The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-05-17
WORDS Of WELCOME
To THE METHOD|STS


.(Continued from First PaGeO
as here in the United States. It's history
IS indissolubly interwoven with the ms.
tory of our country for the SIX '..a store
made us really nation. Methodism -
America entered on Its period OF RAPID
growth Just about tho time OF Wasnlns-
first r Its energy Of
spirit, and the wide play that II gave . 70
Individual Initiative, all tended to make u
peculiarly congenial to q hardy ana virlie
viduai Independence above all earthly pos
sessions. and engaged in the rough and
stern work OF conquerlngi continent;
Methodlsm spread even among the Ola
communities and the long..settled districts
OF the Atlantic tdewater; but Its phenom-
email growth was from these regions west
ward. The whole country Is under dept
OF gratitude to the Methodist circuit T. r avs
ers. the Methodist pioneer. preachers,
whose movement westward kept pace
|! with the movement of the frontier, WHO
shared all the hardships in the life OF the
ministerlng 10 that frontiersman's spir-
Itual needs, and seeing that his pressing
material cares and the hard and grind
ing poverty of his life did not wholly ex-
tlnguish the divine fire within his soul.
Such was your work in the past; and
your work In the present Is as great; Tor
the need and opportunity for service WIDEN
as the field of national interest widens II
have grown poorer: but It is true that
in many sections, and particularly in our
large cities, the rich have grown SO very
much richer as 10 widen the gulf between
the man Of very large means and tho
main who makes each days livelihood by
that days work; and those who with sim
|cerity, and efficiency, 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. il all the field OF
kindred endeavor. can manifest itself as
effectively In. the crowded and complex
life of to-day as in the pioneer yester-
days: and the souls OF men need the light
now. and strive blindly toward It. as they
needed It. and strove toward 1t in the
vanished past. 1t is your task to do the
work of the Lord on the farm and in the
mine, in the courting-room AID the fac
tory, in the car shops and beside the
blasting furnaces. just as 1t was the task
of your spiritual forebears to wrestle for
the souls Of the men and women who
dwelt on the stump-dotted clearings in the
wilderness.
Confidence In Future.
No nation in tho world has more right
than ours to look with proud confidence
toward the future. Nowhere else has the
government by the people and for the
people, of government based on the prin-
ciples Of treating each man on his innate
worth as man. been tried on so vast a
pertinent has been more successful than
anywhere else. Moreover, on the whole,
think 1t can be said that we have grown
better and not worse; for IL there is much
evil. good also greatly abounds. and If
wrong grows, 80 in even greater measure
grows the stern sense of right before
which wrong must eventually yield. It
would be both unmanly and unwarranted
to become falnt-hearted or despairing
about the Nations future. Clear-eyed and
iar-slghted men who are both brave of
heart and cool of head, while not for a
moment refusing to see and acknowledged
the many evils around us. must yet also
feel q confident assurance that in the |
Struggle we shall win and not lose that
me ne! 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
.,e In our progress, yet at the sane
is Is evil In the complex play of the many
forces. working through, and with, and
against one another. in the upbuilding Of
our social structure. There is much that
tends toward good; and the true patriot
Is that man who, without losing faith in
the good does his best to cambat the |
eXil. to stamp 1t out where that is pos
prosperity such as ours, necessary though |
1t be as the material basis OF national
greatness, inevitably tends to undue ex-
altation OF the merely material side Of the
rely on the efforts of such men.and women
as those am addressing to build nm tha
spiritual life without which the nate |
rial life amounts to nothing. AS genera
. .4 succeeds generation the problems
chanEe IN their external shape; old needs
vanish. and new needs arise; but II re-
mains as true as ever that in the last
analysis national greatness, national han
piness, national success, Deepen upon the
character Of the individual man and inGi.
Nluual women. I'VE need good laws; we
need 70 have these laws honestly and
fearlessly administered: we need wealth. In.
we need science and art and all the kin
dred activities that spring from the clever
brain and the deft hand. But most Of ali |
we need the essential qualities that in
qnnd sum sum- maze up the good man and the
me and healthy family life the lack ~
WnichS makes any seeming material nros.
perlty butSa glittering sham. - = - !
The Duty of Each.
If the average man is brave and hard
working and clean-living, II the average
woman has the qualities which make a 4
good wife and good mother If each has
self-respect, and II each realizes that the
greatest thing in life is the chance to do
then the future of the ma
tion is secure. We cannot stand up for
what is good in manhood and woman
hood without condemnng what. Is evil. |
We must condemn the man who is either
brutal and vicious, or weak and cowardly. Il
me =. !, man who falls to do his duty by the
public. who a. bad neighbour. an idler,s
an inconsiderate and selfish husband, a
neglectful father. So also we must con-
denim the woman who, whether from cow
ardice or GOODNESS, from selfish love OF
ease or from lack of all true womunly
all-essential duties Of witehood and moth
erhOOd. We admire good man. bnt wa