Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-07
CELEBRATES FORTIETH
YEAR OF MINISTRY
REV. WARREN DAY ORDAINED
MAY 2, 1866
breaches Anniversary Sermon at First
Congregational Church-TelIs of
His Work in Past and Outlook of
Future

In celebration of his fortieth anniver-
sary in the Christian ministry, Rev. DR..
Warren F. Day. pastor emeritus of the
First Congregational church, preached
yesterday morning on "These Forty
Years" The large auditorium was COM
pletely filled with interested friends and
members of the congregation, and as
DR.. Day entered the pulpit he was
greeted by hundreds of handkerchiefs
giving the Chautauqua salute. Special
decorations in honor of the event were
placed on pulpit and platform.
Dr. Day spoke of his vast work of
the past forty years and of the work to
come with all the enthusiasm of a
young man. He said in part:
Forty years ago, May 2, 1866. after
four years in college and three in theo-
logical seminary, | was ordained a min
lister of the gospel at Bloomingdale.
ILL., My ministry began in a time of
deep public emotion. The war was
over, but what made it was not. The
smell of smoke was still in the air and
hatred in angered hearts. Slavery had
been abolished, but the heritage of
slave holding awaited an elimination
which no single generation could effect.
Pastorates Few
"Of the steps by which I have been
brought to this hour and place the ac-
count Is brief. My pastorates have not
been many. The time In Ottawa, ILL.,,
and this church, so far, lacks less than
three months of twenty-three years.
Since my ordination little more than
fourteen years were In Michigan, a lit
tie less than fourteen in Illinois: the
remainder in Los Angeles. Once only
and that for study and travel, have
left a field except to enter another.
With that exception there has never
been a Sabbath between pastorates.
Seldom absent from our association
meetings and councils, delegate to
large number of the gatherings of
our national benevolent and missionary
societies: present at the International
CONGREGATIONAL council in London in
1891 and at the ecumenical foreign mis-
sionary conference in 1900 where nearly
every evangelical denomination was
represented. I recall with pleasure the
fact that at Oberln, November, 1871, a 9
delegate from the Kalamazoo associa-
tion and as member of the committee
on the constitution, / participated in
the organization of our national trien-
NAL council, OF which Dr. GLADDEN., who
is to be prominent in the approaching
Pacific coast conference, is the present
moderator
"Underlying all that of which we
have spoken are movements which,
during the past forty years, have af-
fected men as the child of a king
There has been the movement to Danish
the thought that man is the child of a
king, and the counter movement to
make clear the sublime fact that there
is a God Father and that man is his
child. With the issue whether we are
orphans or princes has been the wres-
tling over the relations which the chill
dren of the king should hold with each
other, whether it be between sover-
eign and citizen, employer and en-
ploye. or between corporations and the
common people. Inseparable from this
controversy is the conflict concerning
the Book which the Father caused to
be written for his children. These have
been the chief years of the higher
criticism.
"Evolution may have been the pro-
cess. but never the creative or origi-
mating power. Each disclosure of what
Il comprehends adds force to the fact
that God only is able to create and
command this magnificent universe.
'I am glad that 1 became o minister
OF the gospel. Imperfectly as 1t has
been done, ii has been a blessed work.
MY anticipa tions have been more than
realized. though often in ways i'm which
had not anticipated. The Christ whom
/ have preached has been very precious
to me-"
.s-----.1..-- -, ~. M xgot, xyfiI (InA IN