The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-06
DON 0. SHELTON'S ADDRESS
SPEAKS ON HOME MISSIONS AT CHURCH OF THE REDERMER.

X ff fis-
 What Has Been Accomplished In Gen.
 tury-Congregationa Has In-
 creased Thtrty-eight Fold--The Chris
 tan Opportunities of To-day. Don o. Shelton, associate secretary of the National Congregational Home Mis- sionary society, New York city, spoke at the Church of the Redeemer yester- day morning on Christ and the Twen-
 tieth Century" During his address MT. Shelton announced that the soci- ety had just closed it's year without debt He said in part: .s. Times of testing come to all disciples of Christ Such moments are crises. They reveal the strength or weakness of our faith, the trueness or falseness of our professions, the sand-Ikeness or or rock-likeness of the foundation on which we are building our character,
 '"The worlds Master-teacher soon brought the first group in His world wide university to the point of decisive utterance. Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am? asked He in that notable conversation at Caesarea Phil lipi. And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jere- miah, or one of the prophets The Jews who were outside the apostolic group, whose minds were clouded by ignorance or sin, gave retort that was radical ly wrong. Jesus then turned to the twelve, But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God Jesus replied: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed 1t unto thee, but my father who is in heaven
 '"This sublime confession was follow ed by a clear, ringing testimony of deeds. These strong disciples of the early times sealed their confession by action, by sacrifice, by the endurance of grim hardship, by driving on in obedience to the will of Christ. They gave up home and ease, they were buf- feted and maligned, but pressed on with passionate enthusiasm and force, that the truth of Christ might be made available to the world. There was a magnificent reality in their testimony.
 "To the people of this twentieth cen- tury Christ comes with the same vital question, Who do you say that I, the Son of man, amp It is from the in- ner circle that the true witness is to come. By each one within his church the direct personal answer to the ques- ton, Who say ye that I amp must be given.
 And are we saying that Jesus is the Christ by our lives? Does character bear witness to Him as we'll as words? Is there perfect harmony between our profession and our conduct? There are at least two ways by which each dis ciple of Christ is telling the world who he thinks Jesus is. First by the de- gree of his adherence to the principles of Jesus. These principles are the very heart of the Christian system. Any severance from them brings weakness and ultimately death. No man is a frend of Jesus, no man can ftly rep resent Him 70 others who does not in- cessantly seek to form his character by the unerring principles of Jesus. By the quality of our words, by the purity of our deeds, by the fervor of our devotion to the extension of His kingdom, we declare in unmistakable terms our real thought of Him.
 " lCointinued on Third Page.ls