Religious views of Titanic, article, 4 may 1912

8/3/2019 Religious views of Titanic, article, 4 may 1912

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RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF THE "TITANIC"

WH A T D R . M A N N I N G , t he rec t o r of T ri n i t y C hur ch ,

New York, said in his pulpi t about the Titanic disas ter

was pract ical ly the same message as went for th f rom

ma ny pulp i ts in the land on the Sund ay of Apri l 21 . This was

spontaneously chosen as a day of memorial services , and the

thought uppermos t i n many a speaker ' s mind was thanksgiving

for the splendid heroism dis

played by sufferers and sur-

Tivors . ' ' We can give thank s

for the h eroism, the ca lm

ness , and the oourageonsness

shown on that boat in the

las t few horr ible min utes ,"

sa id Dr . Mann ing. "Th ere

must be joy in our hear ts

that t hese men and women,

when they met t he supreme

tes t , faced i t in such a man

ner . Their example on board

th at s inking ship has m ade

the world r icher , has giventhi s genera t ion a great er

her i tage to leave to those

generat ions to come ." There

are few ins tances of the ex

pression of a view of God's

relation to the affairs of men

th at migh t hav e fol lowed

such a catas t roph e in th e

preach ing of an ear l ier day .

Our forefathers dwel t muc h

on the judgm ents Of God ;

to-day the point of view is

shif ted and men see ins tead

th e fol lies of man. "A ch ange

of Tyre to Titanic," says theKev. R. S. Donaldson of Mil

waukee ( repor ted in The Sen-

tinel of that c i ty) , "makes

the twenty- seventh c hapter

of Bzekiel a ver i table lamen

tat ion over the s tea mship

•which met disas ter dur ing

the pas t week ." I t was a

ma tter of Providence, not judgm ent , he says . "N o need of

l i fe-boats . No need to l is ten to an y warnings along th e way.

Th is is the spirit of a th ous and walks of life, and sooner or

later leads to the lat i tude an d longi tude of defeat . God was

forgo t ten." These two are the notes tha t are s t ruck in the

rehgious ref lect ion on the event . Than ksgiving for man 's

heroism; dismay for ma n's improvide nce. The Rev . Dr .

Leighton Parks of St . Bar tholomew's Church, New York, said

in his sermon:

"Above al l of the sorrow of the t ime, above the cr ies o{ th esuffering, the hysterical shrieks of those who are well-nigh insanewith their grief, there comes one s t rong, clear word, 'Be with usand comfort al l , ' the message of the noble-minded widow ofthe gal lant commander of the Titanic to a sorrowing world.Let us leave to the Government the invest igat ion of the greatdisas ter , to the newspapers the repet i t ion of i ts horrors , andto publ ic opinion to award the crown of honor or the infamyof cowardice. And let us inquire if those men , who were notafraid to die, have died in vain.

."You and I will be better in life and in death because of

their good example. Th e real message of this great and ove rwhelming aff liction is tha t i t i s the late s t rev elat ion of the powe rof the cross . No t al l those who cry 'Lo rd, Lo rd, ' are fol lowersof Chris t , he taught us , but they who do the wil l of the Father ,and he also said that those who are not agains t him are for him.

'' Some of those people, who could only look back on a foolish,was ted pas t , acqui t t ed themselves l i ke men. The Mas ter t aug ht

us to be s t rong and to dowh at we do in love. Tho semen were s t rong, and didwha t they did in love. Wehave plenty of examples ofb r ave r y— at M ar a t hon , i nthe charge at G et tysb urg, inthe assaul t at Cold Harbor .Bu t those men were soldiers ,wi th l eader s i n whom the yhad conf idence, wi th t rainingand the power of discipl ine.

"The men who s tood onthat deck, in the presence ofdisas ter , exhibi ted a p owerof self-restraint, exh ibited itso quiet ly, too, th at i t can

not be explained on anyground of mere evolut ion.

"Cer t a in ly , i t was hot acase of the surviv al of th efittest. Th ere were me n lostthat t he c i ty and th e count ryneeded, and there are widowssurviving who speak no language t ha t you or I canunders tand, and who wil linevi tably become publ iccharges .

