The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-08-30
THE GREENAcRE CONGRESS.
Mrs. Mary A. Livermore and Other Speak
ers at the Elliot Meeting.

Greenacre, Eliot, Me-, Aug "a. Mrs
Mary A. Livelmore. as widely loved and
honored as she is widely known, drew
a great crowd in and around the audi
topium tent to hear her speak upon : Life
and Its Possibilities. Despite her
seventy five years, she stood erect and
strong, and spoke for more than an hour,
without notes, and with the burning elo-
quence of the true orator, one who has a
divine message. She presented the Chris
tian idea of greatness. which was ex-
pounded and lived by Jesus, the Christ.
His rule for attaining it was, whatsoever
will be chief among you, let him lie your
servant" and he proved it to be practical.
Mrs. Livermore believes that such life
Is one of the greatest joys, and repudlates
the prevalent idea that Jesus was man
of sorrow and suffering. Service is the
secret of sovereignty Literally and truly,
the ony way to gain your life is to lose it.
A life of true, unselflsh service will bring
higher rewards and greater happiness
than one of self-seeking. In judging
men. I'VE should judge them by their
possibilities, not by their performances.
Mrs. Liyermore said she had often been
puzzled to know where the creeds of the
churches came FROM for, though a great
Bible student, she had been unable to
find them in the teachings of the Founder
Of Christianity. But no matter how
many or how few articles of belief they
have, the important point is that not a
single one of them shall run counter to
Il go, 4 .+.1 Inv cfa
love to God and love to man. 1t a man
says to you, l can love my fellow men
because can sympathize with them, but
[ cannot love God because | cannot un-
derstand what He is; then say to him
that God is the condensed name for our
ideals of all that is good. Love of God is
simply. love of the good. Ii, on the other
hand, a man says | can love Sod, but my
fellow men are so wicked and repulsive
that I cannot love them, say to him, every
man has divine possibilities, and it is
our highest privilege to help furnish the
environment which will develop those
possibilities.
The practical Art Conference" is in
session this week, under tie direction of
Mr.. John S. Clark of Boston, a man who
is we'll known and highly esteemed in
art circles. In his opening. address he
struck the keynote of the conference when
lie SdlU. ATu, uOU loi Oh s'eeAS, al v
not for the artists sake-but art for
humanity S sake. His theme was cart in
Relation to the Labor Problem, Mr..
Clark said that one of the first points to
be noted in considering any OF the great
social questions, was that SO large part
of human activities was given OF the
product ion of physical necessities, leav-
ing, according to available statistics, only
about twelve per cent. above the life line
This state of things necessarily tends to
social degradation. All projects for social
Or economic improvement must start
from the standpoint of lettering the social
condition of the individual worker and
the art idea, now enteringso largely into
education and social life, can be made a
great force to this end. The art idea, as
interpreted by Mr.. Clark, stands for the
spiritual nature of man in activity. To
day in our social and industrial life, we
are not placing sufficient consideration
upon man as spiritual being with in