The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-09-28

lpplles the answer, as follows:
One day in Y. M. CA. tent for marines.
somewhere in France" talked with Pittsburgh
professor of theology who, snglehanded was con-
Quoting the tent and the canteen. He had to do
everything. from the selling of cigarettes to the
holdlng OF occasional meetings and to the clean
ing UP OF the premises He buster than ever
before in his life. Yet he also healthier The
old care-woln look had gone from his face and he
mas put On flesh and radiant cheerfuness. He
was "a things to all men" who passed in process
sion through his tent to the front A greater con-
trast between his busting canteen life and that of
theological professor could scarcely be imagined
Nevertheless, that professor told me that he
was having "the time of his ife'-a phrase by the
way that l have heard upon the lips of many
clergymen in France. My Pittsburgh friend did
not care whether the theological seminary opened
or not; his one concern was how he was ever 60
ing to return in contentment to the old regime
That is the chorus one hears from the preach
ers now in France. How they ever go back
to the old days and the old ways? They have
tested a new, free, masculine life. The contrast
between 1t and the old routine is great as the
distance from Chicago to Paris They groan
aloud at the prospect of resuming the old round
What though they may be doing all the arduous
tasks of Y. M. C. A. Misunderstanding chocolate
and tobacco and candy and stationery and phono-
graphs and motion pictures and athletic parapher-
MALTA to the soldiers? 1t is service. real, needed
vital service of the essential righteousness of
which they have not an instants doubt. They are
part of the greatest enterprise of the ages ac-
cepted as men and as friends and as representa-
tives of Christ.
True, of their church members at
home may have been railing against the distribu.
ton of tobacco by Y. NJ. G.. A. and the cha plains
but the man of God on the spot, who knows thinks
thoughts OF cigarettes versus censorIousness and
continues serenefy his way; wondering the
while how he will be able to fit in the old channels
of petty prescriptions and performances
As simple matter of iact these men will not
return to the old ways They cannot. They have
seen the great realities. Life in its submity
and life reduced to its elements, have been their
familiars Death they know. Such heights of
comradeship and helptulness they once dreamed
or have been their daily experience What man
can do and endure, and the very limits of human
courage have been staged before their eyes again
and again. The meaning of patriotism has been
unfolded in new vital fellowship that has re.
interpreted all of existence to them.
So they will return home to lead the churches
up to war levels. Whatever notifications NAV be
necessary in old procedure they will fearlessly
make. Conventions no longer dismay them and
customs have lost their sanctity No man who has
been to France will be content to follow the tread
mill round of task that is not essential pro-
ductve.
We may expect to hear ministers say to one
another, in the presence OF two three weak and
competing churches There is only one mans iob
here; you take it. am off to place where can
spend myself in Sighting evil, and not in fighting
fellow Christians
Cantankerous official boards accustomed to
brow-beating and underpaying their pastors are
also due to receive several shocks. So are-weIl
why continue the list? The ministers who come
back from France will be soldiers as well as saints
and the old order will be unable to stand in their
way.
IL 10 0N 1N0iC Iil' Vic SlluiC iI hiuSt nencefOr
y more emphasis on vital truths and less E
and creeds. The world is now
: made intellectually free. Ignorance an
lperstition are no longer to cage the min
he christian church, declares DR.. Tweedv.
ale divinity school, has been in the past an O
nder in this respect but is now spreadin
eedom faster than any other agency. Trr
is selflessness and brotherhood,
his was the essence of the teaching of i
and must henceforward be stresse
never before by the reawakened churcl
srvice instead of services, as has been happil
id, will be the new note and aim in reIi