Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-05-18
Addresses methodists at
American University.
"6ood Citizenship the Subject
Of a Spirited Speech.
10 Reason to Fear For Future Of
the United States.

fore a large gathering of Methodists
at the American University, in course
of construction, just outside the city
limits. The assemblage was composed
principally of the delegates to the Cen
eral conference of the Methodist Epis-
copal church now in session in Balti-
more. The President said in part:
1t is q pleasure to be with you today
and to bid you welcome on behalf of
the Nation, here in the capital of the
Nation. Important though the Meth
odist Church is in many lands. there is
none in which it has played So great
and peculiar part as here in the
United States. Its History is indisso-
lutly interviewer with the history nf
our country for the six score years
since the constitutional convention
made us really nation. Methodism
in America entered on its period Of
rapid growth just about the time of
Washington's first Presidency. It's es-
sential democracy, its fiery and rest
less energy of spirit, and the wide play
that it gave to individual initiative,
all tended to make it peculiarly con-
genial to hardy and virile folk. dem
Ocratic to the core, pri.lE, individual
independence above all earthly posses
sions, and engaged in the rough and
stern work of conquerltg Il continent
Methudism spread even among the old
communities and the long settled dis
tricts OF the Atlantic tide water: but
its phenomenal growth was from these
regions westward. The whole country
is under a debt of gratitude to the
Methodist circuit riders, the Methodist
pioneer preachers, whose movement
westward kept pace with the move
1nCnt of the frontier, who shared all
the haruShips in the life of the from
tiersman, while at the same time mill
i3tc.iny to that fronticrsman's spirit
ual necls, and seeing that his pressing
material cares and the hard and grind
ing provcrty of his life did not wholly
eXtnguish the divine fire within his
soul. Such was your work in the past:
and your work in the present is as
great; for the need and opportunity
for service widen as the field of ma
tional interest widcns. 1t is not true
in this country that the poor have
grown poorer: but it is true that in
many sections, and particularly in our
large cities, the rich have grown SC
very uluCu TlCllcI DIS W WlucIl lllc gun
between the man of very large means
and the man who makes each days
livelihood by that days work; and
those who with sincerity. and efficien-
cy. and deep conviction. band together
for mutual help, are those who can do
most to keep the gulf from becoming
too wide. True religion, through
church organizations, through philan-
thropic organizations. in all the field
of kindred endeavor. can manifest it
self as effectively in the crowded and
complex life of today as in the pioneer
yesterdays and the souls of men need
the light now. and strive blindlv to-
ward it, as they needed it. and strove
toward it i'm the vanished past. It is
your task to do the work of the Lord
on the farm and in the mine, in the
countingroom and the factory. in the
ear shops and beside the blasting fur
naces. just as 1t was the task of your
spiritual forebears to wrestfe for the
souls of the men and women who
dwclt on the stumpdotted clearings in
the Wilderness.
No nation in the world has more
right than ours to look with proud
where else has the experiment Of dem
ocratic government. of. government by
the people and for the people. of gov
ernment based nn the principle. of
treating each man on his innate worth
as man. been tried on so vast a scale
as with us, and on the whole the eX-
pertinent has been more successful
than anywhere else. Moreover. on the
whole think it can be said that we
have grown better and not worse: for
II there is much evil. good also greatly
abounds, and if wrong grows, so In
even greater measure grows the stern
sense of right before which wrong
must eventually yield. 1t would be
both unmanly and unwarranted to be-
come faint hearted or despairing about
the Nations future. Clear-eyed and
far r-sighted men who are both brave
of heart and cool of head, while not
for moment refusing to sec and ac-
knowledge the many evils around us.
must yet also feel q confident assur-
ance that in the struggle we shall win.
and not lose. that the century that has
just opened will see great triumph
FOR our people.
But the surest way to achieve THIS
triumph is. while never losing hope
and belief in our progress. yet at the
same time to refuse to blind ourselves
to what is evil in the complex play of
the many forces. working through. and
with. and against one another. in the
upbuildinE of our social structure.
There is much that tends toward evil
as well as much that tends toward
good; and the true patriot is that man
who. without losing faith in the good.
does his best to combat the evil. to
stamp it out where that is possible.
and at least to minimize it's results.
Prosperity such as ours. necessary
though it be as the material basis of
national greatness. inevitably tends to
undue .exaltation of the merely
material side of the national character;
and we must largely rely on the efforts
Of such men and women as those am
addressing to build up the spiritual life
without which the material life
amounts to nothing. AS generation
succeeds generation the problems
change in their external shape old
needs vanish, and new needs arise; but
IT remains as true as ever that in the
,,.+ ocoJvS;r national greatness, ma