The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-06

ance, is the life of fanatic. There are cranks about Jerusalem who illustrate what I mean. We used to have an old man whom you could always see at the Damascus gate, dressed in white and holding a lighted olive oil lamp. He thought he was one of the Ten Vir- gins and he wanted to be ready and waiting. We used to have a man who went about with huge wooden cross on his back. He was literally bearing his cross These are idle fantics.
 "On the other hand. a material life unbalanced by strong spiritual in- terest, leads to the grossest material ism. It is from materialism that we nave fled. Since we possess no private property, we are rid of the tempta- tions to avarice which tempt men else where. We seek to make enough money to keep ourselves in ordinary comfort More we do not want. Money is mere ly the means toward our goal of help ing our neighbors.
 We left the United States because We wanted to be in a place where the Bible would be vivifed to us. There was only one place to go, to serve our end. Out of all the world, we chose Jerusalem. It was inevitable.
 "We read, for instance, in the Bible of the driving out of the money chan gers from the Temple Here we may see for ourselves the bawling mob of dealers in objects de piete who make the open space in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre hideous. The Bible is made a living thing before our very eyes.
 we believe that in loving our negh- bors as ourselves and in making the expression of that love the supreme object of our lives. we are living the Christian life. All other belief we make subordinate to that, all-impor- tant rule of living. It is immaterial to us whether a man believes in the yer bal inspiration of the Bible, in immer- sion or in the second coming of Christ It is hair-splitting over immaterial dogma which has wrecked organized on arguing over dogma until they have lost all spiritual power.
 ''The war has proven that
 'sThe churches helplessness was proven in an appalling fashion by the war. Had the worId held fact to the doctrine of love of neighbor. such frightful calamities as the late war would never have been possible.
 '-The world realizes now that organized Christianity has failed Whether the world will act on it's realization, l can t say. Some of us who have been mem bers of the colony from its inception Tn 1881 underwent calarhities of our own before we realized that we would never satisfy our souls need in the material ism of commercial life. In 1$7a the ship Vile de Havre of the French line was wrecked at sea and some of us lost wives and children in it. It was that whicn' for some of us, led to our abandoning the commercial life, ending once for all 1ic+i ar,,bitinrS and coming out here to devote our lives, amid sur roundings which would most vivify our Bibles to us, to helping our neighoors.
 NOT AFTER CONVERTS
 ssWe have never sought members ana we never shall. The problems which brought most of us here have been deep ly personal problems, problems with which we alone have had to grapple. We believe we have solved them In the way which alone could have brought us the satisfaction of having done rignt.
 "On the other hand we have never turned away any one who wanted to Joln us. If we can be of help to any one. wherever he or she may live in the world, it is our chief business in life.
 More than one visitor to Jerusalem has gone out to see the colony and has come away with his eyes opened. Tnroughou' the near east, it is classed with the Amer ican university at Beyrut as an lnstitutlon which has no self-interest to serve. IL is a far smaller institution than the Uni- yersfty at Beyrut, but it has helped 10 exalt the United States here as the ha- ton of justice, the nation of unselfish- ness. ..
 N'aaza Pasha came some years ago to take tea in the living room of the main building at the colony. He stood up, al the end of his tea, and unexpectedly made a little speech in which he told the colony that he had seen many sacred