The Washington herald., 1907-11-23

if genuine, is simply deposit that is left
by experience. the dregs at the bottom of
the bottle II concerns itself, of course,
with religious matters, but has in it no
more OF the vital genius Of religion than
does astronomy or geology. IL Is religion
viewed speculatively instead Of appro-
priated eNperimentally. Religious expert
ence is bound to produce theology. but
theology is incompetent to yield religious
| experience.
service Versus Religion.
"Our third specification was Religion
considered as a scheme Of service There
| is so much of the idea of service in
volved in an organization Ike yours that
this third matter requires 20 be handled
with very special care and frankuess.
And so ] undertake TO say that service
is not religion any more than theology is.
II may be symptomatic of religion: IL
may be product OF religion. il may De
means of making religion effective
But. considered I'm itself, Il is simply per-
formance, and when you have added un
| whole column of performances. there
is not necessarily any religion IN the
L
is to hustle. 10 do things, lot of them
whether We have ever learned how 20 dc
! them or not, and whether We have OF
| have not been imbued with the spiri,
/ that makes the doing of them effective
/ and productive. What you do as Y
/ NJ. c. 4. men is merely channel for the
conveyance Of a current Of supply that
/ is utterly distinct from channel We
must not confuse water and Waterman
Service, be IL the service of a preacher
a prayer-meeting conductor. gymnas-
/ ium teacher. swimming master. a book
keeping instructor, is 10 be understood u
be simply form of machinery by which
certain kind Of raw material becomes
converted into finished personal product
The RAW Material"
The question then comes on what we
have just called the raw material and
this introduces US to what is the funda-
mental purpose Of my address. The
| basal and practical fact upon which we
require to seize is that the God OF the
Christian religion is not simply one who
administers the material world and COM
mends himself TO the intelligence and
even the conscience of men. but that he
is self-communicable, between whom and
men there are open channels Of personal
! conveyance.
"A fact stated with early emphasis in
Johns Gospel is that Christ came into
the world that we might have life and
that we might have 1t more abundantlv.
For we are very infirm IN our grasp
upon the intention of the gospel, If we
think OF the three years Of the Goldman
ministry as anything other than the pre-
lude 20 a divine oratorio permanently
1 continued. Those years and what oc-
CURED IN them are no relics. no curious
anomalies to be relegated TO the museum
/ OF religious antiquities. They are the
| momentary fash Of everlasting realities:
! the rift in the cloud that gives us a
glimpse Of the heavens In all the 7Invarv-
ing Righteousness of blue with which the
| whole circumference of years and CEN
/ turies is canopied.'
The Convention Organized.
Following this address came the repor-
Of the committee on organization, made
| by its chairman. Gov. Atkinson. This
| report named the following officers. who
will conduct services during the remain.
der of the convention and until the next
one meets three years from the present
time: President. Judge SeIden p. Spen-
Ger, St Louis: first vice president. d. w
Ross, Montreal; second vice president. A
! J. Wallace. Los Angeles: third vice
president, Senator J. +. Johnston. Ala.
/ bama; fourth vice president, Gov. W
F. Freer, Hawaii; fifth vice president. E.
P. Lyon Brooklyn: sixth vice president