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THEODORE ROOSEVELT
1919

CHAPTER 21

 HIS RELIGION

IN estimating Theodore Roosevelt's greatness the religious element must not be left out or minimized.    From  both parents he inherited  the deepest religious instincts.   He was trained in a home singularly devout.   At the age of sixteen he joined the Dutch Reformed Church.

Rev. Dr. James M. Ludlow, under whom the boy Theodore joined the church, lives now in East Orange, N. J. He has had long and successful pastorates in the Dutch Reformed Church, is an author of some note and was pastor of the St. Nicholas Reformed church of New York City at the time when Theodore united with the church. Dr. Ludlow said to me that he had the tenderest, most loving memory "of the boy who sat in that pew." He told of becoming pastor of the church fifty years ago and of how four years later, when the new building was opened, the parents of Theodore Roosevelt came to worship there. "Theodore Roosevelt, the youth, was quick-minded, and he had a marvelous power of observing passing things," Dr. Ludlow continued. "He thought of what he saw. Some one once asked him in what part of the body the mind was located. He replied: 'In Theodore Roosevelt it is right back of the eye-balls!' We all predicted that he would make his mark, but where that would be was uncertain, he was so versatile. Whether his mark would be on the north pole or in the field of literature, we did not know, but we never dreamed that he would mark it on the walls of the White House or on the locks of the Panama Canal. He was always the great big boy of the people. He was one of a number of sons of wealthy and noble parentage who were especially promising boys.

"Forty-four years ago just now, Theodore, then sixteen years of age, called at my study and said: 'I have come to have a little talk with you upon a personal matter. I would like to become a member of the church. You know how strictly I have been raised religiously in Christian faith and denominational doctrine, and I feel now as if I ought to unite with the church. I feel that one who believes so firmly in the Bible and in Christianity as I do, should say so publicly, and enter openly into the active service of the church; to drill with the troops and fight in the battle-front with the soldiers of the Cross. To join a church now will do me good personally and will be in obedience to the express command of Christ. I want to be a witness for Christ; a doer of the word.' " The doctor then said, "I examined him and felt that he was an excellent candidate for church membership. I handed him over to the Consistory, who were much pleased with him, and he was confirmed in the church, and remained a consistent and honored member of the St. Nicholas church until the day of his death. My opportunities for knowing his boyhood life were not nearly so good as those of Dr. Adams, who was his father's pastor for a long term of years. Soon after Theodore united with the church he was taken by his parents on long journeys, one of them to the Far East; he spent his summers in the country and then went to college, after which we never saw much of him. Of course, I have a feeling of just pride that he was a member of the Dutch Reformed church and that I had the privilege of opening the doorway of the church to. him. The honor I feel is not so much that he was a very brilliant man intellectually, that he occupied high office or commanded the plaudits of the people, as that lie was a sincere Christian man and devoted himself to the service of his fellowmen and his Divine Master.''

Soon after Theodore joined the church he felt the necessity of putting his profession into practice, showing his faith by his works; and so he became a teacher in a mission Sunday school and taught the poor, neglected little fellows the way to Jesus, to a right life and to heaven, and taught it for two years until he went to Harvard and there continued this class of service till his graduation, and in every department of church activity and church benevolence he was in the forefront until the day of his death.

Theodore Roosevelt was one of the most profoundly religious men this nation or any other nation ever had. He was one of the most powerful believers I ever saw; and one of the most prodigious religious actors I ever beheld. Religion is a science and an art. As a science it is a system of doctrines to be believed, as an art it is a system of duties to be performed. Mr. Roosevelt had the science of religion down to a perfection in the most simple and sincere faith in the cardinal doctrines of our religion, and he practiced it vigorously, as an art, in the multitude of secular acts. He believed firmly in knowing the will of God; but he put the heavy emphasis of his life on doing that will in every day life, for after all religion consists as much or more in doing secular things, from a religious motive, as in doing the religions things themselves. God has so planned it that we are to spend most of our time in so-called secular service ; but the religious motive sanctifies it and makes all of life sacred. That was the theology and practice of Theodore Roosevelt.

A most complete illustration of his devotion to doctrine and duty, to faith and works, is furnished in an address which he made to the men's Bible class in the Methodist church at Oyster Bay.

