The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-30
LARGE SUM PLEDGED
 FOR RFL. .GIOUS WI X First Y. M. c. A. Meeting of the Year Held in Foy
 Auditorium. DON Q. SHELTON SPEAKS Tells of the Advance of Bible Reading Among Young
 Men.
DON Q. SHELTON SPEAKS

An audience of men which almost filled the main floor of Foy audi torium marked the first of the mass meetings for men which the Y. M. C.. A. is to hold each Sunday afternoon during the coming months. The full vested choir of Trinity church under the direction of Chairnaster Read ren- dered the special musical program, which was announced in the Journal and Courier Saturday morning.
 The meeting was in charge of A.. Francis Kottcamp the religious work director of the association Aft CT the audience led by the Trinity choir had sun onward Christian Sol- diers' Rev. Milton D. Phillips of fsrcd prayer
 MT. Kottcamp explained the object of the meetings to follow and asked for financial pledges to cover the ex- penses involved. Much enthusiasm prevailed, and about $S50 was pledged.
 After several selections by the choir Daa Q. Shelton of New York city, pl sident of the National Bible insti- tuto, and editor of The Bible To-day" made the address of the afternoon i He dwelt on the remarkable growth .of interest in the study of the Bible among young men. He said that the yearly enrollment of the Young Mems Christian association Bible classes had increased to over 75,000. This mark ed advance has been accompanied by a notable improvement in methods of teaching and in the quality of the courses of study used
 < He referred to the accessibility of fthe Bible in this present age, but said that cheap as Bibles are and widely circulated as the Bible is, compara- lively few know the Bible.
 This condition" he said seems hard to explain, in view of the fact 1 that men who have possessed the 1 greatest intellectual strength and who have had the widest acquaintance 4 with literature have crowned the [ Bible king among books They have testified their belief in it's divine origin and in it's power to uplift, guide and shape character I1ose who have read and studied it most diligently have valued 1t most highly l. George Muller of Bristol, England, after having read the Bible through more than one hun dred times, declared it to be fresher than he had ever known it. Z.
 President Mckinley" he said, twas one who gave the Bible lead- ing place in his thought and life. A friend of MT Mckinley who travelled with him in Ohio when he was a nominee for governor, says that every night at the close of the. campaign for the day MT Mckinley took his Xble and read chapter, and then reverent- ly knelt in prayer. Tn his early life MT. Mckinley was not only an earnest student of the Bible, but also an effi- cient Bible teacher His pastor says that, to MT. Mckinley, what the Bible said, God said. We may be sure that every life clean, strong and influential like MT, Mcxinley's, is enlightened and empowered by communion with God through the study of the Bible and prayer He made time for Bible reading and study, and so can every man who has the will to do so.
 Those who study the Bible are nobly occupied. They find themselves in company with the strong minded and high purposed men and women of the ages It is wise to make the inti- mate acquaintance of a book that leads men and nations to higher and puror destiny Every man should re- joice when he gives much time to the study of q book which has engaged the most serious attention of states men like Burke and Gladstone; of I painters like Raphael and Michael Angelo; of sculptors like Thorwald- sen; of musicians like Mozart and Handel; of lawyers like Blackstone; of orators like Webster and Bright; of business men like William B. Dodge and George Williams; of physicians like Harvey; of philosophers like Ba- con and John Stuart Mill; of poets like Dante, Milton and Tennyson'