Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1915-12-04
Senator Hennessy's
Address Before The
Tenafly Celebration


that the churches of our day fail to
live up to their highest duties and
responsibilities. This criticism,
think, is not entirely unmerited, espe
cially when we reflect upon the fact
that our churches take SO small a
part in forming and formulating that
public opinion which is the guiding
principle of our government system.
I do not, of course, mean that
churches should go into politics in
the ordinary sense of the term, but
I believe the churches should concern
themselves more than they do in pro-
noting right thinking about the
fundamental problems of government
that are the common concern of all
mankind. And in promoting dis
cussion that shall lead to thinking,
let it be the place of the church to
see that public thought and public
doctrine shall be made to harmonic
with the precepts and the practice
Of the great founder of the Chris
tian religion. But if the churches
are not doing all that they might,
we know that, nevertheless, they are
the greatest factors for progress and
for righteousness in community.
We know that every Christian church,
no matter what its denomination,
justifes it existence over and over
again-every time it brings men and
women together in the spirit of serv-
ice and usefulness, to think of the
things that are more vital than
merely personal condemns. And if
church that has lived one year in
community has justified itself, how
much do we owe to the men and
women-those here and those of the
years gone by-who have contributed
to the establishment and the life of
for one-half century of this Pres
byterian Church of Tenafy.
II think of the parable of the
Sewer who went forth to sow. And
there was much fruitless seed-the
seed that fell by the wayside and
was devoured by the fowl of the air;
the seed that fell in stony places and
thin soil and brought forth life that
was to die quickly under the heat of
the day; the seed that fell among
thorns and was checked by the
noxious things around it, and then
the seed that fell on good ground
and brought forth bountifully. This
church has been in all the years since
1856 sower of the seed Of all good
ness and if much Of the sowing, as
in the parable, has been without
fruit, we still know that in some
place the seed has fallen upon good
,rro,,vJ ovid hos bro,,ob+ for+h boI1,,
tifully the fruit of better lives and
better citizenship.
"And so we may earnestly wish
that this organization may go on
with it's work with new hope and
new inspiration drawn from the les
sons and the memories of the past.
Here, we hope, many men and women
continue to come to seek the King
dom of God, and here to learn that
the Kingdom is not beyond this life,
but is a condition of the spirit, a
state of grace that each of us may
attain if we but seek it in faith, hu-
mility and usefulness. For this is
the meaning of the anwer of Jesus
to the Pharisee who was keen to know
about the coming of the Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God, the questioner
was told, was to come not with out
ward show. We must not expect to
find it if we look for it in that way.
The kingdom of God is within you,
was the message of Jesus. Happy
and fortunate is the man or woman
who has realized this great truth
with its power to purify and regen-
crate. It is the higest mission of
this church and of all churches to
teach this truth and to apply it to
the lives of people not only in their
personal and family relations, but in
all the relationships of human So
ciety. Could this spirit be made
manifest in the thought of mankind,
we would soon find the way to end
the awful carnage of the European
batlefields, and find, too, a solution
of the most perplexing problems that
make the miseries and the malad-
justments of our social and political