Article November 22, 1919 Issue

The Lectures

with contributions from Richard J. Davis, J. S. Mills, Anne Shonbeck, Alice P. Valley, Clarence J. Goodman, Mary Parker Bort, T. Fremont Hoyt, Edith M. Bodine, Joseph M. Thomas

New York, N. Y. (First Church).—William W. Porter, lecturer; introduced by Lieut. Richard J. Davis, Chaplain U. S. N., who said in part:—

Those of us who have had the opportunity and privilege of a part in that great experience "over there," who have been working hand in hand with men of every color, class, type, and race, bearing with them in the most intimate way their sin, sorrow, pain, and the dangers of war, have come back with one very clearly defined and settled conviction,—how much, oh, how much, poor, suffering humanity is in need of an available God, an understandable God! How great is the need of knowing better how to love and to be kind!

Over eighty per cent of the men in the Army and the Navy make no pretense or claim to religion or creed; and yet underneath there is a real hunger to know the truth. These men have come back with the old ideas of dogma and creed forever shattered; and they are not alone in that. Tonight in this great congregation there are doubtless many who have arrived at the same state of mind,—those who, weighed down with disease, sorrow, poverty, or perhaps the impress of sin, are earnestly praying for light. My friends, in the words of Isaiah, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."

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