The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-03
YEAR OF PROGRESS,
Remarkable Growth
in Membership at
Piedmont.
DR.. SCOTS ANNIVERSARY.
Powerful Sermon Preached
on Signs of Bet
ter Times"
DR.. SCOTS ANNIVERSARY.

Yesterday was anniversary Sunday at
Piedmont Congregational church. Rev.
DR.. Willard Scott begun his pastorate
one year ago, the chuEch at that time
having a membership of 664. Yesterday
the enrolment was 100, net gain of Sc
members.
The following united with the church
yesterday: By confession. Mrs. Emma
H. Claflin, Mary A. Crocker, Susan L.
Hill, Dwight B. Hill, Ella M. Prue; by
certificate, James B. Crocker, Florence
A. Croker, Edward K. Hill, Elizabeth
l.. Hill, Elbridge B. Lincoln, Margaret
G. Lincoln, M. Edwin Pomeroy, Georgia
e. Pomeroy, Edith C. Putnam.
Rev. DIR. Scott will begin his vacation
July II, and the church will be supplied
as follows during the remainder of the
month and August: July %, Prof. J. w.
churchill, Andover; July 30, Rev. DIR.
Nehemiah Boynton, Detroit; August
6, ID, Rev. j. L. Withrow, Boston; Aug
ust 20, 27, Rev. DR.. Burr, Boston.
Special music was given at the morn
ing communion service. The number of
members received in the past year is
larger than that of any single year with
the exception of 1875. The roll of mem
bers is larger than ever before Last
evening Rev. DR.. Scott delivered a SER
mon on Signs of better times" taking
for his text: Where is he that Is born
King OF the Jews, for we have seen his
star in the east and are come to worship
him" Matt. liz. He said in part:
The first chapter of Matthew's gospel
is the story of the coming of Jesus into
the world, and the second is the story
of how he was received. We call the
event the Christian era, and such it
was, a day of change, an hour to set the
worlds clock by, a rev standard for
the race.
The birth of Jesus brought new
king, and new idea of royalty. Char
acter took the place of career OF the
latter, Herod had plenty, of the former
nothing.
Men called him 1.-The great" but
never 1.-THE good He was the first
Herod, and the worst. He loved him
self and power, and did everything for
the sake of keeping a snowy place in
the world. What Caesar Thought Of
him meant much, what God thought of
him meant nothing. What he could not
control he betrayed or destroyed.
The birth of Jesus was as Victor
Hugo said Of Napoleon, that vast man
should fall" A new type Of king was
coming, a king of peace and good will.
Has he come? Look about you. For
more than so years, Victoria, as queen
Iof England, has not had an hours anx-
iety of threatened revolt or invasion of
her dominions. The car, the fourth
peace monarch on the throne of all the
Russians, signalizes his early reign by
a peace measure which startles the
world. The gentle queen, Wilhelmina,
has opened her house in the woods for
the delegates of all nations to devise
plans for the cessation of war. The es-
Isentially military William of Prussia
publicly pledged to maintain the peace
of Europe and with the republic of
France is pushing the strife over.
France has overturned it's cabinet for
one in search for moral purity and the
rights of man without revolution. The
usurper has gone. The despot is gone,
1t is a good omen that modern rulers
are moral men and women, and peace
lovers and promoters.
The birth of Jesus brought a new
citizen and a higher order of man to
view. Their ways are largely I'M
known to us, but they are men of
thought and reverence, the truth seek
ers of the world. They stand for that
type of man who lives in the larger
world Of reflection and culture. Their
eyes are upward and outward and they
is star in the sky, they see it. If there
is song in the air, they hear it.
They are not immersed in gayeties,
or politics, or business, 80 as to have
no sense of the larger world they live
in. Their eyes are not on the passing
crowd, so that they do not know where
lit is going, or what the transient day is
worth or is not. 1t is q sign of better
times that our age is full of these.
We have no better hope of the fu-
ture. Business is not immersing the
best men now. Gaieties are not loved
by the best women. The best men and
women of today are busy with world
problems, and how to answer the Lord s
prayer, Thy kingdom come"
The birth of Jesus brought a new
society. Though the signs were in the
sky over him, what they stood for was
Better times on the EARTH" good will
to men,"
He is against the exclusive and aris-
tocratic everywhere, and men are APP
preciating this today as never before. "A
better day is dawning, a better day
for humanity, day of better peace and
goodwill towards men. The birth of
Jesus brought a new religion, a new
relation to God as well as to man.
This is a widespread message in
many pulpits, in papers and in con-
versation. There has seldom been less
public regard as now for the church
as such, or more regard for what 1t
stands for when it means what it says
and lives its creed. The world is de-
handing a real religion. mo man is
any good until he has dared every
thing" says Stevenson. We want that
earnestness in Christianity or we want
nothing of 1t. What would Jesus
say?" What would Jesus do?" are the
great religious questions Of our new
day.
JOINS The WILD WEST