The Portland daily press., 1896-02-03
AT HISTORIC wILLIsT0N.
; The Fifteenth Anniversary of the Or
ganization of Dr.. Clark's Society.

ganizati0n of Dr.. Clark's Society.
The Parent Society in the Parent Church
Celebrates the Organization of what
Mr.. Pratt Calls 1.-THE Greatest Reli-
gious Movement in the World Among
Young People"-The Morning Service,
Mr. Pratt MI. Ayres, Miss sib1ey and
Others.
Yesterday, the fifteenth anniversary of
the organization by Rev. DR.. +. Il. CLARK
of the Society of Christian Endeavor, was
duly celebrated throughout the world.
and at "historio Willistou," the parent
church of the movement, the church OF
which Dr. Clark was pastor when he
started the first society, there was very
interesting cele bration of the day.
At the morning service the church was
crowded. Rev. D. NJ. Pratt conducted
the service and preached very able
and interesting sermon. Mr.. Pratt said
that it is difficult to measure the i'm
portance of passing events, and history
can not well be written
WHILE IT is BEING MADE.
That which seems impo rtant today,
may seem less SO tomorrow, and every
work of men mus at last be subject TO
the unfailing test Of time.
the Christian Endeavor movement or
ganized in this church Is years ago by
DR.. Clark and his associates, has become
the greatest religious movement of the
age among young people. and perhaps
world would such movement have
been possible. AS great crisis in history
has never failed to produce it's great man,
SO every great moral or spiritual need
has been net by the discovery of some
new principle, or the introduction of
some needed reform. History is not hap
haza d, and nothing comes by chance,
and this society was the outgrowth OF a
universal need, and the world WAS ripe
for it, Previous to its organization
there had been no widespread religious
movement among young people. The
crusade of 1912, which enrolled 10000
young people rof the capture of Jerusa-
1911, u6n OlJou DtGA Clt6Q III COiA DdrlSOu,
but that was followed by disaster, while
the practical results of this movement
are many and striking.
The work already accomplished promi-
ses to help to revolutionize the methods
of the early spiritual education of chill
dren. The movement has been subjected
to the
STERNEST OF APPLICATION,
opd coarobino r;t;cir,,, for q do,ado and
a half, and it has stood the test.
The boys and girls who were part of
the movement Is years ago are now men
and women, and as regards Individual
experience nothing could be more salts
factory. The spread of the movement has
been marveously rapid, and has made it
matter of International Importance,
and still there is the same devotion to
duty, The same fidelity to principle, the
same loyalty to Christ the same readi-
ness for sacrifice and service as of old.
MIR. Pratt spoke of the work in Germany
somewhat along the same line before the
Endeavor movement started. The cen
trail idea of the present movement is
practical work, practical piety, it gives
life expression. 1t is one of the admitted
things today that there is nothing in the
education of a child that will make
LASTING impression in which the child
does not have an active part. Many
boy has graduated from college high up
in his class, who has left it entirely un-
fit for the active duties of life, because
he learned by rote and made no conuec-
ton between words and ideas. His train
ing hindered instead of helping him,
and the same holds true in religion. To
teach children to pray without the spirit
of prayer is to shut up the fountains of
the souls life AMI to create skeptics
The Christian hndeayor movement is a
protest against
FORMAL AND LIFELESS RELIGION
and the strongest possible champion of
live, progressive and practical every
day religion. The soul must be developed
on it's Godward side, and it is our aim to
make religion a vital thing in early
childhood and youth. All members of
the society are not saints or moral he
roes, because all do not rise to the height
of their privilege. but this organization
has done enough to make this new era
in the religious history of childhood and
youth.
Then this movement is becoming an
Important part of the history of Chris.
tianity. Christ would save the world
ana religion Itself means service. But
how shall the Christian help to save the
world? By bringing into it in his own
personal life a living gospel; by show
ing in his common and every day life the
power Of Christianity. Boys and girls
must be taught thai they can be Chris
tians at school, at play, every where, and
that true Christianity is just as positive
a thing in childhood as it is in manhood.
The Christian ia ordained of God to be
the leaven of society. and must show his
oneness with God amid the temptations
of his daily life, and religion is not
valued where there is not this outward
manifestation. But one of the saddest
aspects of Christian history has been
the frequent divoroing of
PROGRESSED FROM PRACTICAL
CHRISTIANITY.
= The church has lot been able, ana is
not able today to count upon its entire
membership as a unit against public
evil. or as unit for the spread of Christ's
Kingdom. The emphasis laid by this or
ganization which now encircles the globe
upon the inseparable relation between
plety and practical Righteousness is not