Gathering here today, we have come without dread of enemies or fear for our lives; we have come in some great measure of security and of comfort. It was not always so.

Less than half a century ago in central Europe the Nazi storm troopers could invade any sanctuary on any Sunday and carry off to prison or to death whomever they would, and this they often did. Yet the people came.

Eighteen hundred years ago the Christian Faith was outlawed; the Christians were hunted like animals almost; it was a crime for them to assemble and the penalti…