The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1906-09-14
PRESIDENT PRESENT
ANNIVERSARY CT The EPISCOPAL
CHURCH At OYSTER BAY.
Roosevelt Made a Speech of Half an
Hour, Closing a Series of Four Ad-
dresses-He Appealed to Husbands
to Show the Way-Conduct Proof of
Men-Actions Show Creed's Worth.

Oyster Bay, L. president Roose-
anniversary of Christ Episcopal church
which he attends during his summers
here. The keynote of the presidents
speech, which occupied half an hour
and concluded a series of four ad-
dresses, was that the wealth Of the
nation must not be totally disregarded,
but looked upon as the basis for spir-
itual development, clean living and
civic virtues.
The celebration was held in the
church's edifice which bears the date
1905 on its cornerstone. Admission
was by card and limited to the
churchs membership and the clergy.
1t was followed by collation. in the
parish hall, of which the president par
took and where he chatted freely with
the visiting clergy and church men,
bers.
The speakers preceding the presi-
dent were Rev. H. H. Washburn, pas
tor of the church, who gave the his
torical sketch of the organization;
Bishop Frederick Burgess of Long Is
land, who predicted one church for
future generations in America, and
that the Episcopal; Dew. w. Montague
Geer of New York and Rev. George R.
Vandewater of New York.
Mr.. Roosevelt's Beliefs.
The president began his speech with
confederation of DR.. Geer on the es-
sential need of religion, in its broad
est and deepest sense, to the welfare
Of the country. He said in part:
"Speaking here as a layman l wish
to emphasize the vital Importance of
our people being taught to realize that
the highest value of Christianity mani
tests itself in the conduct of those
who profess it, l shall read several
verses from the end of the first chap
ter of the general epistle of James
But be We doors of the word and
not hearers only, deceiving your own
selves.
For if any be nearer of the word
and not a doer. he is like unto a man
beholding his natural face in a glass.
" For he beholdeth himself, and go
eth his way, and straightway forget
teth what manner Of man he was.
"'Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this: To visit
the fatherless and widows in their af
Fiction and to keep himself unspotted
from the world
ut is true that in many things the
tendencies at work among us today
are evil, but it is true also that there
are plenty of other tendencies for
good. I am not prepared to assent to
the statement that we are so much
worse than we used to be, but it is not
of Importance whether, as a matter of
academic belief, we hold that things
have grown better or worse. What is
of vital Importance is that we should
be resolved to do all in our power
now as heretofore-to make them bet
ter.
Il feel that there has been a real
growth in broad Christian charity.
believe that the different creeds are
in the essentials, in reality vital
things. coming closer all the time, be-
cause I think that they are grasping
the fact that the way in which they
can best serve the Lord is not by war
ring against one another, but by join
ing hands in tne great struggle against
unrighteousness, in the great war for
decency, for honesty, for clean living
in the home no less than in the Lation.
The worth of any creed must in the
long run be judged by the conduct of
those who profess it.
"The most effective service for
Christianity that can possible be given
is to show in actual life that those
who profess it do give in their conduct
an approximate expression to the faith
that is in them. I doubt if any of us
will be able to give more than such
approximate expression of that faith;
nevertheless we can each of us strive
is alive in us; that we are striving to
live up to the essentials of Christian
ity, of the brotherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man as they are taught
in the Bible as they are preached to us
Sunday after Sunday.
"It is the conduct of the average
Christian, not on Sunday, but on week
days, not in the church alone, but in
his family, in his relations to his
neighbors and to the state, that will
more than anything else, determine in
the eyes of the general public the
worth of the creed that man processes.
"The man is not good Christian
who, in his business dealings, fails to
remember that it is incumbent upon
him to hold higher standard than
his fellows. that it is incumbent upon
him, if he is very rich man, to make
it evident alike in the way he earns
and the way he spends his fortune
that the word of the Lord is to him
living truth, and not dead doctrine.
And, of course, what 1 say applies
more strongly to the man in public
life.
1--WE need material well being in this
nation as a foundation without which
no superstructure can be raised. But
upon that foundation we must see to
bo u-o brj15 tho cIDorctr,1oturo Of