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Show KELLEY'S ARMY AS SEEN BY OGDEN MISTER The musical numbers for the evening eve-ning service in the First Presbyterian Presbyte-rian church were furnished last night by Mrs, Stevens, Miss Hamill, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Livingston. Rev. Carver said In part: "Liberty and not theology is the 'enthusiasm of the nineteenth century. The very men who would have been conspicuous saints are now conspicuous conspicu-ous rcvolutlonalists, for while their heroism and disinterestedness are their own, the direction which these qualities take is determined by the pressure of the age." So writes Lecky, the- historian, and we are seeing see-ing his words made true today. "We believejt was G. Stanley Hall who told us that the child in its development de-velopment passes through the leading phases of the history of the race. Thus for instance the cruelty of boys to animals is the age of the savage, j In like manner the great movements of history are not isolated ones but are manifestations of great race trends. The phenomena of the tramp iB most interesting in this regard. He has been present in every ago and has been found in every clime. We can trace his same trend in the pll-gramages pll-gramages to shrines and holy cltleB forln the pilgrimage the wanderlust spirit is shown. Chancer has immortalized im-mortalized the custom of the spring .pilgrimages to. .Canterbury centuries ago. We have the phenomena of Kelley's army as wc have had of another an-other like one years ago. These men are -partly pure- vagabonds, but that alone does not explain it. Many of these men think they are doing something some-thing in the nature of service. They feel- the need of protest against real or fancied wrongs and think they are acting In the interest of humanity or themselves by their conduct. Now it is not enough to utterly denounce them. To understand them we must realize that they are examples of a typo of mind and life that has done many foolish things with good Intentions. To value them at all we must also know that out of just such foolish acts have come some of the world's blessings. There is a world of wisdom in our constitution of the United States in granting the right of petition even though that right is at times misinterpreted or misused. mis-used. "Every great movement for the benefit of humanity has developed its power from the common people. Our nations rise is a good example of this fact. The Christian church is another. The early workers In the church were common people, but when the church became a rich powerful pow-erful and formal Institution the officials offi-cials gradually acquired the work. The rise of St. Benedict and the Bene-dlctive Bene-dlctive Monks In 520 greatly enlarged the range of service. There have been found however, orders of Monks in most overy age and laud. It furnished fur-nished a range of seeming service to many who desire to perform some work. By the year 1090, however, the common people had little of real opportunity for religious work. Their arose the great movement ot the common people knowu as the forerunner fore-runner of the First Crusade.- Peter the Hermit and "Walter the Penniless led 65,000. Encho Jed 20,000 and a great multitude of 200,000 followed. Theso were composed of men, women wom-en and children, unarmed untrained and unsupported, who after many trials, battles and desertions, dwindled dwin-dled to about 10.000 persons ere they reached Jerusalem. They should be differenciated from the crusaders who were trained, armed, and led by efficient warriors. The year 1212 beheld an even more foolish spectacle specta-cle in the Children's crusade when a boy, Stephen by name, led 30,000 children chil-dren from France and a peasant lad Nicholas led 20,000 from Colonge to take Jerusalem, both expeditions ending in utter disaster' many being sold as slaves in the African coast towns. The great pilgrimages to Mecca today proclaim the existence of the same race trend. "In all this we see the marks of one of the race blessings. The people peo-ple desire to partake in some service. serv-ice. Service appeals to them and the responsibility is upon the leaders to see that opportunity for legitimate sane service is offered. The anarchist anarch-ist sees one need with his distorted' mind, but he shames us In that he often is ready to die to hasten the answer to the need as he wrongly sees it, while we are often unwilling to do much for what we see needs being done. "The crusade of the common people peo-ple commenced a great world movement move-ment the next century Dominic and Francis established their orders for men and women. Later the Lollards and Poor Preachers carried the same trend farther. Still later the Sunday Sun-day school, young peoples, Y. M. C. A.'s Missionary societies, W. C. T. U., and kindred 'organizations widened the scope of work for unordainea workers. "Let us place the emphasis on the right point. We should not so much bemoan the fact that foolish attempts are made as we should rejoice that in n,ll classes there are those who desire de-sire to do something to better the needs as they see them. I take it i from reading the California papers that the most of Kelley's army thought In a lazy unenlightened way that they were doing something worth while, Just as the pilgrims to shrines and the hoards that followed Peter the Hermit thought they were doing real service. "Thinkers tell us that universal trends are real trends of need. There Is a need in every life for social, moral and spiritual service. We cannot can-not develop our nature completely without it. This need the churches today must supply. It is Just as needed need-ed however that each person find just what he or she can do best and do it or the talent for service will become atrophied. A self centered person is a dwarfed person. The religion re-ligion of Jesus Christ is as great a blessing to the living as to the dead. Christ gives better life more com-plete com-plete life, more joyful life here and now. You need Him." nn |
