The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-06-28
His Address Before the Ind
lana Sunday School Asso-
citation Convention Was a
Splendid One.
DEPARTMENTS MAKE
= REPORTS FOR YEAR
Splendid Progress Made Dur
ing the Past Year.-Heads
: of Various Departments
: Are Elected.

One of the finest addresses Of the
ISunday School convention, both in sub
stance and manner of presentation
followed the devotional song service
led by Mr. Excel in the morning ses-
sion of the convention in East Main
Street Friends church today, the ad-
idress delivered by Mr.. Woelfkin whose
appearances have been the most nota-
bic of the convention.
my subject is an attempt to answer
that question which should be the vi
tai question with every Sunday school
worker" said the speaker. "The ques-
ton the Apostle James asks in the
fourth chapter of hfs Epistle-what is
syopxslife?"
The individual answers, said Mr..
fWoelfkin, will necessarily be contra
ldictory and antithetical since the reply
cannot be the same from the youth
who looks down the perspective of the
years and sees nothing but rose-color-
cd illusion and from the octogenerian
who looks back upon the stormy sea of
life and realizes it's hardships and its
difficulties.
Neither can the answer be the same
from those of varying social condition,
cne of whom may see but the romance,
the other the tragedy of existence.
Significance of Life.
What is the significance Of human
life for the brief span of years spent
'trpon earth? Life must have some goal
There must be some purpose" said the
speaker, stating that the creation of
lheing merely to end in annihilation,
was inimical to the human understand
ling, and that the primal instinct for
1.-THE continuation of life was, as put by
Darwin, absolutely infallible."
That therefore there must besome
lother state than in the brief moment
lot consciousness before the death
which was ended in the oblivion of the
materialist
. Or some other solution that that Of
tfcred by him who stood at the other
end of the passage looking upon life
as miserable nightmare to be endur-
ed until merged into the greater whole
where individuality was lost, as says
the Buddhist, on the one hand, or the
Christian who looks to eternity as the
haven to be reached through the me-
ldium of tortured life.
"He who feels that eternity is every
thing, life is nothing" as expressed
by the speaker
/ A Third Class.
i Aside from these two classes is that
Eof the stole who cares for nothing in
THE life that Is or that which Is to
|come. And yet even the stole insists
supcn the inviolability of his personal
lentity. stated the speaker. illustrating
Ibis statement by reference to the
English poet and essayist, Henley, the
friend and, later, the detractor. of
Robert Louis Stevenson. he of the tor
ture physical body and life long inval-
lidism, Mr.. Woelfkin repeating Hen
nv's tremendous poem, two of whose
lines are so universally quoted-"I am
the master of my fate, 1 am the cap
tain of my soul"
Eliminating the stole, both of the
foregoing classes, said the speaker,
were at once right and wrong. For he
tWuo tdh0S IuC HCSutiNS poSilloi Ills
conclusions outside his experience. He
who assumes the affirmative concludes
from within it's limitations.
DR. Woelfkin then followed up with
n seris of beautiful Scriptural meta
Srhors which he showed. also, to be
prophetic in their significance and
irolnting toan actual realization whose
tIclimax was reached in the birth of
lChrist.
j "Jesus Christ is Gods last and great
1rsI metaphor said Mr. Woelfkin.
t'God manifested in the flesh. You can
rot know God apart from Jesus Christ.
Without Christ God is nebulous in
ifinity. In the terms of personality Jes-
|Gs Christ is God"
Christ revealed in the flesh is the
pattern of what life may be on EARTH"
tcontinued Mr.. Woelfkin. quoting Paul
IN illustration when the latter said,
lsFor me to live is Christ"
DIR. Mckinney closed the morning
session with one Of his entertaining
talks called Ragged Edges" and
(which concerned the necessity of clean
,cut administration of Sunday school
organizations, with some general ap-
lplication, DR.. McKinney's agreeable