Congress of Free Christianity 



Not very long after our arrival I was called to 

 Paris to attend the year's "Congress of Free Chris- 

 tianity" under the direction of Dr. Wendte a con- 

 tinuation of the work of the similar gathering at 

 Berlin in 1910. As I have elsewhere stated, 1 neither TOO busy 

 the press nor the people of Paris paid any particular f r 



i . r j i hospitality 



attention to our presence, being occupied with war 

 scares, armament demands, and alarming utterances 

 by the Pangermanists. There were interesting ad- 

 dresses in French, English, and German; but some of 

 the German evangelical pastors were extremely prosy, 

 and their long-winded utterances were occasionally 

 guyed by the audience. 



On Sunday afternoon we all went on a pilgrimage 

 to the tomb of Father Hyacinthe in Pere-la-Chaise, 

 and in the evening met in Le Foyer de I'Ame (Hearth- 

 stone of the Soul), a little church on the Rue de 

 Rivoli. Its pastor, Charles Wagner, author of a Charles 

 delightful and suggestive volume, "The Simple Life/' Wagner 

 which had a wide and well-deserved popularity some 

 ten years ago, was an Alsatian, rather short in stature 

 and stockily built, with a fine face and a white fore- 

 lock in his otherwise dark hair. 



I spoke in English; the other talks in both 

 French and German were admirable in spirit. 

 Riviere, 2 who went over with me, expressed himself 

 as greatly surprised to hear clergymen speaking for 

 peace. In his experience himself a Catholic they 

 were all and always for war with Germany, hoping 

 doubtless that a political overturn would restore the 

 power of the Church. 



1 See Chapter xxxvi, page 301. 2 See Chapter xxxvn, pages 321-322. 



463 3 



