Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-10-01

"a religion OF simplicity, of brother
rood, of service, wherein all men
MAY meet and strike fraternal hands.
There is nothing new under the
sun, and Rotary is not new. 1t may
come into our lives with all the
freshness of new revelation, but it's
principles are as old as the everlast-
ing hills. When man was, Rotary
was. The Rotarian spirit is CO.
existent with human life. Its laws
were not made. They are, and al
ways have been Plato knew them.
The Psalmist David sang of them in
the days Of old. The Carpenter, of
Nazareth, twenty centuries ago, on
the hills of Judea and the sunny
slopes of .Gallilee, impaired them to
his disciples. If the practice of Ro-
tartan ideals, today, has given us a
greater reverence for life, finer
ideal of service, a quicker enthusi-
asnb for social progress, broader
conception of human brotherhood
then we are indebted for those ideals
to all ages and all religions, for
Rotary is, in truth, the heir of all
ages.
For the ripening of the harvest of
the aeons, my friends, there must be
rich soil and the genial seasons.
What was the soil upon which Ro-
tary fell, and the season in which it
came? For in the answer to these
questions we may find an explana-
ton for Rotary's wonderful growth.
We Rotarians gathered here to-
day are typical business and profess
sional men of the twentieth century.
We live in a strenuous age and the
demands upon our time and effort
are prodigious. We have little OPP
portunity for thought or introspec-
ton. The old Grecian mandate of,
know myself" is little known or
needed by the modern business and
professional man. In the rush of
material life. we give little regard to
the spiritual. knowing all the while,
in q sub-conscious way, that it is the
spiritual and not the material that
forms the basis of all true success
and progress. Only in seasons of
great stress or sorrow do we think on
the more serious aspects of life and
the hereafter. And yet, in a way, we
mentally religious being. There is
no man within the sound of my voice
Who does not believe that a Divine
Intelligence rules the universe, who
does not have a keen se~of the
mystery of life, of wonder at it's
meaning and destiny, of some kind
of faith that life is after all worth
While-whose mind does not cry out
for the infinite and the eternal, and
rest with nothing less. We are all
better than we seem, my friends.
We all desire to do what is right
to add our bit to the sum total of
human happiness. We all believe
that nothing of 4Sood is lost, that
I'VE fall to rise, are baffied to tight
Letter, sleep to waken."
Whatever our individual beliefs,
NV friends, we all have the utmost
respect for the Christian church. In
each we find the recognition of splen-
did truths and spiritual ideals,
whether or not its particular creed
tends to beclOud or WITTY the xevela-
ton. The church today faces the
greatest opportunity of its history
t1nity. it must be responsive to the
needs of the times. Being in the
World. but not of it, may still be the
ideal of the pure in spirit. but the
world Of today needs some vital
force that shall take the ideals of the
church out into the highways and BY
WAYS Of business and transmute
them into the realities Of every
dav life. The weary cost OF
the centuries has taught US one
fhinc. at least. and that is, that man
may no longer seek the Kingdom or
God in clustered hall and MONASTERY.
a.. find selfish salvation through
solitude and prayer. Rather must
he seek that kingdom where 1t mes
ai labout him. among the chlidfcn
of men. and find salvation, II at all.
in helpful. human conpanionshlp
and unselhesh service.
In the orthodox churches OF today
MANY GOOD men have found spiritual
sanctuary. but outside those church
IS are untold thousands OF men, by
nature as spiritually right, rs NOR
ally clean, who severed all connection
themselves too old longer TO attend
the Sunday school. The souls of
these men cried out for expression.
vet difference withheld them from
discussing with their fellows their
higher, the finer, tho more intimate
things of life. Without organization,
without the inspiration and en-
thusiasm OF numbers and sym
pathetic understanding, these men
lacked that which is vital to the real
success of any man and any nation.
4 nation is more than its lands and
its people. 4 man is more than his
business md his worldly possessions.
A nation or man is great according
rs it or he has a vision, a purpose
and will to serve.
Then came Rotary, in the fullncss
Of time, when the world was ripe for
. its teachings-in the dawn of "a new
day when men were already quick
cning with q new sense of right, with
Il new conviction of responsibility.
with a new conception of social duty
and social service. Then came Ro-
tary, bringing with it to all men, a
vision. a purpose, and q will to serve.
Rotary came, and standing on the
heights of twenty centuries of human
progress, education and enlighten-
ment. sounded across the depths Of
an unlimited future its trumpet call
of service and common brotherhood,
sunmoning all the unselfishness OF
mankind 70 the rebuilding Of new