"T he y did not ask why,nor if any helpless, poorcreature were wo rth saving.The maxims of commercewere forgot ten. The re wasno quest ion of buying cheap

and sel ling dear . Th ey soldthemselves for nau gh t ; theygave their l ives away. Sucha sacrifice can not be justifiedon any economic ground.

"But the Son of Man cameinto a world that was los t .And so the men on the Titanicsacrificed the mse lves for thewomen and chi ldren. Thewome n did n ot ask for the

sacri fice, but i t was made. Those w omen w ho go abo ut shr iekingfor their ' r ights ' want something very dif ferent ."

To C ardinal Gibb ons , preaching in S t . Stephe n's Church in

Washington, the heroism displayed was of a secondary value:

"While I admire the shining examples of heroism that makethis shipwreck forever memorable in human annals , I admire

stiU more the numerous evidences of religious confidence,res ignat ion, and prayer that we meet in the narrat ives of theunh app y survivors . I feel conf ident tha t the unparal leledsorrow that now res ts l ike a cloud on two cont inents wil l revivein many hear ts a latent sense of divine power and wisdom andgoodness , of God's r ights in his own world, and of our hum anobl igat ions to so conduct the social order that the exis tenceand hon or of God shal l be respected. This is the corner-s toneof all justice, and the neglect of it is the chief reason of ourmodern social and economic unres t ."

I

Dr . Char l es H. Parkhur s t of t he Madi son Square Presby

t er i an Church, New York, makes a s evere ar r a ignment of m ode m

life. T he Titanic disaster, he declares, "is the terrific and

MAN. •

The Sea is His and He Made It."

—Harding in the Broolflyn Eagle.



May 4, 1912 T H E L I T E R A R Y D I G E S T 9 3 9

ghast ly i l lus tra t ion of what th ings come to when men throw

God out at the door and take a golden calf in at the window."

"AH this sorrow, this horrible slaughter, this parting of loved

ones, tragic rendin g of families . . . was totally with out

reason." As the press reports h im he cont inued:

"Different temperaments have, of course, seized upon differentaspects of this unparallele d traged y. Eac h of you has yourown line of conte mpl ation. I am going to tell you mine, and Iam going to cut as close to the line of truth and to the nerveof the sensitive hea rt as I know how; for if this event is treatedas it ought to be, it is going to produce some searchings of heartthat will modify to a degree the attitude of the general mindtoward cer ta in vi ta l quest ionsof individual and public life.

"The picture which presentsitself before my eyes is thatof th e gla ssy, glarin g eyes ofthe v ic t ims, s tar ing meaning-lessly at the gilded furnishingsof this sunken palace of thesea; dead helplessness wraptin priceless luxury; jewelsvalued in seven figures becoming the s t r^ge p lay th ings o fthe queer creatures that sportin the dark^ depths . Everything for existence, nothing forlife. Grand men, charmingwomen, beautiful babies, all

becoming horrible in the midstof the glittering splendor of a$10,000,000 casket!

"And there was no need ofit. It is jus t so mu ch sacrificelaid upon the accurst altar ofthe dollar . The boat had nobusiness to be running in thatlane. They knew that the icewas there . The y dared i t.The y would dare i t now wereit not for the public. It ischeaper to run by the shortroute . There is more moneyin it for the stockholders. Th emult imil l ionaires want moremoney . They wan t a s muchas they can get of it. Th e coalis now saved. It is star ting a

l i t t le mine at the bot tom ofthe ocean between Sable Is landand Cape Race.

" I t is a lesson all arou nd tothe effect that commercialism,when pushed beyond a cer ta inpace, breaks down and resultsin s t r ingency and poverty; andthat act ion, when crowded, produces react ion that wipes outthe results of action

"We can conceive no severer punishment for those s teamshipmen—the one who is here now with the others—than to becompelled to read and reread the harrowing details of thosetwo hours from midnight to 2 A. M. on the morning of the sinldngof the ship . We will not be angry with them. Rat her wil l wepity them, for if their hearts have not been hardened to theconsistency of the metal in which they deal, the perusal of theghast ly record, the contemplat ion of the vivid drama of men

leaping to their death, bidding long good-byes to those lovedones, and all to the accompaniment of the infernal music of theorchestra, ought to give them a foretaste of the tortures of thed a m n e d .

