The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-02-12
Staple SLOO Corsets, 2Oc

deavOr." 4 want to say to you said
Dr. Carter, that in all my experience
that in all my reading of Christian
EndeaVOr celebrations, I have never seen
such a celebration as here tonight New,
at the end OF the first quarter century,
is the time for retrOspectiOn and intro
spectiOn. We should devote some time
looking behind as well as looking within
ourselves. Introspection and RETROSPECT
ton are two Of the greatest teachers
in the world.
Anniversaries are the milestones on
the highway of life. They are the places
where we sit down for while before
going on and look backward on the past
to see what lessons are. told there. We
have come tonight to one of these bles-
sed milestOnes. It makes US look back
ward and inward. Great soul move
ments have their rudimentaI movements
in darkness. When at last they step
forth to the work marked for them, they
step out fully armed.
"Out of the retirement Of Francis A
Clark to that lonesome New. England
parsonage has come this great young
peoples society. On February 2, 1881,
Mr.. and Mrs. Clark brought the young
people of their church together and told
them that they were to be trained in
their own church. This was the begin
ming of the Christian Endeavor. We
today, looking back over the days that
have gone, realize how much has come
out Of the darkness of those years, when
Francis a. Clark, that minister back
in New England, told his people of his
thoughts and ideals.
1T was after the first five years, after
the first convention, that the Orgaalza-
ton became of sufficient Importance to
be considered national in its extent. At
ter the first ten years, after the cOnven-
ton that attracted the attention of the
world, after Is years we gathered at the
Washington convention 10000 strong,
the world was gasplng at this child
Fifteen years and convention of 10000,
no wonder that the world gaSped.
twenty-five years now, this infant
grown from that one society in Port
land, Maine, to 66,772 societies and with
q membership of almost 100000 souls.
Seeing this you may ask in the words
! of Shakespeare, What food has this our
1 Caesar fed on that he has grown so
! great2 1t is a fair question. Activity
always stimulates growth. This society
was never organized for the purpose OF
merely holding prayer meetings. DR..
| Clark recognized this when he provided
/ that it should be Christian Endeavor
/ along every line.
why is it that this Christian EudeavoT
/ has grown to be such a movement Be
4 cause the world has found the need of
/ constant Christian activity. There are
/ those who say that Christians, as Chris
i tfan organizations, shOld not go into pol
tiles. They don't; they are thrust into it,
It's the natural sequence. i ne cnurch
1 must get into the world if it wants to
( alleviate the evils which exist in the
/ world.
wherever a moral principle in this
/ last election was placed against party
machine the moral principle triumphed
and prevailed. That is practical Chris
/ ton EndeaVOr-
what of the future of Christian En-
deavOr? As long as the principles OF
/ Christian Endeavor endure, Christian En-
/ deaVor will go on from strength tC
strength, from glory to glory, from vic
/ tory to victory
Rev. William Copeland Evans, pastor oil
/ the First Methodist church. spoke BRIEFLY
/ of the work of the Topeka Local I'm
ion
All of the ministers of the various de
nominations in the city had seats on The
I platform.