Part 1

Transcriber’s Note: Writings are ordered by category, then publication year (goal is earliest available at least with legible text), then alphabetically (ignoring “A”, “An”, and “The”). Investigation of spelling involved Google’s Ngram Viewer (//books.google.com/ngrams/). Appendix 1 was created for this book and is ordered alphabetically by title. Appendix 2 also was created for this book. Additional new material, and the compilation, are granted to the public domain. This plain text version of the book uses underscores (_) to denote the start and end of italicized text and equal signs (=) to denote the start and end of bold text.

COLLECTED WRITINGS OF CLARENCE EDWIN FLYNN

First Edition, 1929 and Earlier

PREFACE LIST OF WRITINGS BY CATEGORY WRITINGS APPENDIX 1: BYLINES, BIBLIOGRAPHY, NOTES APPENDIX 2: SELECTED QUOTES AND ZINGERS

“It is the glad service which lifts the world a little farther in its long, hard climb.” _The Obligation of Good Cheer_

PREFACE

What follows is a brief introduction to Mr. Flynn, his authorship of these writings, and how this book came about. From my research on his life, which I made available at //prabook.com/web/clarence.flynn/1084802, Clarence Edwin Flynn (1886–1970) was an American Methodist Episcopal clergyman, writer, hymnist and lecturer. He’s described as a “writer of stories, articles and verse appearing in periodicals and anthologies” and is “represented in anthologies of verse. General character writing, religious, educational.” [1] [2] [3] His writings (sans poems) appeared in more than 50 different domestic and international publications.

Were all of these writings authored by Clarence Edwin Flynn? I cannot say that is true with certainty, but I’ll offer the following support. Firstly, there’s moderate support in the fact that the middle initial “E” is used in all but two bylines; two bylines have no middle name or initial. Secondly, almost a third of the bylines offer strong support through the attributes mainly of title (e.g. Reverend) and locations that correspond with his biography. Thirdly, moderate to strong support can be found in the writings’ content, which is the basis for including more than half of the writings. Religious topics certainly offer strong support. As for the wide variety of other topics covered, the reader will find multiple cases where Reverend Flynn encourages preachers to broaden their knowledge and experiences in order to better serve their congregations. And if you find the content strong in the art of persuasion, Flynn was a member of the college oratory team. In conclusion, this brief analysis is limited by the absence of Clarence Edwin Flynn’s personal papers (their status is unknown to me).

How did this book come about? In short, the writings were collected during the primary process of collecting poetry. The longer explanation is in the preface to the book cited in the third footnote. As with the book of poetry, this is the inaugural collection of writings and is limited to those published in 1929 or earlier in accordance with a copyright rule governing works first published before 95 years ago.

[1] _Who’s Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women_. Vol. 24, 1946–1947, Two Years. Chicago: The A. N. Marquis Co., 1946. p. 780 [2] Lawrence, Alberta, ed. _Who’s Who Among North American Authors_. Vol. 5, 1931–1932. Los Angeles: Golden Syndicate Publishing Co., 1931. p. 1089 [3] This collection of writings does not include poetry. I created a separate book of his poetry: Flynn, Clarence Edwin. _Collected Poems of Clarence Edwin Flynn_. First edition, 1929 and earlier. Jun 17, 2025. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76332

LIST OF WRITINGS BY CATEGORY

Categories are not mutually exclusive.

LIFTING THE ARTS

“It was an innocent-faced maid” (1906): Humorous anecdote

“A man entered a downtown street car” (1906): Humorous anecdote

The Modern Grandmother (1915): Humorous anecdote

The Opportunity and Peril of the Writer (1918): “He dare not fail to be a mouthpiece of truth.”

The Message of the Washington Monument (1919): “...it outlines the essential qualities of our people.”

The Post-War Outlook for Literature (1919): “The fundamental principles of life have not changed, but our attitude toward life and our application of those principles have changed mightily.”

Free Verse (1921): “It is one of the best outlets poetry can ever offer for the expression of the moods and thoughts of the human soul.”

Music and History (1921): “The issues of life have always proceeded from the heart, and the heart of any age expresses itself in its musical productions.”

Correspondence (1929): “As good correspondence is an art, so a good correspondent is an artist.”

