The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-07-07
Besides Churches Filled With
EndeaYOrers
At the Great Convention in
Detroit Last Night.
REV. CHAS. vi. SHELDON
Entertains a Large Audience
With a Story
Written by Himself on the G.
IL. Motto.
REV. CHAS. NJ. SHELDON

Detroit, Mich, July Both of the
great tents owned by the United Socie-
ties of Christian Endeavor were used
last night for the first time during the
eighteenth international convention and
contained their full quota Of 10000 peo-
pie and as usual hundreds OF others who
failed to secure admittance patiently
occupied standing room all around
the outer edges. Many visiting dele
gates from long distances came in yes
terday and swelling the number of dele
gates beyond the 10000 mark.
The convention days are essentially
days OF song. Although last night the
choir was divided between two tents,
there seemed little diminishment in the
volume of song, or much IN the number
of singers in each.
AS for the audiences. their spiritual
enthusiasm expanded with the passage
of the hours. Yesterday the endeavOr-
ers honored the invitation OF the mayor
OF Detroit to sing. Street car loads OF
them frequently spun along the streets
singing as they went. Many groups
sang by the Wayside, aside from those
who Joined the squads of noon day
workers in business houses and factor
les. They sang at the afternoon rallies
and sang in the evening enrOute to the
night gatherings sang with redOubled
vigOr after again assembling and then
sang on their way home.
Ten thousand people crowded into
Tent Wiliston for the evenings exer-
cises.
The two principal addresses in Tent
Williston were delivered by the Rev.
John p. Pounds of Indianapolis, and
Ehe Rev DR.. p. p. S. Henson of Chicago.
the former on Dollars and Duty" and
the latter on Satan and Cities.' Both
were listened to with undivided atten-
tion by the entire audience and bursts
of applause were frequent.
DR.. Henderson said in part:
'One of the shrewdest devices Of the
devil is to persuade the world that there
isn't any, and in this regard in recent
years, his success has been extraorC1i-
nary Milton pictures him as squat
ting like a toad at the ear Of Mother
Eve, and whispering softly internal sug-
gesGOns, and one may imagine him in
like attitude by the side of the comic
artists who nave made the whole world
laugh at their grOtesque portraits of
him, for he knows right well that in
matter of religion what is made ridicu-
aOus very shortly becomes contemplate.
And Well-meaning but ignorant eVange-
lists have been influential in the same
direction by the very extravaganza of
their language in denouncing the devil
as If he were the author of all the evil
In the universe and as truly Omnipres-
ent as the Lord Of Hosts: and so we
should have two gods in the universe
one supeTnaI and the other 1nfernal-a
doctrine so repugnant alike to reason
and to revelation that men in revolt
against It are tempted to swing away
TO the other extreme and deny the ex-
astence OF any other devil in the uni
verse.
The scriptures alone can lift the veil
that hides thte secrets of the spirit world
and in the light of the scriptures the
devil looms colossal
In the book Of Job, perhaps the old
est in the Bible, he comes cOnspicuously
to the front. In the book OF Genesis,
the first book in the Bible, we hear his
Internal whisper and have a taste of his
satanic subtlety, and all along through
the pages of the Old Testament we can
see the Shiny trail of the old serpent
and hear his hiss.
NO sound exegesis can Danish him
from the Book, and no true philosophy
of history can ignore his presence in the
world.
I'VE may be sure of this, that he has
lost none of his ancient subtlety, but
has Wetted its edge rather against
the hard experience of the centuries.
Some things he has learned undOubted-
y. One is that persecution is not adapt
ed to accomplish Christianity's extinc-
ton, for the blood of the martyrs has
ever been the seed of the church. He
has discovered that sugar-coated pellets
charged with poison do deadlier work
than Hons claws, and that to counter
felt Christianity is a better way to beat
Christianity than to come out into the