Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-11-18


missionaries to Africa and Standard oil to
TimbuctOo, it docs not strike me that
keeping up the war feeling even symbolically
has much chance except in very 'dated'
and behind.thc. times bodies of churchgoers.
IN ARMISTICE DAY, however, hope,
~ for one, that it will always be DONE and
l trust II can be done as we'll and as SOL
emnly as It was IN the Church Of the Holy
Trinity by the war workers this last Armi-
stice Day.
Both for that occasion and the welcome
of General Foch. the uniforms. the Tags,
tho marching spirit. the music all the
heroic reminders of a great time Of sacri-
flee and of devoted service were both appro-
pirate and gave one a renewed desire for
service with ones fellows and for ones fell
lows. Uniforms have a great place still In
civilization and so has the sort of service
that uniforms imply.
wish that in our Protestant religious
organizations there were more uniforms and
by that token more orders than there are.
! cannot see why, for instance, there is not
In the Episcopal Church and in the Pres.
byterian, Methodist and Baptist nursing
orders. If our hospitals could be supplied
by permanent nurses dedicated for religions
sake to nursing, as the Lutheran hospitals
are and the Roman Catholic, the eternal
difficulties belonging 70 the whole nursing
problem would be greatly simplifed.
In tho first place. the nurses would not be
all learners. would not be all preparing to
stop hospital work and go to private prac-
tCc they would on the whole be higher
class. or the highest of class, since, gem
orally speaking. if one combines service with
religious devotion ono is apt to strike
high average. The members of a nursing
order are assured safe and honorable
old age. and could be assured more actual
dignity and comfort Of everyday surround
ings in their profession than can be allowed
them under present conditions as pupils in
hospital or than they can actually provide
for themselves in the rather haphazard exist
cnce most Of them lead.
THERE would. of course. continue to be the
J. professional nurses who belong to our
order and who would enter the work for
purely business scientific reasons; but
with the necessity that has come to many
women to earn a living, and with the pre-.
CariousnesS Of those earnings to bulwark one
against illness or old age, / think that en-
dowcd orders of more than one type would be
a very great mission for the Church to work
out under modern conditions and with many
Of the hamperng clauses of mcdlevaism
omitted
T WAS very much amused at a definition I
L heard a member Of a Protestant order of
lay sisters give for her vows OF poverty,
chastity and obedience. She said:
II will explain them to you as do to
the children. BY my vow of poverty mean
I can never be rich; by my vow of obedi-
encc mean that | must obey my superior,
and by my vow of chastity | mean that /
can never be married.
There were a great many married women
all about her listening open -mouthcd to that
rather quaint last bit of medieyalism.
Vows and life agreements any more than
perpetual alteration or an imp!acable pro-
gram Of service would not answer the pur-
tu.ap n l-p
workers. But a program of work, habit
of life, uniform, and quiet vista OF full
illment and reward would answer the needs
of many workers if not for life. at least for
a period Of time. and II the Church would
come to the rescue and take the initiative in
the matter of the sectarian hospitals need
that the war has made very apparent would
be on the way to being fulfilled.
NEEANWHlLE. We as Nation have
lNI learned for this generation. at least,
something about drill and team play and how
70 get effects by great combinations carefully
worked out and started in order. ] remem-
Der seeing the tears come into girls eyes
from sheer excitement at the first Thomas
concert she ever went to because the bows
Of the stringed instruments moved in perfect
unison The swish of the kits of the High
lander regiments gives one the same sensa"
ton
A man described to me the other day the
thrilling effect the revolutions of a great
buildingful Of electric dynamos had on him
in factory for the making of nitrogen from
the air IN Sweden. He said that they
entered the huge hall and could see no human
about. only the great regular whir of the
motors Then. for the vast enterprise, the
marty finally made out four guardians, whose
business is to watch the unceaSng motion Tor
the variation of a second in the rhythm.
Those nf us who have lately seen THE
Three Musketeers" in the movies have be-
come aware. think, what tremendous part
rhythm of motion has to do with cumula-
tive excitement
I felt that in that play there was never
once any let-up to the pace at which the
story was taken. It was ms rapid as the
pulse beat, and, no matter what the exi-
gency. D'Artagnnn never missed his beat or
| got out of step.
Every now and then you meet person
! whose action seems to follow some such quick
tempo. Bishop Phillips Brooks preached
| with amazing rapidity; so did the Rev. John
| Sparhawk Jones. 1t was as though their
minds few in long, quick sweeps of thoughts
| George Pepper speaks and even argues his
cases in a quick rhythm at certain times
| when he is working up to an effect. ! some
times wonder II the fact that he first learned
| to speak to great public through the
medium Of Greek play in the part of Al
cibiades has not in a sense influenced his
| stvIe II is an admirable one certainly.
| Cor big and intense effects.
| Most cergvmen who ''pray by the book"
fail babitually into a rhythm Most of the
eighteenth- century music and dances were
affairs Of balance now that side, now this :;
so we're the eighteenth century fine speech
and oratorE..
w,lI do for the twentieth century. II may
NOT regulate our thoughts. but it Is bound to
affect the expression of our thought. OF
course. we are too much in it to hear that
for ourselves. But later generations will
snot us as we do johnson and Burke and
Jefferson and their admirng imitators, our
grandparents.
pocausa SUNDAY funerals arn against