Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-24
Exercises Under Auspices Of the Pres
byterian Alliance.
FUNCTION At MASONIC TEMPLE
Addresses by Dr. Radcliffe, Com
missioner mcfarland and Others.
PROPHECY BY DIR. EASTON

The annual reception by the Presbyterian
Alliance of Washington was neld last even
irg at the Masonic Temple, which was
beautifully decorated in honor of the occa-
sion. The arrangements were in charge OF
Mr.. B. II. Warner, president of the alli-
ance, assisted by committee composed OF
Messrs II. K Simpson, l.. c. Williamson,
o. B. Brown, c. H. Buxton, Charles H.
Little, Charles Lyman, N. D. Larner j. l..
Lusk w. F. Clark, S. l. Irvine, d. G. Dix
on, ]. H. Sterling and many others.
A number of committees had been APP
pointed for the reception, the chairmen OF
which were: Mrs. George Westinghouse,
music; Mrs Justice Harlan, floor decora-
tons; Charles B. Pearson, decoration or
hall; Mr. Hendrick, badges; H. X. Simpson,
re ception; Mrs. Brinton, supper; Mr.. Ter
ren, tickets, invitations and order.
During the evening addresses were deilv-
cred by Rev. DIR. Wallace Radcliffe, on
1.-The Forward Movement of the Twentieth
Century, and Messrs. B. H. Warner, H.
B. F. Macfarland, Frank l.. Middleton and
F. l. Willis An original poem was read by
Rev. Dr. T. c. Easton, on Tine Proposed
improvements in Washington During the
First Quarter of the Twentieth Century.
Er. Easton referred in glowing terms to
the magnificent government buildings al
ready in the national capital, and predicted
that during the next twenty-five years there
would be erected here a hall of records, the
Memorial bridge and many other needed
structures, and that there would be a row
of similar buildings as heretofore proposed
along the south side of Pennsylvania ave-
nue..
A trombone solo was rendered by Mr..
Madert, and the Berwyn Quartet gave a
selection.
Save City by Saving Citizen.
Commissioner Macfarlands address was
devoted largely to conditions in the capital
Of he yh..+
Christian residents here.
He said in part:
THE Presbyterian Alliance must help to
save the city by helping 10 save the citizen.
There is no city apart from the citizens,
and all the effort at saving the city which
ignores that fact is poetical, not practical.
This is the vital error of most municipal
reform movements. Communities cannot be
reformed in the mass any more than they
can be reformed by resolution or by statute.
Only the transformation of the individuals
can transform the community.
We members of this alliance, and the
thousands of Presbyterians whom we rep
resent, can make the national capital the
city of God if we will to be such citizens
ourselves. The lives we then would live
would draw all others by the irresistible
power of Gods love to take His citizenship.
Then there would be more problems
stamped with sin or sorrow. Then there
would be no more need of courts or jails,
for the two supreme commandments of love
10 GOd ana love TO man would be Well-kept
laws, and their fruit would be righteous
ness and peace. Impossible you say? No,
only ideal; but unrealized until every one
of us honestly takes inspiration for practical
living. We can make our city whatever we
really want it to be. Prayers and sermons.
rites and ceremonies, will avail no more
than political movements or ethical. decla-
ratiOns to make the capital as beautiful
within as 1t is without, unless the separa te
units of its population are brought into lv-
ing harmony with the will of God.
The presbytery can no more make this a
holy city by declarations than Congress can
by legislation. The enactments of bodies of
men, whether ecclesiastical or political, can
only affect external conditions and cannot
directly touch the spiritual life of a city,
| which is the spiritual life of its individual
citizens. We all assent to this, in spite of
our inconsistent faith in the power of HUI
man laws and declarations. and our pathetic
appeal to them as We think of our municipal
evils. The misgovernment of our cities and
the mlsdeeds of their rulers. which put us
| to shame before the world the things which
are wrong, even in the well-governed Dis
trict of Columbia. which is the recognized
ana distinguished exception among our mu-
nlcipal governments; these things which are
here so plainly the work of individuals
cannot be made right except by making
right the unrighteous men who are respon-
-sible for them.
DR.. RadcIIHe's A6drass