Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-24

Finally the thought of God as needing to
be satisfied before He can forgive is a
thought which is lower than that even OF
good father. 1t is no divine thought In
the place of such mechanical theory We
would present that Ministry of Recon-
Citation which was the inspiration OF the
early church. 1t confronts the TACT that
human life is 4 tissue of antagoniSmS. We
seek pleasure; duty appears irreconcilable
with it, The common life of man is an
tagonized by whatever Slimpses of the IDEAL
he may obtain. The good which we look
upon as our own is in opposition to the
good of those who are about US. God and
man stand opposed to one another. 10 re-
move this opposition is the great work OF
religion. 1t proposes to remove it. not by
doctrine, but by the inspiration and the
unfolding of that larger life of which we
are as yet only dimly conscious 1t sees
that as the true nature OF man develops
he will discover that the call of duty is,
after all, only the call of his own highest
delight; that the demands of the good of
those about him are the same thing as the
call of his own nature for its highest salts
faction; that God is not power outside,
whose demands are contrary to His own
will, but the power within, obedience to
which is perfect freedom, in whose service
is life. This process is as universal as hui
mainly. 1t is the exclusive property of no
one religion. In working for 1t We are
working with the universe, whose secret Is
reconciliation, the losing of the antago-
risms of imperfect life in the fuller har-
in which contradictions are lost, and that
fullness of high living where the human
finds that it Is one with the divine.
Rev. Mary Snfford's Address.
The closing address of this interesting, if
rather deep series, was delivered by Rev.
Mary A. Stafford of Sioux City, Ia, on the
subject forgiveness" Gods greatness"
she said in her opening sentence, flows
round our incompleteness; round our rest
lessness, His rest"
Physical laws, she said, are unchange-
able. A man knows that the sun will set
at the close of day, though a it's going down
he must die. Moral laws are as immutable
as the laws of nature. A human father
may forgive an erring son, but years Of
dissipation have done a work which nothing
can undo. All repentance cannot undo the
wrongs that young man may have done,
and what we have done makes us what we
are. Yet our Heavenly Father loves us even
before we come to him, and true repentance
removes the wall that separates us from a
better and higher life. Gods law has rot
been set aside or changed; our relations to
it are altered. 1.-THE divine law she said,
lis as love-full as divine law is lawful"
At the conclusion of the series of addresses
Rev. W. l. Laurance spoke on 1.-The Japan
Mission" Mr.. Laurance was at the head
of the mission from 1891 to 1894. He told CT
the work the mission has done since it's Or
ganization, and gave a number of reasons
why 1t should be maintained.
Officers Elected.
The annual election Of officers for the en-
suing year resulted in the choice of the fol-
lowing: President, George F. Hoar, Worces.
ter. Mass; vice presidents, Carroll D..
Wright, Washington. D. c.; Dorman B..
Eaton, LID, New York; Daniel L. Shorey,
Chicago; Horace Davis. San Francisco;
Roger Wolcott, Milton, Mass, and Thos J.
Morris, Baltimore. General secretary, Rev.