The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-05-24
SPEAKS TO NEGROES
BISHOP HENDRIx AT TUsKEGEE
 INSTITUTE.
Turns Aside From Commencement Ser mon to Dwell Upon the work of Bishop Gsfiowny-Mnny
 White Persons Present.

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 Tuskegee. May 2s-(Special.) )-Bishop Eugene R. Hendrix of Nthe Methodist Church. South. preached an eloquent commencement sermon to the students of Booker T. washington's School to- day.
 At 1880 p. m. the girls and boys. headed by the band. which played plan tation melodies. and followed by teach CTS and graduates of the institute. formed between the Carnegie Library and the Baldwin monument and march, ed to the institute chapel
 The following program was ob- served:
 Love Divine--choir.
 Doxoiogy.
 Prayer by Elder Trawick of Tuske- zee district.
 Hymn.
 Collection.
 Music--The Glory of the Lord.
 Melody--School.
 Scripture, Lesson by Rev. L. S. Chap belle. Methodist Church of Tuskesee.
 Meiodfes1-Choir and school
 Bishop E R. Hendrix. D. D. IL. D" delivered the commencement sermon
 Bishop Hendrix recently passed nis e2nd birthday He is a gradua.e oi Wesleyan College, Middletown. Conn., and of Union Theological Seminary. After his ordination in 1870, he accept ed the pastoratc of the churches in Ma con and St. Joseph Counties. Missouri. Tn 1896 he was elected to the Bishopric of the Methodist Episcopal Churcn, South. He has made official visits 70 Mexico, Brazil, China. Japan and ko- req, and founded the mission ol hS l.. At.n faf AAA QaGIntFV.
 He spoke to the Tuskegee students in part as follows. his subject oeins "The Optimism of Christ.
 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, tfl he have set judgment In the earth' and the isles shall wait for his law. Isaiah xiii, 4.
 Whoever is thefchosen servant, his are new and strange credentiais' sne chief of which Is, he shall never iose heart. God can no more use dis coura ged man than he can spent bull let ar a dead engine. When the power of service js gone and Elijah cries. s'Iet me die for I am no better than my fathers" there is nothing left put to renew the fires and to rekindle the energies Elijah must eat and sleep until he can go in the strength or that food for brain and nerve forty days and forty nights, and then God can speak to him and through him. discouraged man is the devils chosen servant, not Gods.
 Who the chosen servant Is, the evan gelist, Matthew. plainly declares as Christ healed the man with the Wltn- cred hand thus showing that gentle ness which does not quench the smok- ing lamp or cast away the bruised and broken reed, telling at the same time the story of the sheep fallen into the pit. which the tender Shepherd will lift out even on the Sabbath day. How much. then, is man better than a sheep?' The -hero God asks to be judged not by t. number whe> serve Him, but by the number He serves. His retinue is in part made of the wreckage of humanity and of little children shouting hosannahs. He is the leader of men and the lover or children He Is mighty as He is mighty to save.
 The Great Physician is known by the number of incurabies He heals, the outcasts and rejected of men. Lepers find hope as they cry, Lord, IT thou wilt. thou canst make me clean. Fallen women kiss His rect hot with their tears of hope and live. Zacheus. de- spised of men as hopsiessly entangieo in the tolls of il-gotten gain, mas new strength in his ankle joints when ne hears Christ talk in his home and re-
  of Gods commandments Even death never sealed an ear so tight that II could not hear Jesus when he spoke.
 Tn all this there is nothing sensa- tfoual. He did not cry nor lift up ms voice in the street like some Dervisn initiating the cry of a wild animal the better to attract attention. The most human of men, His perfect humanity was mighty In it's genuineness and love. It never despaired. The most helpless people. the dwellsrs in the isles. where cannibalism has longest rained. shall not wait in vain for His law. It lis these very islands of the sea where His Gospel has won its ear Hest and completest triumphs, until cannibalism is no longer known out side the impenetrable forests of dark est Africa.
 Christ's credentials are His service. His spiritual power, His meekness and self stery, His love of humanity and His faith in God and man. His cour- age was not born of low ideals. the sooner to be realized, or of an under estimate of the difficulties to be over come, whether of opposition or inertia