"Yes , we pitj^ them, for unless their hearts are clean gone andbu rn t to a crisp, these days are to them days of remorse, ofgnawing of the soul. Their gui lt is not momen tary. I t is dr ivenhome with a gold hammer, which wil l beat them into sensibi l i ty .Had Providence held back the t ragedy the moral lesson onlywould have been delayed.

"The two sore spots which real ly run into one another andwhich constitute the disease that is gnawing into our civilization are love of mon ey and passion for luxur y. Those twocombined are what sunk the Titanic and sent 1,.500 soulsprematurely to their f inal account ."

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e i s n o w b e in g d ev o ted b y h is w id o wU n i v e r s i t y o f R e l i g i o n .

FOR A UNIVERSITY OF RELIGION

No SUCH THING as a "Un ive r s i ty o f P rac t i ca l Chr i s

t ian i ty , " as is p lanned for Hartford, Conne ct icut ,

exists anyw here, it is said, in either he misp here. Tw o

hundred and f i f ty thousand dol lars have been given by Mrs.

John Stewart Kennedy, of New Y ork,, for the endowment of the

Hartford School of Missions and the Hartford School of Reli

gious Pedag ogy. This amo unt she has offered to double on

condition tha t a similar sum is secured elsewhere. The re seems

no l ikel ihood tha t the am ount wil l not be ra ised, for an unnam edfriend has alread y promised

$100,000. Beyond all this Mrs.

Kenned y has promised $100,-

000 for the new buildings

necessary for the housing of

the students in the two schools.

With these sums assured, the

plan embraces a proposal to

raise a full million for endow

ment and this is expected to be

accomplished within the next

twelve mo nths . The future is

full of promise for the projec

tors of this scheme. If, says a

Hartford correspondent of Th eCongregationalist and Christian

World (Bos ton) , " the re a re

250 in these schools at th e end

of five years, and in ten years

not less than 500, and a large

majority of them college grad

uates , i t is evident that a great

future of usefulness lies before

this unive rsity of p ractic al

Chris t iani ty , in which modern

needs wil l be met w ith mod ern

facil i ties and me thod s." Th e

growth of the idea now in proc

ess of crystallization is thus

sketched:

' ' For a nu mber of years planshave been under considerat ionfor the establis hm ent of a rel ig ious univers i ty , with Hartford Theological Seminary asthe center , by br inging to gether

a numb er of in terdenom inat ional schools for t ra ining men andwomen for the various new professions which have arisen duringthe past f if ty years in Chris t ian service and phi lanthrop y. Th enew professions include not only foreign missionary service,but the fields of religious education, of social work in connectionwith social settlements, charitable institutions, as well as secretaryships in connect ion with the Young Men's Chris t ianAssociat ion and the Young Women's Chris t ian Associat ion, andof church wo rk. Th e first step in ' this direction was tak enwhen the School of Religious Pedagogy was affiliated withthe Seminary, and already hundreds of carefully equipped youngpeople have gone out from that school to enter lives of efficientservice. Las t fall the second forward step was ma de when th eSchool of Missions was opened, and instruction given on thelines indicate d by the epoch-m aking Edin burg h Conference of1910. And now others are to be added, one of which is to be aschool of social service.

"The methods of the new plan are that ' each school , t ra iningfor a specific profession or group of professions, shall have itsovm building, its own faculty, its own fundamental course ofstudy, its own chapel service, and, in fact, its own interior lifeas a school. In those subjects which all the schools have incommon or in which one school can cooperate with another,there shall be mutual election of courses, so that the studentsshall at once realize the definite nature of their own profession



94 0 T H E L I T E B A B Y D I G E S T May 4, 1912

an d i ts points of con tact wi th all the res t . Th us , whi le eachschool wil l have a good, s t rong facul ty, money wil l be savedand eff iciency wil l be increased by this mutual cooperat ion.The re wil l , of course, be one board of adm inis t rat ion. Therewil l be many occasions on which al l the s tudents meet togetherto real ize the great purposes , in the service of man and theprom otion of the Kingd om of God, which are common to al l . '"

