Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1952-04-07

ago as the 60-voice choir filed
down the aisles, offering the Sun
day morning professional hymn
at the church attended a quarter
century ago by Calvin Coolidge.
This family church at the
heart of the city," as it sometimes
calls itself, officially is the First
Congregational Church Of Wash
ington. It was founded the same
year that Abraham Lincoln was
so tragically assassinated only a
few blocks away. The present
building, dedicated for service
three years later in 1868, has been
continuously used-eXcept for one
period, described somewhat as
follows by a long time member
who was there:
It was like this: At an evening
service when President Coolidge
and his family were in the presi-
Dental pew, a piece Of plastering
shockingly descended from the
ceiling of the church. No one was
hurt. But the fallen plastering
served as timely warning that the
place must Immediately be made
safe, and especially so when the
President of the United States
attended its services. So
the building was promptly closed
for remodeling. The congrega-
ton worshiped on Sunday morn
ings at the Metropolitan Theater,
and Of evenings at the Eighth
Street Jewish Synagogue for
awhile. The Coolidges went along.
Today the First Congregational
Church of Washington has a
membership of around LOO per-
sons who have united Gin church
fellowship, believing that thus I
shall the better honor God,
strengthen Gods children, en-
courage the Godlike in all my
fellow men, and build up a spiri-
tual kingdom in my own heart and
in the world"
The church holds to those "tra-
ditions of self-government, and
freedom Of individual belief which
have been handed down from
our pilgrim forefathers."
The present pastor-the Rev.
Carl Heath Kopf-this Sunday
morning spoke on 1.-THE Brimming
Cup" But before that, there had
been the invocation; the congre-
cation had repeated the Lords
Prayer. Rev. F. I. Winter had
read from Matthew xx.20-28.
There had been a period of silent
prayer, with soft organ tones in
the background; then a hymn, the
offertory and an anthem.
"Our tears and our laughter are
often closer to each other than we
think" said DR.. Kopf, because
our Joy is so often the ending of
a deep sorrow. and our sorrow is
so often the tragic fracture of an
exquisite Joy. One is bound up in
the other.
Because you have known Joy,
you are capable of knowing sor-
row." he said.
And then the pastor spoke of
1.-THE cup of establishment" He
urged that we keep the capacity of
wonder. He spoke of miracles.
Sometimes the cup of life
overflows with trouble, as it did
for Jesus. Sometimes the cup of
life overflows with joy, as it did
for st. Francis. Sometimes the
cup of life is an overlooking mix
ture of JOY and sorrow"
He spoke of the mother of
James and John. She wanted a
promise of favoritism for her SONS
in the future kingdom. one to sit
on the right of Jesus, the other
on the left. The pastor called
this "a misunderstanding of the
DR.. Kopf concluded, mo wonder
Jesus had to set the record
straight. >. Only God can grant
such honors. Are you able to
drink the cup that I am to
drink?'" And he summed up with
the challenging question. "Can
you and I say we are able to
drink the cup with Jesus, not even
asking whether it be sweet or
bitter?"
Preliminary Worship for Young.
A special touch of the morning
service at the First Congregation
al Church was brief preliminary
worship for the younger boys and
girls. These sat on the front row
and listened intently as the min
lister told the fetching story of
the three nephews Of the king
who gave them each some coins.
Greatly abbreviated, the story
runs that each was to bring back
the most he could to fill the room.
One boy brought in a bale of hay,
and scattered it around; another,
thistledown which filled much of
the room; the third boy had but
little to show for his coins. He
said he used a great part to buy
food for those who were hungry,
he used some to give to the church
where he prayed, and he used the
rest to buy a little candle-it
filled the whole room" with light.
To this boy, the boy who fed the
hungry, who gave to the church
where he prayed, who brought
only the candle to show for his
coins, said the king, "You have
won the kingdom"
Then the younger congregation
this Sunday morning filed silently
down the aisle and left the rest