LIFTING CHRISTIANITY

The Sabbath Desecration (1910): “We may well ask whence this great difference between our age and that of the preceding generation.”

The Light (1915): “In the life of man, [light] takes the form of the knowledge of the truth which makes him free.”

The Yoke (1915): “...the command of Jesus to accept and wear His yoke is often much more dreadful than there is reason that it should be.”

The Crowded Inn (1916): “[The story] has been the most tragic because it has represented the most widespread condition.”

The Price of Liberty (1916): “The tragedy of Calvary opened up the way to liberty....”

Paul’s Ideal Sufficient (1918): “Each social institution has one task to perform, and it will be found to be unable to perform more than that one task well.”

The Religion of the New Age (1919): “The facts of religion can not change, but humanity can achieve progress in rightly interpreting them and in rightly adapting itself to them.”

Christianity and Americanism (1920): “The perpetuity of the state depends most largely upon the very things for which the Christian religion stands.”

The Christian Program (1920): “[Realization of the Kingdom] therefore depends upon the passing from one to another of its master secret.”

Essay contributed to a symposium on “The Church and Young People” (1920): “Unless [the church’s status in relation to youth] is improved, the kingdom will become a victim of race suicide.”

The Message of an Empty Tomb (1920): “[Jesus’s] life had been a message of life triumphant.”

The Laboratory Test (1921): “...the only way to appraise [the Christian faith’s] real merits…”

The Nearness of Destiny (1921): “‛What you are to be you are now becoming.’”

Children and the Church (1922): “...we should assume that every child is...to be reared in its ways and teachings...until he wilfully forsakes it.”

The Church’s Fourfold Program (1922): Evangelism, education, social welfare, and finance

Newer Conceptions of Religion (1922): “We cannot alter the divine plan of life and redemption, but we can make progress in our understanding and use of it.”

The International Religion (1923): “As to whether God proposes to save the many or the few, it would seem to favor the first answer.”

The Great Teacher (1925): Vital things, simple and plain, and position clear

What Can We Believe? (1928): “One is made or unmade by his beliefs.”

The Christ of the Sea (1929): “He began at once promoting the kind of thing the practical world calls impossible because it is right.”

The Comrade Perfect: An Appreciation (1929): “...life is not all that it ought to be without the presence of the Personality which completes us.”

Four Addresses to Young People (1929): Christian service, communion with God, spiritual and practical leaders, and the church’s purposes

What Is Happening to Religion? (1929): “Eminent scientists announcing their faith in and support of religion are a growing company.”

LIFTING CHRISTIAN MINISTERS

Has the Day of Great Preachers Passed (1921): “The one standard by which he is measured is the question of his ability as an exponent of the Christian religion.”

The Heart Interest in Preaching (1922): “He has sensed the human side, and seen what it is that makes the need for preaching.”

The Great Compulsion (1928): “That was the last peaceful day he ever saw, for our peace is the price we pay for greatness.”

The Minister and His Reading (1928): “...the field with which the minister needs to be familiar is unlimited because it touches all the others.”

Preaching to College Students (1928): “[The minister] is dealing with adventurous minds whose one concern is truth.”

Some Problems of the Preacher (1928): “They have cost many a man his usefulness, and limited that of many others.”

The Ambassador (1929): “It is a wonderful thing to be a minister, because a minister is an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.”

Let the Minister Know Life (1929): “He needs to see, and hear, and know enough to understand the mind and heart of the world.”

The Yielding of Aaron (1929): “...the adaptation of the principles and standards of religion to public tastes, ideals, and desires.”

LIFTING COMMUNITY

The Necessary Asset—Friends (1917): “The most valuable friend is the friend who is one for friendship’s sake alone.”

Building a World Brotherhood (1918): “In [Jesus’s] estimation of things, a man was a man. He could be no more and there was no disposition to ever rate him as less.”

The Laughing Man (1919): “My lords,” he said, “I bring you news—news of the existence of mankind.”

The Safe Foundations for a League of Nations (1919): “If the hearts of men are not right toward one another, the vision of peace will be as idle a dream as it was in the past years.”

Is It Nothing to You (1929): “By all these things we and ours are profoundly affected. Why should we not care?”

What Makes a City? (1929): “The greatest factor [in what makes a city is] the care it takes of and the safeguards with which it surrounds its people.”