He had accepted the invitation of Rev. W. I. Bowman, the pastor of the church, to address the brotherhood and the appointment was made for four o'clock. Invitations were sent to other congregations, and the church was crowded, and thousands of people stood on the outside. The President came down from Sagamore Hill, at the appointed hour, with his own little Bible, which bore the evidence of much wear. As his Scripture Lesson he read I. Corinthians, thirteenth chapter, whose first three verses are: '' Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." And whose last verse is: "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

No man of our times ever incarnated that chapter more completely than Theodore Roosevelt. His life was one continuous expression of love to God and fellowmen. He believed that love was everything, and he acted out the love which he believed, insistently, from the time he entered the stage of action till the time he left it.

He preached a real sermon to the brotherhood. His subject was that men must practice the religion which they profess, and that, if they do not practice it, they are self-deceived in counting themselves professors. He took as his main text James 1:22: " But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." During his sermon he had a slip of paper on which he had jotted down different texts, which he made the basis of the various divisions of his message. Some one in the audience saw that slip and asked Dr. Bowman if he could secure it for him as a souvenir, and the pastor wrote the President and received from him the following answer:
dear brother bowman:
I have taken pleasure in autographing the memorandum of those texts. With all good wishes, believe me,
Faithfully yours,
(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt.
The memorandum of texts was as follows: 
Matt. 7:1.

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." 

Matt. 7:16.

"Ye shall know them by their fruits.   Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" Matt. 25:37-40.

"Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

"When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

"Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these  My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." James 1:27.

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 3:17, 18.

"But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

"And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."
Those texts, that seem to include about all of human living, the preacher practiced to the minutest detail.

His love for the missionary cause and his respect for the ministry are illustrated by this incident:

At the White House one day, and in a confidential chat with the President, I told him one of my sons was going as a missionary to Japan. He instantly said with deep feeling, "Oh, I am so glad. I am so proud of that boy and I feel so proud for you. God bless him and bless you." He said, "I have told you so many times that I consider the Christian ministry as the highest calling in the world, most intimately related to the most exalted life and service here and destiny beyond, and I consider it my greatest joy and glory that, occupying a most exalted position in the nation, I am enabled, simply and sincerely, to preach the practical moralities of the Bible to my fellow-countrymen and to hold up Christ as the hope and savior of the world. I believe down deep in my soul, as you know, my friend, that I have preached the same gospel that you and your boy are called to preach.
"As high an estimate as I have of the ministry, I consider that the climax of that calling is to go out in missionary service, as your son is doing. It takes mighty good stuff to be a missionary of the right type, the best stuff there is in this world. It takes a deal of courage to break the shell and go twelve thousand miles away to risk an unfriendly climate, to master a foreign language, perhaps the most difficult one on earth to learn; to adopt strange customs, to turn aside from earthly fame and emolument and, most of all, to say good-bye to home and the faces of the loved ones virtually forever.

"And yet your boy does not count this going as a hardship at all, but as an honor, a glory, a joy, and not a sacrifice." He said, not at my suggestion, but out of his loving instincts, "I am going to help that boy all I can; I am going to put myself and Uncle Sam behind him and help Mm in his introduction to the field and in his work there, as much as possible. Why should we not do so? He is our American boy as well as your son. I will write a letter to Mr. Lloyd Griscom, our United States minister to Japan, which your boy can present on his arrival at Tokio.''

He sent me that letter. In it he told Mr. Griscom that the bearer was a Methodist missionary, the son of an old personal friend of his, and asked him to do everything in his power to promote his success in that field. The letter was on state paper in letters like copper plate, signed in the little hand-writing, "Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States." The letter was in a very large, beautiful, official envelope, and I wished so much that I might be enabled to keep it myself as an heirloom in the family, but it went on its beneficent errand and made a fitting doorway of entrance into service in the Capital and Empire of Japan. That letter was worth years of service in the start. The people thought that he must be some distinguished person to bring such a letter from so great a man, and he had state privileges and permits and opportunities for extended usefulness. The boy wrote us that under one of these permits he was admitted into one of the inner spaces in the public park with its cherry blooms in company with the royalty there assembled; and that the late Mikado, whose face was seldom allowed to be seen by the public because they counted him a god, was so close to him that he could have touched him with a fishing-pole.

The next time I saw the President, I told him how lovely the letter to Mr. Griscom was and how sweet it was in him to send it. I told him I had heard from the boy and that he said in his letter that the happiest moment of his life was when he stepped his feet on the island of Japan. The President said,'' You noticed that I sent the letter to Mr. Griscom as an official document, did you not, and asked him as a representative of our government to stand behind your son in his mission? I did not consider that America has any relation to Japan which is higher or more far-reaching than the education, morals, and religion that the missionary carries to that country."

