Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-09
GREAT CHURCH
IS DEDICATED
IN LONG BEACH
BISHOP HUGHES breaches
DEDICATORY SERMON
FINEST RELIGIOUS HOME ON
COAST coNsEcRATED
More Than Three Thousand Persons
at First Great Service in First
Methodist Congregations
New Temple

church of Long Beach was dedicated
yesterday morning, Bishop Edwin Ii.
Hughes, Methodist bishop for Califor-
mia, officiating. More than 5000 per-
sons attended the service. Rev. VIII
A. Belts, the pastor presided.
The church, which is an imposing
structure of gray granite, is the largest
and one of the most beautiful struc-
lures for religious worship on the Pa
cific coast. The interior has been beau
tifully decorated with the prevailing
color scheme of warm tans and sepia
brown, while stained glass window and
a large stained glass dome give beau
tiful light to the auditorium.
The main auditorium and Sunday
school room, with a seating capacity ot
$500, is so arranged that an unob-
structed view of the pulpit is obtained
from every seat in the gallery, as we'll
as the lower floor. A large east win
dow represents Hoffman's painting Of
Christ in the Temple"
Forty individual Sunday school rooms,
including four large primary and two
junior rooms, are all connected with
the superintendent platform by an
electric bell.
Church Started in January
At the laying of the corner stone last
January the membership of the church
was 1900, the church having been or
ganized in 1883 with a membership of
fifteen. Rev. Mr.. Belts has been the
pastor nearly five years, the church
dedicated yesterday being the third that
he has built in Southern California.
During the service yesterday morn
ing $1,000 was raised toward paying off
the church debt. The floating debt of
the church amounted to a little less
than $4,000 before the subscriptions
were taken, but $50 900 worth of bonds
were issued recently and sold to mem
bers of the church. These must be
taken care of when they come due.
The first subscription offered yester-
day was one for $3.50, which had been
promised some time ago by Capt Harry
Palmer, who died several months ago.
The second one was for $1,000, and was
provided for in the will of Miss Helen
Ann Brown, who died a few weeks ago.
Stephen Townsend gave $1,000, as did
also the Ladies' Social circle of the
church. c. j. Walker, William Penn
Watson and S. A. Stone gave $500 each,
and numerous subscriptions of $100
each followed rapidly The trustees
then made the formal presentation of
the building and the ritualstic service
of dedication followed
Bishop breaches Sermon
The program yesterday morning
opened at 1924 o'clock with an organ
prelude by Miss Theta Mae Lynn. The
opening chorus, king of Kings" by
Shelley, followed. Then hymn 661 was
sung and the apostles creed recited.
DR.. A. w. Atkinson, district superir-
tendent, then offered prayer, after
which the choir sang the "Hallelujah
Chorus" from the Elijah" A respon-
sive reading from Psalm 122 followed.
Then came the GLORIA" and the read
ing of a second Bible lesson, the offer
tory and hymn 659
Bishop Hughes preached The dedica-
tory sermon, speaking in an eloquent
manner Of the church and country,
likening George Washington and John
Wesley as two noble men, the fathers
of their causes. Bishop Hughes took
his text from Luke rs, For he loveth
our nation, and he hath built us a syn
agogUe." He said in part:
Most of us who are here today are
politically the followers of George
Washington and religiously the follow
erS Of John Wesley. These two men
were born in the came century and died
in its last decade. John Wesley had
just enough start in time to have his
church ready for religious work in
George Washington's nation. They were
both men who owed their eminence not
to Intellectual brilliance, but to a fine
did character.
"They were both chidle5s men. God
compensated George Washington by
making him the father of his country.
and he compensated John Wesley by
making him the father of his church.
The work of the two men has been sin
gularly united George Washington's
nation has given to John Wesleys
church thus far its main field of service.
Perhaps We cannot do better i'm this
hour than to run something of a par
allel between the nation and the
church.
Both Grew Up Together
"They are alike, first of all i'm that
both grow up inevitably out Of the
needs of men. Wherever men live to-
gether the rudiments of the nation are
found. 1t may be expressed in the
patriarchical relation of the early
Hebrews, i'm the tribal relation of the
Indians, in the mOnarchiCal relation of
certain Europeans, or in the democratic
relation of our own people. But tho
state exists wherever human society
comes to orderly life. 1t is one Of the
inevitable organizations of humanity
The like thing is true of the church.
If men are to have religion they must
have an organ for it's expression. When
men get together geographically they
make d state Intellectually, they make
a school; politically, they make a party,
and religiously, they make a church.
All this grows out of a law of human
life. When law is found in the needs
of flesh and blood and spirit it is even
more distinctly d law than when found
blazed across the sky or written in
some book of statutes. Out of such d
law come the nation and the church.
we should expect, then, that both
church and state are necessary to the
full life Of men. We simply could not
get on without the nation. We have
only to imagine its bauishment to think
of its manifold projections and benefits
as gone to see the terrible gaps that
would be made in our lives, in order to
see and feel how necessary the state is.
1t guards our homes, protects our food
from adulteration, fights the plague
away from our shores and cares for the
titles of our property.
Society is inconceivable without
some form of the nation. II is much so
with the church. There are few men
who would willingly live and rear their
families where the church does not
exist James Russell Lowell dehed
the opponents of the faith to find d spot
on earth ten miles square where a de
cent man would want to live and where
the gospel had not been preached. In
a subtle and peculiar way the church
makes the state habitable. If any man
regards the church as an evil thing
there are places to which he can 20
where he will be rid of its influence. 1t