Evening star., 1903-11-17
REVIEW OF CENTURY
DR.. Bartlett's Address at
Church Anniversary.
WORK ACCOMPLISHED
FORMER PASTORS RECITAL AT
SERVICES SUNDAY.
The New York Avenue Presbyterian
Congregation, Its Past, Present
and Future.
WORK ACCOMPLISHED

The following address was delivered by
Rev. William Alvin Bartlett, d. D., SUNDAY
last on the occasion of the centennial ceie-
bration of the New York Avenue Prespy-
terian Church:
There is something august and stupen-
dous about a century. The word 1tsen IS
so annie its forces are so world compelling.
When say that was graduated from coi-
lege more than half a century ago. anu
that 1 have lived two-thirds of these hun
dred years, l feel related to the aeons ana
the ages.
While a century is but a tick in the
clock of destiny, 1t Is still long enough
probation for Judgment day; long enough
to test principles theories, experiments ana
observe their trend, and all thinkers are
summing up. 1t has been century OF
upheaval-and startling changes. we nave
uIIarreled with the stars for their secrets
and battled with the earth for its mysteries
No line of thought religious. governments,
or scientific, but has been radlcateo anu
readjuSted. We have excelled the nSn III
swimming; we are on the eve of SURPRISING
the bird in flight Religion has been proved
called in from irrelevancies to essentiais.
Reverent scholarship has Sifted the Blole,
to separate history from eastern legend
discriminating the voice of God from the
jargon of oriental jugglers and Thaumo-
turgists to recognize sunlight from swamp
light till we know that neither growth In
grace nor human progress depend upon
somnambulism and SpoOks
One hundred years ago that great pa
triot and statesman, who, after the sub
stance of the Declaration of Independence
was agreed upon by the committee, cast
its verbal form, the admiration of the
world, and which has placed laurel
wreath of Immortality on his brow, Presi-
dent Jefferson, smitten with Voltaires lep-
rosy of unbelief though hero of liberty.
has had a sporadic piebald progeny of ag-
nostic followers at best.
Death in Infdelity.
Infidelity is DEATH not life. 1t is a stone,
not a seed 1t has no inocuating power
Twelve negations are coroner's jury, sit
ting on the remains of the thirteenth mega
ton the dead burying the dead. The
Christian belief of every President since,
down to Theodore Roosevelt, and not JEFF
ferSons cayil, explains the past, controls
the present and challenges the future. Re-
ligion emerges from the century purged,
purified, broadened humanized and with
practical. near God Theories of govern
ment come out of the furnace, with the re-
publican form pre-eminent. Repub1ics-the
people sovereign A limited monarchy, the
attempted wedding of the king and the
people. grows weaker and weaker as
competitor. The opera bouffe kingdom of
Lebaudy. the Frenchman on the unin-
habitable, tropical sand dunes of Africa,
ridiculous monarchy, and laughs it out of
serious competition.
While it has been a century ripped I'D
by wars Internal, 1t has also enjoyed peace
and forecast of the brotherhood of man
almost celestial Radical! not how God
works. but is there a God? Not is the law
of gravftatiOn universal, but is there a law
of gravitation? The size of the globe for
occupancy has been doubled the last hun
dred years We have counted and graded
the human family, and Providence by q
coup de dieu' has placed us in the Phil
ippines the open door of the orient, to
educate the largest and most important
mass of undigested humanity. We are
there with a few muskets to terrify, but
with an unseen army of Intelligence and
character to conquer. We are there with
the all-conquering form of government and
the all-conquering religion.
we stand at the finish of this century
opulent in achieved results, with this mod
ern intellectual and religious human force
fervid to wrest the next progress from
things and thoughts and hurl humanity
into the future, with something sWiftar
than electricity and more luminous.
Contemporaneous With Century.
What I wish to say is that this New
York Avenue Presbyterian Church has been
contemporaneous with this writhing CEN
tury. 1t was born in the year of the Louis
lana purchase 1t lives in the year of the
ocean-bound republic. 1t has touched with
its prayer and praise with it's holy men
and women. everything that has ever oc-
CURED in this District of Columbia the
march of the nations laws improving for
hundred yearS-the decisions of that
great unblemished court-the signatures of
the executive-the stress and strain of
mental conflict, all have been touched and
shot through by the influences from this
church Its character is seen in the result
the undetachable odor the unaccountable
light modifying and bettering. Its warp
hn rDht fha Ixyt thn a. Ey,.r
shuttle of events until Ii Is parcel of the
fabric. giving tint and pattern to it all.
church so placed in this strategic city
OF Washington swings searchlight around
the horizon of the nation. Washington is
queer anomalous place When Mai.
PEnfant, with Washingtons surveyors
scrutiny, threw down his map upon the
quivering swamps and hillocks, where mos
quitoes fattened on a diet of malarial and
typhoid fever. and surcharged with venom
respected neither the courtesy of the SEN
ate nor the etiquette of diplomacy, but in
oculated pauper and President alik. and
after due period of incubation, they were
either dead or immune. And when the
wisdom of Congress gave 1t it's unaccount-
able relation to the body-poli.ic, no one
could have forecast its present sanitary
condition nor It's success as a city. Russia
In the midst of her tyranny has the demo-
cratic Mir, a pathetic protest against car
ship. plea for liberty. Washington is
an absolute tyranny in the midst of q great
republic. an eloquent testimony to the fas-
cirations of monarchy. The democratic
Mir does not govern its community more
successfully than the monarchictl al WASH
irgton rules its consentIng and willing
citizens.
Happy as Serfs.
There are no happier serfs than the citi-
zens of Washington. rejoicing in the priyi-
lege of taxation without representation. No
wise politician ever approaches them with
the sinews of war for legitimate election
expenses, for happily they have no vote to
sell |Nef. are they beleaguered by hosts of
unproductlve females. with strident voice
and frantic gesture, to turn the useless era
die into ballot box in this model American
city. Happily, women and men are both
alike disfranchised.
1T remained for this church to train a
boy for Commissioner OF the District who
has occupied and ampiifed the Office as
never before Anomalous as we'll In Its ma
jestic architecture, not exactly according to
any of the old patterns. neither orthodox
Greek nor Gothic. but altogether adjusted
and adapted to the free purpose and liberal
forces for which this nation stands All!
Washington the superb-not Washington's
federal city, but the city of Washington
witt hfG xx-rif h fnt,