The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-01
CRAWFORD TALKS ON
SPIRIT OF CHRIST
Shows Its Relations With
American Institutions
TAKES TEXT FROM ROMANS
surest Way to Get More Christianity
Into Our American Democracy Is
to Get More Democracy
In Our Christianity.
TAKES TEXT FROM ROMANS

Ensley, November so.-(Special)--A fea-
ture of yesterdays Thanksgiving services
in Ensley was the address of DIR. a.
Crawford, rector of st. Johns Episcopal
church. DIR. Crawford spoke on The
Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Ameri-
can Institutions as follows:
Text: "The creature itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children
of God" Rom. viii 81.
st. Paul begins this letter to the
Romans with a terrible arraignment of
existing conditions. He faces the Gentle
world with a catalogue of its sins, moral
and political. The nations were held so
fast in the bondage of corrution that God
seemed to have given them over to the
sway of reprobate mind. st. Paul turns
to his own countrymen. You, who are
able to discern so clearly the iniquities of
other nations, how about yourselves2
Thou art inexcusable, o man. whatsoever
thou art that judgest: for wherein thou
judgest another, thou condemnest myself:
for thou that judgest doest the same
things Thou art confident that thou
myself art guide to the blind, a light to
them which are in darkness. an instructor
of the foolish, a teacher of babies.
Thou therefore which teachest another,
teachest thou not thyself?" The apostle
discusses with his countrymen each of the
claims upon which popular Boosting and
national exaltation based to show
the emptiness of each: pride of race, pride
of religion, pride of the deeds of ances-
try.
Was No Mere Cynic.
Yet st. Paul is no mere cync or pessi-
mist He is the most hopeful man of
his time. Only he desires that men shall
first see things as they are, that they may
check their cheers for the existing order
long enough to hear what he has to say
about the possibility of a better order.
Emperor Nero is on the throne. The
fires of persecution will soon be lighted.
But out of the ruin of it all st. Paul sees
a kingdom rising in which the most earn
est hopes of earnest men shall be realized:
the Christian church. Far beyond some
mere national triumph the vision which
he contemplates is not to be limited even
The whole creation is concerned in it.
With an insight that seems to anticipate
the science and philosophy of later years
and centuries, he conceives of all nature
as struggling through long processes of
painful evolution, earnestly waiting for
man to fulfill his plain destiny and to
lead the way to new order of things
"The earnest expectation of the creation
watteth for the manifestation of the sons
of God. Because the creature itself
also shall be delivered from the bondage
Of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of Cod There is sense
in which our American republic has been
regarded as an experiment upon which
has been fixed the earnest expectation of
the world. If ever form of government
has promised to secure to men those I'M
alienable rights with which they are
endowed by their Creator, it is this gov
eminent of the United States of America.
Are We Fulfilling Our Duty?
On this day and date, on the annual
recurrence of each year. when the har-
vest is garnered, the grain, cotton and
products of the earth are placed away
from the winters frosts and cold when
by custom of our forefathers, the civic
authorities of our nation and state de-
clare by proclamation, a day set apart
to enter churches and return thanks to
Almighty God for all His mercies to the
children of men. it Is good for us, not
only to celebrate the great deeds Of the
year, but also to seriously ask ourselves
how we are today fulfilling the earnest
hope and expectation in the making of
our constitution, the great magma charta
of American liberty Here we taught the
of American liberty. Have we taught the
for the American republic to teach?
L.. -.
are often misled by the modern date Of
the United States into thinking of the
American people a folk who have ar
rived late on the stage of history, and
who must, therefore. be content to take
their place at the feet of the older races.
like untaught children If fullness and
ripeness of knowledge of life are the
real evidence and test of age. we are
older than India and China. The older
races formed their political and social
systems when society was in its youth;
we formed ours when society had at
tanned full growth; and our constitution
has evoked such unstinted admiration
from the great publicists of the old
world because it embodies the fruit OF
so much experience, the wisdom of so
wide a contact with life. 1t is really the
oldest political document of it's kind in
the world. The constitution is the capt.
talized experience Of the world to the
very date of its framing"
If. therefore. the poet may cry out to
this ship of state
Humanity, with all its fears,
With all the hopes of futures years,
Is hanging GREATNESS on thy fate
it is not so much because the ship marks
radical departure from all previous
models. as that it is the most finished pro-
duct of a long process of evolution vitality
united with that great movement so long