LIFTING ECONOMICS

Capitalizing War for the Tobacco Trade (1919): “This is always done in the name of patriotism, even though the effect may be altogether antipatriotic.”

Creating a Demand (1919): “...helping to build that larger and better commercial world in which all business will be at its best because all people are at their best.”

Should Prices Be Standardized? (1919): “In other words, it would lift the markets above the gambling level.”

The Home Budget (1920): “It enables the poor to keep from growing poorer, and often enables them to reach comfortable circumstances.”

Efficient Spending (1921): “Between the hoarding of money...and the reckless habits of the spendthrift...lies this golden mean.”

LIFTING EDUCATION

The Three Agencies in Child Training (1909): “...the aim of each should be the perfection of personality.”

The Association of Mind and Muscle (1918): “As knowledge becomes a matter of action, it becomes a matter of purpose, ideal, and character.”

The Sound-Reproducing Machine as a Music Teacher (1919): “The taste of the listener is on its way to better things.”

The School Teacher and the Republic (1920): “The nation cannot recognize its obligation to the teacher too soon or too completely.”

Some Overlooked Compensations in Teaching (1920): “[The teaching profession] places in the hands of those who choose it privileges which many of the rich would gladly give their gold to obtain.”

Dollars Versus Sense (1921): “...preoccupation with material things. Minds become cloyed; hearts grow dull; and souls grow no wings with which to lift themselves above the mire and the clay.”

Education and Production (1921): “The accepted canon in educational circles is that a man is not trained at all unless trained to be good for something, and that he must prove his culture by bringing forth fruits meet for it.”

The School as a Reform Agency (1921): “Whatever the future contains, the school teacher holds the key to it.”

LIFTING HUMANITY

The Same Face (1915): “Along our years motherhood has planted three pictures that are so good for us to see that love and memory should always keep them bright.”

The Will (1915): “The will of man is not only his danger, but it is also his hope.”

The Sword that Keeps the Past (1916): “There is only one way to change the past, and that is to change it before it becomes the past.”

The Fountain of Youth (1917): “Such as it is, it exists everywhere.”

Some Principles of Efficiency (1917): “One has but one chance at this life, and he has a right to make that one effort the best possible.”

The Story of the Red Cross (1917): “One of the strongest forces now making for a day of lasting peace is the beautiful suggestion that comes from the spirit of those who make it their aim to help while others destroy.”

Words (1917): “The power of uplifting speech and the right to enjoy helpful conversation are high privileges.”

The Line of Necessity (1918): “It is the unnecessary that changes bare existence into throbbing and purposeful life.”

Some New Facts About Alcohol (1918): “Whether in the workshop or in the military camp, liquor and efficiency are sworn and uncompromising foes.”

Facing the Future (1919): “The race is still achieving some progress, however, and most of us still believe that the most promising days of civilization are yet to be.”

Life’s Backgrounds (1919): Character, preparation, and relationships

The New Philosophy (1920): “...philosophers feel a growing realization that advancement is the proper aim of human endeavor, and that the vital problem of Philosophy is human welfare and progress.”

The Sense of the Human (1920): “Humanity is the center of all creation, and the proper object of all our striving.”

The Holy Spirit and Social Viewpoint (1922): “The salvation of the group can only be accomplished by the salvation of the individuals who compose it.”

Civilization (1929): “denying themselves and their families the joy”

The Road Uphill (1929): “successively better generations”

LIFTING VIRTUE

Some Stories About Beethoven (1915): “He placed the claims of life, right, and truth in a place of supremacy over all other claims.”

The Obligation of Good Cheer (1916): “Whoever has a cheerful disposition has that much of a start toward positive and complete goodness.”

Worship and Service (1916): “He who would die in the spirit of the cross must live there.”

Do It Right (1917): “...the maxim which pointed the way to their mutual success.”

Life’s Handicaps (1918): “Along whatever way one’s path may happen to lie, ...his life would be utterly unnatural if it were devoid of difficulties.”

The Riverside (1918): “It is not what we would like to do in this life, but what we really get done that counts.”

Determinants (1921): “The nature of a man can be altered or reversed.”

Love’s Burdens (1921): “In some unfeeling, intellectually ideal republic, such a pitiful piece of human wreckage might have been cast upon the junk heap.”

