia. They treat our
public treasury as if it belonged to half a dozen privileged
families. Our notorious contractor bosses are regarded as
public plunderers and yet can control votes sufficient to insure
our city and state rotten political leadership, dishonest laws
and tricky reform movements. Even some of our clergy up
hold this state of affairs, for they place more confidence in
cold cash than in a spiritual Christ. Before we can have inter
national peace, we must have international justice, love and
righteousness. The Carnegie Peace Union is founded on dis-
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honest cash, and is built on some of Mr. Carnegie's moral bub
bles. Mr. Carnegie is not a leader in the battles of the new
morality, the new politics or the new industrialism. He is
simply the product of Scotch selfishness (I am Scotch and can
say this from personal experience) transferred to more favor
able conditions, where for his whole life he has overcharged
the public, underpaid his help and glorified himself. He is
smaller spiritually than he looks physically. A town or city
with a Carnegie library is eternally cursed morally. New
England loves Carnegie, because New England loves to get her
libraries for nothing. New England's moral greatness is pass
ing away. Already the New England Churches are dead.
For so long have they bowed before Mammon that at last
all their moral strength has been sapped. They are as dead
spiritually as our New England colleges are religiously. Mr.
Carnegie, like Mr. Morgan, has tried to capture the clergy to
his side. While not a churchman (knowing he is too big a
sinner to go to a great religious convention), he has donated
several millions for the cause of enrolling Bishops and clergy
on the side of peace without regard to economic sin or indus
trial unrighteousness. Carnegie has bribed! the American
Church to cry for peace when peace ought not to come. The
people of America care not for a peace brought about by a
Carnegie foundation. What are such foundations? Go to
Pittsburgh and look at the social and industrial conditions, a
direct result of financial leadership which Mr. Carnegie en
dorses. Grafting politicians — friends of Mr. Carnegie. Poor
tenements for high rents. Miserable living conditions. Chil
dren with little or no education. Awful vice conditions.
Churches still teaching old-fashioned Hell fire for those who
don't believe in Carnegie's God. No chance for youth to rise
in life unless they bow down to Mr. Carnegie's ideas and ideals.
In Pittsburgh it's Mr. Carnegie, not God, that rules. His
ethics, not Jesus', that men follow and praise. There are sev
eral prominent clergymen in America who have been bribed
28

by Mr. Carnegie (through his agent) to preach peace and make
a great fume and fuss about socialism. The Church in America
has been bribed by capitalism to do capitalism's dirty work.
Thank God some of us were not so defiled. For years, Mr.
Carnegie has held Emperor William in high esteem and has
uplifted him before the public gaze whenever he had a chance.
It was all for good steel business, of course. Not for Jesus' sake
at all. But Carnegie was awfully deceived. William of
Germany has deceived a whole world of moral weaklings. He
is the real cause of this great war. He is a big blusterer, who
wants the whole universe to bow at his feet. He stands con
victed and condemned before the bar of the world's public
opinion. Germany is the world's most upstart and conceited
nation. William's ambitions have been his first thought. He
loves American financiers, who race to do his bidding, politi
cians who stand for reactionary ideas and social leaders whose
highest love is for foreign ways — the Astors, etc — kingly snob
bishness and imperial vain things. Not the love of Jesus for
God's plain people. Oh ! no. These tourists, ambassadors and
financiers have often displayed anything but a strong demo
cratic spirit when in the presence of royalty, so that royalty
itself got a wrong impression of what our country really stands
for in regard to freedom of thought, personal initiative and the
growth of democratic sentiment. Those Americans who have
in recent years married off their daughters to syphilitic counts,
dukes and so-called English gentlemen have never been noted
for their keen love of pure democratic institutions and usually
have been in bad odor at home because, as a rule, their riches
were the result of dishonest industrial increments. The Astor
family for years has been in public disgrace owing to the
scandalous behavior of several members of that over-rich
family. It well becomes young Vincent Astor to strive to atone
for the sins of his near relations. I would like to see laws
passed by our national Congress confiscating such estates as
the Astor within certain well-defined limitations. The coal
29

mines in Pennsylvania should be absolutely confiscated and
taken over by the government. Such a time will come, and the
Church, through her pulpit, must hasten the day of the Lord.
We need a new Christian consciousness within the Church. A
new kind of leadership is in demand. The educational system
of the Episcopal Church is wrong from beginning to end. We
train up mediocrities for our pulpits, thinking more of their
Churchmanship than of their Christianity. Loyalty to our
Bishops is put in place of loyalty to Christ. Faith in an out
worn ecclesiastical system is more trusted in than faith in the
innermost soul of humanity. Here in Maine our Church is
about fifty years behind the times, owing to the advance work
put in by the progressive clergy of the Congregational Church.
The ideas we uphold are largely out of date and outlandish
morally. Our clergy are no more in the apostolic succession
than are the ministers of the Congregational Church in Maine.
Let's get reconciled to this idea before we talk any more about
Church unity. The world outside the Church wants our reason
able leadership, appealing to the modern wants of men and
not mere maudlin sympathy and the philanthropy of a few rich
men, whose fortunes like as not are the products of evil genius,
sinful minds and greedy souls. Christendom, as we find it
has outworn its religious clothes. The life of Christ must be
restudied in the light of an advancing world-life and in the
spirit of a new humanity with all of its natural demands for
more democracy, more knowledge and more love.

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