At the White House one day President Roosevelt came into his room, greeted me cordially, as was his custom, and then slipped over to another gentleman and greeted him. He brought that gentleman over to where I was, and said, "Dr. Iglehart, permit me
to introduce to you Father 	, who has
been doing very important work among the Indians and has come to talk with me about it." And then, placing himself between us, he said, "Here's the great Catholic church, with its millions represented by this Catholic priest, on one side of me, and here on the other is the great Methodist church, with its millions represented by my old friend, and I am only a poor little Dutch Reform layman between the two." The twinkle in his eye evidenced the fun that was always bubbling over within him. I replied, "No, Mr. President, you are not the poor little Dutch Reform layman between them. You are the great head of the nation and a Christian with a universal heart. You are large enough to belong to all the churches and all of us claim you as such, and we have reason to believe that you consider that all of us belong to you."

He warmed up instantly and answered, "My friend, you are quite right. I have the profoundest respect and warmest affection for all denominations, Protestant, Catholic and Hebrew. In my individual contact with men I have found the most splendid people imaginable holding these various beliefs, and in my public administration on all questions of moral reform, and those questions you know I consider paramount; the Protestant minister, the Catholic priest and the Jewish rabbi, and the millions that they represent, have vied with each -other in sustaining me, and my arm has been as strong as the millions that they represent, in smiting evil and in building up the right. You can see how correct you were in saying that I belong to all of you and that all of you belong to me."

Cardinal Gibbons, at my request, sent these words with reference to his dear friend, Colonel Roosevelt:
MY DEAR MB.  IGLEHABT !

In reply to your esteemed letter, asking for an estimate of Mr. Roosevelt, I wish to say that my relations with him were of a most intimate character from the time he entered the White House up until the day of his death. Besides I had much correspondence with him, all of a nature too sacred to be made public. I ever regarded Mr. Roosevelt as the typical American, the embodiment of the highest patriotism.
Faithfully yours,
(Signed)         J. caed. gibbons.
The Rev. Dr. James Malcolm MacLeod, pastor of the St. Nicholas Reformed church of New York, the one which Theodore Roosevelt joined as a boy and of which he remained a member until his death, at a beautiful memorial service in his church emphasized this breadth of undenominational vision and appreciation in these words: '' Theodore Roosevelt was bigger than any creed, bigger than any church or denominational harness of any kind. He belonged to what we hope will be the Great American church. He loved all the churches—Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic. His passing away brought sorrow into every religious fellowship in our land. He was a great American and a great Christian."

In confirmation of the statement the President made to me about his belief in all denominations, claiming all denominations as his own, I give here the estimate of Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes, one of the most eminent Hebrew scholars in America, and who has for forty-two years been in charge of the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in the fashionable district of Central Park West. He says:
The question of what kind of a man Roosevelt was is of tremendous importance, but more so is the question what kind of men his memory inspires us to be. It is little use saying he awakened conscience, touched the heart, and was a great moral force, unless we feel that he has awakened our conscience, touched our hearts and made us a moral force in our own little world of society, politics and family. We can imagine such a man in past years of our American-Jewish history, and thereby estimate his worth.

Had he lived in 1665, when the first Jewish settlers arrived and Peter Stuyvesant and .an influential minister objected to their presence, objected to their building a synagogue, how he would have thundered at such bigoted narrowness !

When those brave refugees from the cruelty of the Inquisition demanded the right of holding a burial-place for their dead, as they did, how, had he lived then, he would have exclaimed against the inhumanity of the denial of their request! How he would have scorned the intolerance which subjected those early Jews, men of high culture, men of Spanish dignity, men of high integrity, to such injustice! If a few years later he heard Asser Levy, one of the early Jewish settlers, demand the right to serve in the town guard, only to meet with refusal, how he would have boiled with indignation! And when in 1665 instructions came to Stuyvesant from Holland to yield to the request of the Jews, and when in 1666 similar pressure compelled Stuyvesant to yield to the request of the Jews to be allowed to purchase a cemetery, how Roosevelt would have smitten his thigh with glee and satisfaction!

In the Revolutionary War, the Rev. Gershon Mendes Seises, minister of this congregation, closed the doors of the synagogue during the British occupation of New York rather than continue conducting services under British conditions. Was not that true American patriotism? If Roosevelt had been alive then, how he would have gloried in it!

And if he had heard the story of the Jew Gomez, telling the sergeant who rejected his application for enlistment on the ground of his being too old, "I am not too old to stop a British bullet!" how Roosevelt's heart would have leaped for joy. He would have slapped the old man on the shoulder, endorsing his true patriotism! And if he had been living when Solomon helped to finance the American Revolution, how emphatically he would have proclaimed his satisfaction!

