The daily sentinel., 1908-02-06

ago before the Congregational Club
of Chicago, a remarkable address.
considered by many an ideal sermon
from a layman. The address was
on the subject. "Christ in the Life"
1t has been copied and commented
upon throughout the country espec-
tally in church papers of all denom-
nations. The layman who delivered
the address was William Jennings
Bryan.
The following report of Mr..
Bryan's remarks on the occasion is
taken from that great religious Jour-
nal with a circulation of nearly
million, 1.-THE Home and Herald"
A person does not have to be a
church member to get something
good out of this magnificent talk:
"I always feel at home In relig-
ious gathering. My father and mother
were both church members. and
Joined the church when I was four
teen years old. If my religious
speeches are less widely known than
my political speeches. 1t Is not my
fault. I would rather make relig-
ious address than to address poll
tical meeting. l had spoken from
pulpits for seven years before I ever
spoke from the stump. and I shall be
In the church long after l am out of
politics.
at has always been a mystery to
me why people who are Christians
should hesitate to have the fact
known everywhere. There are many
good men outside of the church. who
are leading straightforward lives,
who yet hesitate to acknowledge free
ly the source from which they draw
their strength, who rever come out
boldly and proclaim that they are
followers of Christ. We Christians
have allowed ourselves to be put on
the defensive when we should be on
the offensive. 1t is our place to be
aggressive. Let the man who ques-
tions the divinity of Christ answer
the argument of His life. When
meet a man who Is an unbeliever, as
/ sometimes do. do not point him
first to the birth of Christ or to His
death. / do not attempt to prove His
divinity by the miracles which He
wrought. I say to the man who tells
me that Christ was merely a car
penter and the son of a carpenter
"How, then, do you account for the
wonderful knowledge which He
had?" How was 1t that this Carpen-
ter, this Wandering Jew, spake as
never man spake, lived as never man
lived. and in the space of a few
months teaching. which ended in a
criminals death. was able to trans
form the world? How can you ac-
count for the Transforming power of
this Nazarene in the lives OF men?
You may write libraries of books,
you may speak one sermon after an
other, and these can all be answered,
hut IN. upaucwara h1a aruument Ia n
Christian life.
zone will say that Christ had a
hard thing when He said that anyone
who loved mother or father or wife
or children more than Him was un-
worthy of Him. But is that a hard
thing? We can have only one para
mount aim in life. Those who accuse
Christ of laying down a hard condi-
tion forget that He promised to those
who sought first the Kingdom of God
that all these things would be added
unto them. And where can you pick
out Unfortunately 600 unbelievers
and bring them together and have a
more happy company than we have
here tonight7 And where do you
| find better wives, or better husbands,
or more happy homes than among
Christian people?
"Christ said that He came to bring
life and Immortality to light. For
merly Christian people placed the
emphasis on Immortality; now we
place 1t on life. Our fathers searched
the Scriptures to discover what they
had to say about Heaven; now we
read them for the light they cast on
the past of today. I have just re-
turned from a tour of the world and
have returned with new convic-
tion of the importance of Christian
missions. I have heard 1t said by
many men that the work of missions
is not an essential work, that low
ing Father will never condemn to
punishment the heather who have
never had an opportunity of hearing
the Gospel. I do not pretend to be
theoIogian. do not pretend to
stand here as voicing the DEGREES of
God. / only know from what |
myself have seen that the work of
the missionary is indispensable for
the wonderful influence which 1t has
on the life of the heather In this
world, regardless of how 1t may In
fluence their position in the next. If
it were impossible for us to get
teachers and pastors and doctors to