Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-26
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION.
Unity Glass of All Souls Church Has
Pleasant Time.

The unity class of All Souls Unitarian
Church celebrated the 1920 anniversary
of the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson
last night. Addresses were made by Col.
Royal Emerson Whitman, u. S. A, who
for ten years led the class engaged in
the study of Emerson; by Maj James AL
bert Clark, who is the present leader, and
who presided, and by Rev, u. G. b. Pierce,
pastor of the church. Col. John Tweedale
L. S. A, read Emerson's poem, The Prob
lem
In the course of an interesting address
Col. Whitman said:
IF the Man of Galilee could say I am a
door leading to the spiritual life, we to-
night may well say that Emerson is a
door opening to the great hall of the phi
losophy of the religious life My only
claim to appear before you Is that some
years ago 1 stood as kind of finger, di-
recting thoughtful inquirers to that door,
Whoever is not ready and glad to be
led out from the sitting Enclosures Of
time, space and personality into the real
the limitless. the indefinable universe of
being, into the realization of eternal
life now and here-who is not ready to
be guided out of the little Iand-locked
bay he calls himself into the great ocean
of which he is a parts not ready Tor
Emerson. Fine scholars may talk of his
style, but today 1t is true that only the
soul can know the soul.
THE unity class has grown from a lit
tie membership formed twelve years ago
for the purpose of discovering religious
unity, the meaning of religion when sfft-
ed from its chaff of words and traditions.
and the various forms of idolatry Finally
1T was agred that Emerson was In HIM
self the greatest American apostle of re-
ligious unity. 1t was found that the study
of his essays was the best possible EN-.
ployment for the Sunday morning hour.
Col. Whitman then presented to Maj.
James Albert Clark, in the name of the
unity class, beautiful set of Emerson.
In accepting the tribute Maj Clark
said: When we study Emerson we study
not Emerson the man alone, but Him who
speaks through Emerson He was the
voice of the great oversoul.' Today his
thought Is growing in the world, and is
force that Is growing-the philosophy of
Omar Khayam. We choose for our own
lives Emerson's system of idealistic
thought"
son has become a mighty power" said
Rev u. G. B. Pierce. There are three
ways in which a man may step into true
conception of his relation to the universe
first by the law of necessity; second,
by the law of attraction through tenn
permanent, as when a man becomes
scholar because he is addicted to seden-
tary life, or when he is restless and be-
comes a man of affairs; and by voluntary
cooperation, as when the individual de-
clares I have come to do Thy will
Emerson's conception of these things
made him a prophet ordained before the
world was He was truly a part of Amer
lea, and was the greatest religious phil
losopher we have had"
The program, which was enjoyed by
large number, was interspersed with mu-
sical selections by Miss Ada Louisa Town
send Miss Emma Houchen and Mr. Chas.
w. Moore, and by the reading of The
Problem by Col. Tweedale. Refresh
ments and social hour followed.