South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-12-11
PRESIDENT MAKES
PLEA FOR CHURCH
Asserts in Speech at Column
bus 1t is Only Institution
For SoCiety'S Salvation.

by Priest Woodrow Wilson Friday
night in his address at the closing
session Of the conference on church
and country life when he spoke to
more than 1000 people who packed
the great memorial hall here. After
his address. which was applauded
repeatedly. the president left for
Washington.
1t was his second address Of the
day, the first being one TO business
men at a MONDAY luncheon. In
addition he met 5000 Ohioans in an
afternoon reception at the Ohio cap
itol. The audiences at both meet
ings cheered the president while
political leaders assured him that
Ohio is debatable ground next year
in the national elections.
Despite extra precautions for his
safety and the secretly expressed
fears of those in whose keeping he
spent the day, the precautions were
superfiuous.
Pleads Christianity.
1t was into his testimony Friday
night-as he chose to call it-that
Pres't Wilson put greatest earnest
ness He talked of the problem Of
the church and it's relation to gov
eminent. Nor was there wanting
in his address a note of conservatism
and a hint TO reformers that their
work is effecting through the teach
ings Of Christianity a change in the
moral sentiment of the people.
christianity" said the president,
lis the only force OF which L know
that can transform life
1t was in connection with his dis
for which the proper foundation has
not been laid in the moral attitude
of the people that this word Of tes-
ttimony was given. There was no
specific application to the words Of
the president which seemed to have
a peculiar application tc the Buck
eye state because of recent persist
ent efforts to establish drastic sump-
tuary legislation.
Enact a law" the president had
said, that does not reflect the NOR
al judgment of the community, that
is the moral judgment only of a
small minority and the people will
not understand it, or if they do I'M
derstand it, they will disregard it.
Law is only a record of achieve
ment. Christianity is the only force
that can transform life"
Church to Save Society.
His tribute to the church as the
organized instrument OF Christian
ity had been given earlier in his
address when he declared that while
Christianity might save the soul of
the individual to himself. il was only
the church that might save society.
Preceded by two eminent speak
ers the president was introduced by
Chairman Shiler Mathews in but
four words:
Ladies and gentlemen, the pres
ident."
The ovation lasted several min
utes. The president said in part:
Law is a record of achievement;
it is not a process of regeneration.
our wills have TO be regenerated and
our purposes rectifed before we are
in position to enact laws that rec
that is the business primarily, it
seems to me, of the Christian.
Proof of Christianity.
There are a great many argu-
ments about Christianity. There
are a great many things which we
freely assert which we can't prove
in the ordinary scientific sense of
the word. but there are some things
which we can show. The proof OF
Christianity is written in the biog-
raphy of the saints-and by the
saints l do not mean the technical
saints-thOse whom the church or
the world have picked out and
labeled saints-for they are not very
numerous-but the people whose
Hves-whose individual lives have
been transformed by Christianity.
Loudly Applauded.
1T is the only force in the world
that I have ever heard of that does
actually transform the life Gap
plause). And the proof Of that
transformation is TO be found all
over the Christian world. and is
multiplied and repeated as Chris
tianity gains fresh territory in the
heather world. Men begin sudden
ly to erect great spiritual standards
over the little personal standards
which they therefore professed and
will walk smiling 10 the stake in
order that their soul may be true
10. themselves. There isn't anything
else that does that.
There is something that is an
alogOus TO il and that is patriotism.
Men Will go into the fire Of battle
and freely give their lives for some
thing greater than themselves; the
duty TO their country, and there is
a pretty fine analogy between pa
triotism and Christianity. It is the
devotion Of the spirit 10 something
greater and nObler than itself
The reason that ] am proud to
was given birth by such conceptions
as these; that its object in the world.
its only reason for existence as a
government was TO show men the
paths Of liberty and OF mutual ser
viceability. 10 lift the common man
out of the paths. out of the slough
OF encouragement, even despair and
set his feet upon firm ground: tell