» Rel igious journals hai l wi th enthusiasm the plans about to be

carr ied into execut ion and look upon Hartford as des t ined to be

one of the most interes t ing and important rel igious centers in

the country . "Effor t along these l ines , of t raining has not

been pecul iar to Har tford," says The Congregationalist and Chris

tian World, "but no other of our seminar ies has yet in s ight

so wel l - though t-out a plan or such hopes of compe tent endow

ment for the work." The Continent- (Chi(3ago) finds "the most

interes t ing feature of these gif ts" to ' l ie in the fact that "al tho

they are given to a theological seminary, they are not given for

theological educat ion." The Independent (New York) also

dwells upon the enlarged facul t ies of this new ins t i tut ion in

con tras t to the theological sem inary of a half -century ago,

which in all denom inat ions was of the same type. Wh en fully

equipp ed the older school had professorships in Old-T estame nt

Hebrew, New-T es tament Greek, Church Hi s tory , Homi le ti es ,

and Dogm atic Theology. "Of al l these the chief and crown

was the las t , which was of ten f rankly cal led Polemic Theology,

and the s tude nts were know n as ' theolog s . ' There was no

provis ion for the ins t ruct ion of any who did not plan to enter theminis ter ial profess ion." Bu t—

" Very dif ferent is the condi t ion now. These f ive depar tm entshave been subdivided and others added to them in the cler icalcurr iculum . The l is t of teachers in a leading theological seminary r ises to f i f teen or twenty, whi le a number of secondaryschools, such as those founded by Mr . Mo ody, begin f it ting yo ungmen and young women for posi t ions as Sunday-school teachersand rehgious workers in other ways . Bu t jus t as our hund redsof normal schools called for a higher grade of normal collegesat tached to our univers i t ies , so our theological seminar ies havebegun to at tach to themselves depar tments of higher rel igiouspedagogy to fit for the new professions in religious and socialservice, and for special t raining of minis ters and young womenwho expect to engage in foreign or domest ic miss ion work.We thus have colleges, or, rather, universities of religion

"We are learning—and i t i s taught us at home as wel l as

abroad—that rel igion i tsel f bears worthy f rui t only as i t i ssupp orted by the highest educat ion. We are learning jus t nowin both Turke y and China what educat ion can do. I t is themiss ion schools that are reforming or undermining the rel igionsof In^ia.

"Over f i f ty years ago there arose the quest ion about Bostonwhether the American Board was not wast ing good miss ionarymon ey in developing schools in the miss ion f ield of Ind ia ins tea dof sticking to its first busine ss of preac hing th e gosp el. So thesecretary of the board. Dr . Anderson, was sent to India toinvest igate and repor t , as he was thought to be a very wise man.Bu t he proved a very fool ish ma n. He repor te d agains t theschools , and they were closed or reduced to mere pr imary rank.The resul t was disas t rous , and i t took a long while to res torethe infiuence which was los t . A religion tha t is not backedby educat ion wil l s ink into supers t i t ion or worse. Th at lessonhas now been learned by all Chris t ian s tatesmen , and the up heaval s i n Turkey, India , China , and J apan have a l l been made

possible by the increased number of young men whose educat ion was fos tered by these miss ion col leges . Bu t we see tha t aChicago denominat ional paper has forgot ten, or never knew,what exper ience of a century has taught , and i t i s s t i r r ing upthe churches to dem and th at t he Am er ican Board should g ive upi ts higher ins t i tut ions in foreign lands , and that the AmericanMiss ionary Associat ion should cease to press i ts Chris t ianeducat ional pol icy among the negroes of the South, on the pleathat i t i s too great a burden on Congregat ional money to f inancesuch col leges . I t would hav e wh at money can be raised devotedto denominat ional church work, to organizing Congregat ionalchurches in ci t ies and towns which are suppl ied with compet ingcolored Me thod is t and colored Ba pt is t churches . The onequest ion to be considered is as to which method wil l have thelarger inf luence for intel l igence and Chris t iani ty among the

masses of colored people. Fo r our i jar t we can not ap prov eth e recrudescence of a long-discarded an d discredi ted th eory ofevangeli sm which would preach but not t each. The newmovement teaches the teachers , ' . '

