The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-07-20
OUAKERS FACING
GREATEST TEST
OF FAITH NOW
DR.. Woodward Urges Young
Friends to Support Ideals Of
President.

President.
Never before has Quakerism under
gone such travail, both within and
without" said Walter G. Woodward,
secretary of the Friends Five Years
meeting. in his address that opened
the annual convention Of the Young
Friends at Earlham hall Friday night.
DR.. Woodward spoke on THE Lure of
the Impossible"
THE very times themselves bear
vown upon the citadel Of our faith
he continued. Gin these fiery trials
some of us have adapted ourselves for
a season to the teeming restlessness
Of events. Others are holding fast
to what to them are eternal principles
in which there is neither variableness
nor turning. and are enduring thereby
misunderstanding and even persecu-
ton.
LAS a body we had been sailing
along on the sea of possibility and
plausibility. The storm came. Shall
we scuttle the ship amid the din that
shouts. Tmpossible?
ct appeals to me the background
and problem of this Young Friends
Conference are very different from
those Of the conference one year ago.
Then the great conflict was but new
ly upon US. We got our bearings.
made our vows and attempted to chart
our course. In the year that has
gone many Of US have passed through
the fire.
I'VE need, furthermore, the cour-
age, the faith Of minority-even
though 1t be a minority misunderstood
and maligned. The real history of
the world has been MADE by minor
tiles.
Listen! Do you ever stop to con-
slider the significance Of the fact that
we cruelty the man Of today for the
very same thing for which we all but
defy the makers Of history? Think
on these things when the heart fall
tiers and you would fain say. The odds
are too great. the pressure too strong.
Some OF us are over-anxious for the
public esteem. We are jealous for the
honor and good repute of Quakerism,
and proud Of the good name it has
borne. But, whence came this good
name? By compromise and conform
ity with public opinion? We know the
opposite to be true. Largely because
EARLY Friends dared to be unpopu-
lar and dishonored has modern Qua
kerism been honored. In the clarion
words Of another-and may they be
ours-'Quakerism is native to high
pressure; it must never play for safe
~. We shall not choose the path OF
plodding imitation nor popularity s
primrose way
Not Obstructionists.
IF the world ever needed the true
Quaker message it needs it now l
could not be misunderstood. l would
not have us in the role Of political OBJ
structionists. Our president has voic-
ed an idealism which stirs our admira-
ton and enlists our hearty support to
the very limit of our ability to Good
crate, in the light of the truth that
has been given us. But. how many of
his most ardent supporters really ap-
preciate the implications Of his ideal
ism. really appreciate how much more
it includes than the program of end
ing this war?
Young Friends! 1t is the genius of
youth to dare the impossible. Qua kerr
ism is The Message Of the Impossible.
When 1t ceases to be that, when it be-
comes merely a religion of adapt
ability to public sentiment and to
material considerations, it ceases to
be Quakerism, and it cea ses to be
Christianity. If Quakerism has a mes
sage to voice 1t is yours to declare it.
II 1t has service to render, a life to
live, yours Is the great commission to
render that service, to live that life.
I'VE are inclined to be too compla
cent over the objective service which
we are doing abroad through our
young men. In fact, we are engaged
in an objective service with too weak
subjective base. Let me confide in
you the gist of startling message"
Chance For Service.
I'm that remarkable contribution in
The World Tomorrow entitled My
Dear Stevenson, Norman Thomas
makes 1t startlingly clear that Presi-
dent Wilson, the one liberal states
man to whom the world now looks,
has no liberal spokesman at home to
interpret his ideals to his own people.
We have been una BILE to see more in
his announcements than a liberal
program for the re-establishment of
international relationships. II we
mistake not it involves an almost re-
volutionary readjustment Of the whole
social and industrial system in terms
of the very principles OF good will for
which Friends stand
Here certainly is wonderful op-
portunity on our part for vital serv.
ice TO our beloved country. And this
is service upon which English
Friends have already entered with
much more serious devotion. Are we
ready TO join them in similar serv-
ice for America ?"