Plain-spoken, outspoken, he always was. He would have spoken plainly then had he lived in those days, and his example inspires us, his admirers of to-day, to speak out and speak plainly when occasion offers! The trouble is that most of us are un-Rooseveltian; we prefer to be passive; we are passivists. But a passivist Roosevelt certainly was not.

The elements were so combined in him that all the world might say when they saw him, "There goes a man!" He was blessed with a strong virility, a remarkable personality and a capturing geniality.

He had critics. What great man has escaped criticism? Who was more cruelly abused than Washington? Who was more constantly attacked than Lincoln, whose administration was ridiculed, vilified and condemned more than his? "If I were to try to read," Lincoln once said, "much less to answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I can, and I Intend to keep doing so to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference!"

Just such a man was Roosevelt. He spoke for the right, he acted for the right and thought for the right as did Lincoln, to the best of his ability. His example will inspire us to act for the right, speak for the right, and think for the right as far as in our power lies.

In the perspective of history Mr. Roosevelt will loom larger yet, for he was the idealization of what an American ought to be and what the word American stands for. The nation is profoundly impressed by his patriotism, his generous life, his fearlessness. As a Jewish minister, I cannot forget that Mr. Roosevelt, when Police Commissioner, with grim humor discharged his duty as Police Commissioner to protect a notorious antisemitic agitator but assigned the duty to Jewish policemen. The agitator was a German, and we wonder whether he saw the humor of the situation; he, himself, lecturing on antisemitism in Cooper Union, protected by Jewish policemen! Commissioner Roosevelt never ceased to praise his Jewish policemen, some of whom were fast friends till the day of his death.

He was always ready to lend a hand, and it was always a very vigorous hand, to promote justice and righteousness. One day he is pledging and giving support and cooperation in a movement to benefit women employees. Another day we find him, as Chief Magistrate, calling Mr. Hay, the Secretary of State, to give him instructions to draw up and send to the Rumanian government a protest against its reprehensible actions against the Jews. One day he is pleading for an Armenian or a Belgian, just as years before he tried to convert the Czar's government to justice for the Jew. And on yet another day we find him like a statesman, looking forward for his country's benefit, as in the famous Panama transaction. He was a great man. Let us see to it that the memory of his greatness shall help to make us great. He was a good man. We must see that his memory inspire us to live the good clean life that he did. He was a brave man. His courage must move us to be brave enough to stand for the right as he did
•
This estimate of Rabbi Mendes has special significance from the fact that twenty-four years ago he helped Commissioner Roosevelt to enforce the law closing the saloons on Sunday. I shall never forget his words at a certain public hearing on the question. Some of our Christian ministers had urged the enforcement of the law, but were quite particular to state that they asked for the enforcement not because it was a religious command, but because it was a civil law, thinking that that plea would have the greatest weight with the Mayor. When it was Rabbi Mendes' turn to speak, he said that "while he would ask for the enforcement of the law because it was on the statute books, he asked for it even on stronger ground, and that was that it was a divine command that one day out of seven for rest was necessary for the health of body, mind and soul, and that all civil laws were simply based on that elemental principle.'' He said, "Let the stores close, let the wheels of industries stop, certainly let the places of dissipation and demoralization be closed and let the people have one day in the week for rest and for the worship of Almighty God."
When Theodore Roosevelt began his political life in New York City, he joined a Republican  club. A name was proposed for membership, and some persons determined to blackball the candidate because he was a Jew. Mr. Roosevelt heard of the threat and rebuked those who had made it in the most stinging words and cried out, "Shame on you! Shame on you to allow your prejudice against the man's religion to so blind you to his excellent character! This man proposed I know. I know him to be an honest man and a gentleman, and if he is to be blackballed because he is a Jew I should feel very much like resigning from the club right away." The opposition was ended and the man was elected to membership by a unanimous vote and became a most vigorous, useful and honored member of the circle. That was the Roosevelt of our country and the Roosevelt of the world, who loved all denominations which were trying to do the Lord's work, and was idolized by them all.

Jason, who led the forty-nine most brilliant young men of Greece on the journey to secure the Golden Fleece and his crown, is reputed in the stories of the Greek gods to have accomplished miracles by divine direction. He was ordered by the gods to take the piece of a limb from the oak of Dodona and have it turned into the face of a woman. This he nailed to the bow of his ship. He consulted it continually, and it was said to have told Mm where to go and what to do.

Theodore Roosevelt, in accomplishing the miracles of his lifetime, had a crucified and risen Savior before his eyes, whom he consulted at every step of life, who told him where to go, what to say, and what to do—to bless his fellowmen and secure his crown.