The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-16
DR.. AKED breaches
ON PEACE SHIP OF
ST. PAUL'S JOURNEY
Tells of the Spirit of Humanity
That Impels Vessel To-
wards Europe.

Francisco, and formerly known as the
Rockefeller pastor, in New York city,
delivered a trenchant sermon upon the
Peace Ship Oscar II,~here. He took
as his text Acts 20. 13, "And on the
Sabbath Day we went forth without
the city by riverside where we sup
posed there was a place of prayer and
we sat down and spake unto the wo-
men that were come. together
DR.. Aked's sermon referred to the
work of the apostles and early disct-
pies He spoke of tae pilgrimage of
Paul and his devout little band of fol-
lowers and told of the hardships that
beset him until at last they were in
Europe.
They had passed south of what are
now the blood stained hills of Arne-
MIA; they had passed through that
part of Asia, Minor where the Turks
and the British are contending in this
hour; they had taken ship at a ford
but a few miles to the south of the
extreme point Of the GaIIipon Peninsu-'
Ia, the sands of which are being wa
tered by the best of blood of Austria
1asia and Canada. They had sailed
past the island of Samothracia3 and
had landed at a little European port
in the country now called Bulgaria,
and from there made their way to
PhiIippi, a city lying somewhat to the
north and east of Sa1onil1i. They were.
in Europe at last.
Paul had 1onged with a great long
ing for this hour; for years he had
thought it, dreamed it, planned for it;
several times had been baffled in his
attempt to make the journey, but at
last, and for the first time in his life,
his feet stood on European soil.
He had come with vast ambitions,
ambitions more vast than had ever
surged within the brain of any one
of the worlds conquerors before. This
day continental ambitions were his,
the little world of Palestine was moth
ing to him; he must win the world for
Christ he lived, and when he lived he
lived with every drop Of blood in his
veins; he lived intensely, he lived with
every breath Of his untamed heart he
lived with every output Of his mex
haustible energy, he lived to- confront
hostile mobs, to convince Battling foes,
wrest the thoughts Of philosophers
from dead systems to the idea of the
eternal good set fore to the dropping
energies of thief and slave in the sluTns
of Rome, while shaking the throne of
the Caesars, he lived to bridge roaring
seas and tunnel mountain barriers be-
tween race and race, he lived to i'm
press his own personality upon his
day SO profoundly to influence the pol
icies and destinies or mankind until
his hour.
This was Paul and this solid earth
of ours has never shaken beneath the
football of a greater man than he,
and in this hour Of vast ambitions
soaring through his soul, realizing the
dream Of years he stands at last on
European ground and he begins his
work of winning Europe by holding
"a prayer meeting with a few women
-on the river bank. ss
We1ll now is this the way to win a
-
the continent of Europe? He found
a few Women like-minded with him
self. They, held a prayer meeting; is
this the way in which to win a world :?
Is ftNnot a story written in all char
acters of failure? Are these the re-
sources of omnipotence? Is this the
best that can be attempted by man
of brain and heart like his? Was
there ever small beginning. of vast
ness SO vast of greatness SO incred-
ib1e and so inconcefvabIe Yet it is
the story that is constantly repeated
in the history Of moral enterprise.
Thomas C1arkson was student at
Cambridge; he had won distinction
and had taken many prizes and the
Chance1lor's gold medal for English
composition was offered that year for
the best essay on this proposition:
SIS it right to ens1aye men against
their will ?'' C1arkson knew very lit
tie indeed about the slave question;
he had interested himself in little
and only a little. but he had won aca-
demic distinctions and prizes and had
coveted more. He prepared himself
for this essay; his facts convinced
him; he wrote the essay; he won the
Chancellor's gold medal; he was going
home; it was the end of the term; he
was riding the only means of travel
in that day, and as he rode he thought.
1, II re 10
men against their will % have prov
ed to my own satisfaction that it is
not. If it is not, it is wrong. if it is
wrong it ought to be stopped. if it
ought to be stopped some body will
have to stop it, and if some body
will have to stop 1t why should I
not try and he got down out of the
saddle and tied up his horse, and the
place is shown to the tourists now
where Thomas C1arkson kne1t down
under the tree consecrated his life to
the destruction of the slave traffic and
slavery throughout the world; stop
that hour, the VViIberforce enterprise
in England, the Lloyd Garrison agita-
ton, the Wendell Phillips orations
John Brown inspired madness and ar
mics in the tented fields and Abra-s
ham LincoIn's heroic life and martyr
death All these were embryonic in
that very hour when Clarkson kneIt
down and vowed himself to the de-
struction of slavery ON earth. It was
one night in Portland, Maine. Al man
was nearing himself to death in a sa-
loon; his wife went to a neighbor, a
friend and said can you help me to
get my husband home from the sa-
loon?'' The neighbor replied, II
will go and try
He went with the woman The sa-
loon, keeper told him that he was Ii
censed by the State Of Maine to sell
liquor, and he would sell liquor while
the man had money to buy. Neal
Dow, a fighting man: for he had con-
que~or's Mood in his veins and a. man
must be q good fighter who will stand
for peace as the Quaker has done.
Neal Dow said: Then this the law Of