The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-02-13
Dr. Day Reviews 3 Year PastOrate

Reviewing the history of the last five years in his sermon at the United Church yesterday morning, Dr. Day said: ''Discounting all the interest they have because they have been great to us, no i've years In history have more vtta1ly and more terribly touched more lived. In this period, there have been three divisions. First the period of terrible peril with it's sense of the coerclve power of war. Then the period of solidarity; the uni hcation of a world under the awful pressure of a power that threatened all, and the exaltation of spirit that lenge Then there came the third period with the conference Of Paris and subsequent months The period of disiEusi onment, so complete that it appeared that the popular mind had surrendered faith in our moral and spiritual ideals. That pediod kept going on. and we wondered if all was lost,'' he said, ''but there came a time
 quite suddenly when we began to realize that war was the great I1lu- sion, and not ideals. We hardly dared
 breathe our faith at first, but now we realize that the soul of the world is being born again from above.
 "On this day, I think of that scene in Rome" said Dr. Day, "of the pom tiff of a great Christian communion just now receiving the triple tiara glorious not because it has in 1t more gems than any crown in Europe, but because when the Bishop of Rome is a true Bishop, with the right ideals, every Christian of every name or sign may we'll give thanks. I think of that struggle which has been going on over there between understanding and misunderstanding the struggle between a progressive and liberating spirit and devotion and loyalty to a machine" continued Dr. Day. "At D A1,o @Io 4nI the other day, his associates tried to dissuade him from giving his papal blessing from the old baalcony in front Of St Peters as he wished to do, standing. But he said to that group of reactionaries and irresconcibles,
 T am the pontif now And he gave a blessing that reached out over the group of loyal followers gathered on papal property, across it's boundaries into the kingdom of Italy with which the Pope for years has had no deal ings It is not without significance that the tiara hou1d be placed on the
 brow of the new Pope on the birth
 day of a great American emancipa tor
 and hberator.
 ''So we are in a. wonderful world of difficulty and opportunity" said Dr. Day. During these five years, this world has moved with uncertain, but terrible and rapid steps We remem- Der the conference in Washington, | just ended We recall when the Paris | treaty was presented to the American | Senate, full of flaws as it was. 1t was ! met with partisan quarrels, and re- ceived no constructive criticism. This | time, America surely has no reason | to be ashamed of her president and | her secretary of state. nor of the men of both parties who represented her | at the conference. When Presfd ent | Harding opened that conference and | closed 1t with the universal prayer, | and Thy Kingdom come, on earth as 1 it is in heaven" 8 new day opened | for the world. The renaissance of the
 soul of the world from the disillusion- m ent of doubt and despair is to be | found in the close of that conference, l although many things were left un- l done which we would like to have | had done. And so today, we rejoice l because Of the new vision, and the 1 new work"