Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1903-06-11
THE DUTY OF THE CHURCHES
Address of President Roe.evelt at the Dedi-
cation of Grace Memorial Reformed
Church in Washington.

formed church which President
Roosevelt attends, was dedicated Sun
day with appropriate exercises. Pres
ident Roosevelt, with his family, at
tended, and made a brief address. Rev.
]. NJ. Schick, the pastor, read the
article of conservation, and Rev. +. Il.
Eschbach, d. D., of Frederick, Md,
preached the dedication sermon. Pres
ident Roosevelt occupied one of the
two bishops chairs. which he present
ed the church. He was introduced by
Rev DR.. Schick, and spoke as follows:
Il shall ask your attention to these
lines:
"'Serve the Lord with gladness; en-
ter into his gates with Thanksgiving,
and into his courts with praise. Who
shall ascend into the house of the Lord?
Or who shall stand in His holy place?
He that hath clean hands and pure
heart; who hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully,'
Three better lines could surely not
be brought into any dedication service
of church; and it is happy thing
that we should have repeated them
this morning. This church is conse-
Grated to the service of the Lord; and
we can serve Him by the way in which
we serve our fellow men. This church
is consecrated to service and duty. 1t
was written of old that BY their
fruits We shall know them and we
can show the faith that is in us, we
can show the sincerity of our devo-
ton, by the fruits we bring forth. The
man who is not a tender and consid-
crate husband, a loving ard wise IA
ther. is not serving the Lord when he
goes to church; so with the woman;
so with all who come here. Our being
in this church, our communion here
one with another, our sitting under
the pastor and hearing from him the
word of God, must, il We are sincere,
show the effects in our lives outside.
ave of the Reformed church have
a peculiar duty to perform in this
great country of ours, a country stiil
in the making, for we have the duty
peculiarly incumbent upon us to take
care of our brethren who come each
year from over seas TO our shores. Inc
man going to new country is torn
by the roots from all his old associa-
tions, and there is a period of great
danger TO him in the time before he
gets his roots down in the new coun-
try, before he brings himself into
touch with his fellows in the new
land. For that reason | always take
peculiar interest in the attitude of
our churches toward the immigrants
who come to these shores. | feel that
we should be peculiarly watchful over
them, because of our own history, pc
cause we or our fathers came here un-
der like conditions. Now that we have
established ourselves let us see to it
that we stretch out the hand of help,
the hand of brotherhood toward the
newcomers, and help them as speedily
as possible to shape themselves and to
get into such relations that 1T Will
be easy for them to walk well IN the
new life. That is one form of duty
peculiarly incumbent upon us, OF
these reformed churches. But we are
not to be excused if we selfishly set
down and enjoy gifts that have been
given to us and do not try to share
them with our poorer fellows coming
from every part of the world, who,
MANY of them, stand in such need OF
the helping hand; who often not only
meet too many people anxious to as
sociate with them for their detriment,
but too often too few anxious to asso-
ciate with them for their good.
another thing; let us so far as
strength is given US, make 1t evident TO
those who look on and who are not OF
us that our faith is not one of words
merely; that it finds expression IN
deeds One sad, one lamentable phase
of human history is that the very
loftiest ideas have been used as cloaks
for the commission of dreadful deeds
of iniquity We must, in our lives, In
our efforts, endeayor to further the
cause of brotherhood in the human
family, and we must do it in such
way that the men anxious to find sub
iect for complaint or derision in the
churches of the United States, in our
church, may not be able to find it by
pointing out any contrast between
our professions and our lives.
"This church is consecrated here to-
day to duty and to service, to the
worship of the creator, and to an
earnest effort on our part so to shape
our lives among ourselves and in rela-
tion to the outside world that we may
| feel that we have done our part IN
bringing a little nearer the day when
there shall be on this earth genuine
brotherhood of man."