JUDAISM AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

THE SYNAGOG should watch j ea lous ly any under

mining of i ts integr i ty f rom within, declares The Amer

ican Hebrew (New York) as a note of warning agains t

the inroads of Chris t ian Science. This journal , impel led by

rumor that "Jews, l ike others , are being inf luenced by the

teachings of a denominat ion cal led the Church of Chris t ian

Science," f inds i t becoming a "duty to invest igate to what

degree this is so." To this end i t has "ass igne d papers and

discuss ions ." I t does not advoc ate any aba tem ent of the

known l ibera l i ty of t he synagog. "W i th any par t i cular

individual who, through mental dis t ress or physical suffer ing,

seeks what he considers remedies that are offered him by the

pract ise of such a church, we should deal mo st tender ly." I t

fur ther protes ts that i t has no interes t in promoting heresy

tr ials , but there is an al ternat ive that can not be over looked:

"When, as rumor has i t , Jews formal ly enrol l themselves asmembers of Chris t ian Science churches and presumably subscr ibeto the tenets of Chris t ian Science, some of which are opposed

to the fundamental pr inciples of Judaism, and when evenofficers of Jewish congregations find no inconsistency betweenmem bership in the Synagog and formal m embers l i ip in th eChris t ian Science Church, such persons should be told that suchdouble al legiance is impossible, that membership in the Synagog is incom pat ible w ith formal m emb ership in a Chris t ianScience church, even as such membership would be incompat ib l e wi th member ship in any other Chr i s t i an denominat ion.Such mixtures , or shatnez, we can not brook wi th impuni ty .They mak e for interna l dis integrat ion. We respect the s incereman ifes tat ion of the rel igious sent ime nt in ma n. We revereany s incerely held fai th. We bel ieve th at al l men are chi ldrenof God and in some way are doing God's work. Bu t if we areto maintain dis t inct ions because of sacred convict ions , we musthave the courage to mainta in them and guard th e s acred h er i t ageof the rel igion of Is rael . No u nce r tain note should go for thfrom this body. We should make clear by resolut ion the impo ss ibi li ty of such twofold mem bership in th e Synagog and in a

church. While the Jew becomes a mem ber of the Synagogby bir th and remains potent ial ly a member of i t , tho he maynot formal ly become aff i l iated with any par t icular congregat ion,and while he remains a Jew as long as he does not formal lyadopt any other rel igion, he must be considered as ceas ing tobe a Jew if he takes any s tep which formal ly puts him out of theSynagog. A Ch ris t ian Science church is , in our view, oneof tho denominat ions of Chris tendom . And a Jew breaks withhis - ludaism by accept ing formal memb ership in i t . Such aresolut ion going out f rom us wil l s t rengthen the hand of anycol league who may have in his community a great tes t offeredto his moral courage, in vindicat ing the integr i ty of Judaismagains t surrept i t ious at tacks f rom within."

Some more construct ive work than this is demanded of

Judai sm, th inks th i s j ournal . Th us :

"W e oug ht to real ize why some of our people have been ledastray. We ought to ins is t upo n the emotional and myst ic

value of Judaism . The Synagog was always ma ny-s ided .I t had a complete message for the many-s ided needs of humannatu re. The Synagog always performed the pr ies t ly funct ion.I t had the Torah . I t expound ed the t radi t io n. I t stood forlearning. I t appealed to the intel lect . I t performed the prophet ic funct ion, voiced the l iving conscience of men, made formoral p rogress , and w as the great ethical reju vena tor . Andi t always performed the myst ic funct ion, inasmuc h as i t brou ghtGod into life and made man feel the divine significance of dailyl iving. I t valued prayer . Pray er , as a br i l l iant Am ericanthinker has i t , i s ' rel igion in act . ' Or , bet ter , a s our sages say,i t i s the 'service of the hea r t . ' I t should be our dut y to mak eprayer again a power in the l ives of our people, by br inginghome to them the emotional and myst ic s ide of Jewishexper ience."

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Religious views of Titanic, article, 4 may 1912