Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1916-02-16
REV. BREADY SPOKE
At MEETING OF THE
MEMS CLUB MONDAY
TOLD OF WORK OF BROTHER
HOOD AS III is WORKING
IN HASTINGS

A goodly number of men of the city
assembled at the Congregational
church Monday evening to attend the
regular monthly supper of the Mems
Club.
The feast was served by the ladies
of the church in their usual excellent
manner, and every man partook
heartily of the good things served.
Following the supper and a short
business session of the club, the meet
ing was adjourned to the auditorium
OF the church, where the men listened
to most excellent address by Rev.
Russell III. Bready of Hastings.
Rev. Bready told Of the work of the
brotherhood in Hastings, which is
at present the largest brotherhood in
the state, with a membership of over
three hundred. He told of the method
of governing the body by an executive
council, and that the members of the
council were made up Of the heads of
the different branches of the brother
hood work. "The largest function Of
the brotherhood in any city," said
Rev. Bready, ''is to bring up the youth
in the community under the proper
influences. For this reason we have
junior department, and we give
much of our time to this department
too. We have the boys with US in our
meetings.
1--WE have just enough fraternalism
in the brotherhood to make it relished
by men outside of the church, who
believe in lodges, and not so much
ritualism as to make the body dis
tasteful to the members who belong to
the church and who do not see any
thing in lodges. There are men in ev-
cry church who do not believe in lod-
ges, and they have a right TO their
views and their views should be re-
spected. But / am quite lodge man.
| do not believe lodges should take
the place of the church or of Christ
ianity in any mans life, but / do be-
lieve that lodges have their place and
mission to fill in the world"
The work and influence of brother
hood such as is now working in Hast
ings is certainly power in a commun-
ity. Ii is a work that could be profit
ably worked out in any city.
The real subject of Rev. Bready's S
address was Lincoln, the Ideal Man" )"
He prefaced the address of the even
ing with the description of the broth
erhood work. In introducing his sub
ject Rev. Bready said, "The year 1909
was the greatest year in the history
Of America from the fact that so many
great men were born in that year. |
list such men as Tennyson, Poe, Dar-
win, Gladstone, Mendelssohn and the
great immortal Lincoln among the
great men born in that year. Lincoln
was keen in wit, and alert in the fine
points of law, history, charity and
Christianity, yet he was the product
of no school. He was one of the
greatest, if not the very greatest law
yer Of his day, but no law school
could claim him as its product. He
was one of the most able and fluent
speakers, but no school of languages
or oratory dared call him its product.
Lincoln possessed an unexplainable
manner of speech, and an unap-
proachably big heart for humanity .
The speaker then dwelled at some
length upon the meaning and scope of
Americanism, as viewed today by the
best thinkers. He characterized
Americanism as meaning freedom
curses which have preyed and are
still sapping the life blood from every
nation Of Europe. He branded war
and preparedness as foolish in the
extreme, and advocated that the spirit
Of war be replaced with Christianity
and the love of Christ in the land