The Successors of Tantalus (1921): “Yet these unrealized hopes are among the most valuable experiences we have.”

The Christian Standard of Greatness (1922): “‛If any man would be first, he shall be last of all and the servant of all.’”

The Objective of Service (1922): “Humanity is, therefore, the most important object to which our interest and service can be dedicated. It represents both the divine problem and the human task.”

Our Blessings of Deliverance (1922): “No less important than the things which we have been given are the things from which we have been saved.”

The Redemption of Jean Valjean (1922): “[Victor Hugo] furnishes us a master picture of the upward struggle of a soul despite the influences acting within and without to keep it down.”

Eulogy for Joseph E. Henley [excerpt] (1924): “we have none too much of simple human kindness”

The Corner Stones of Life (1925): “Any product that has in it only the very best of materials suggests just one thing—character.”

Eulogy for Sanford F. Teter [excerpt] (1928): “He passed through the fire, but he did not let it burn away his courage...”

MISCELLANEOUS

Is Prohibition Paternalistic? (1919): “Freedom needs to recognize its own proper limits, and it will do so in any properly organized social system.”

Vibration as a Basis of Invention (1919): “Nature probably holds some provision for our every want. We need only to establish the means by which she can deliver her gifts to us.”

WRITINGS

“It was an innocent-faced maid” (1906)

It was an innocent-faced maid who stood at the postoffice window Saturday and asked in the tone of one seeking a bargain, “Have ye any postage stamps?”

“Certainly,” replied the obliging clerk. “How many?”

“Let me see them, please,” was the answer, and the stamps were produced for inspection. “I don’t quite like the color of these,” she said. “Don’t you have any two-cent stamps of a lighter shade?”

“Only one kind of two-cent stamps are made, Miss.”

“Then I think I shall take one-cent ones. I like green better than such a bloody red. I am a Quaker, and it is too suggestive of war. Can you sell me six for five cents?”

“No, indeed, Miss, the price of stamps is fixed regularly.”

“Then I shall try elsewhere. Please don’t be offended. I will come back here if I can’t get them cheaper anywhere else.”

And still with the bargain-hunting air, the innocent-faced maid took her departure.

“A man entered a downtown street car” (1906)

A man entered a downtown street car one day last week. The car was full, and he was obliged to hang onto the strap and ride in the midst of a crowd of good-looking girls, most of whom were either “would-bes” or “has-beens.” The conversation soon started in his direction, and in secret tone, just loud enough for him to hear, they discussed the new arrival.

“Hasn’t he the most lovely hair?” one of them exclaimed in a whisper that was halfway between awestruck and tender.

“It couldn’t be Nicholas Longworth, surely. No, I know it isn’t, for Longworth is baldheaded. He must be some great actor—or—politician,” said another.

“Oh, he is just my ideal,” put in a third. “For twen—no, I mean three long years I have sought just such a one, for such a one alone could I love and trust.” Young and innocent Jennie was evidently studying for the stage, and she continued: “He must be some great musician. What if he were Pa—”

But just here the car stopped, and as the patient-looking passenger prepared to get off, a frowzly head popped out the door of a tumbledown dwelling close by the track. The head was quickly followed by a red Mother Hubbard, and a shrill voice called in far from pleasant tones: “Git off o’ that car, and come on here an’ git a few o’ these kids still. You’ve loafed roun’ in them good clothes an’ flirted with girls on street cars enough for one day.”

And as the sad-faced passenger wearily left the car, a sigh escaped all the girls at once. Alas! the course of true love never did run smooth.

The Modern Grandmother (1915)

The Boy: I stopped in to tell you that my grandmother—

The Boss: Well, I suppose your grandmother has passed away and is to be buried this afternoon about time for the game.

The Boy: Oh, no, sir! My grandmother is coming by to take me to the game, and I want to know if I can get off to go with her.

The Opportunity and Peril of the Writer (1918)

We have grown accustomed to consider history as being made by the decrees of kings or by the power of invading and defending armies. These things are, however, only the instruments of the one really compelling social force. That force is the power of public opinion. History is made by those who direct and control it. This is the reason for the power of the pulpit, the platform, and the press. Of these three, the power of the press touches the largest number of people. The writer sends out an influence which reaches to the ends of the earth.

This fact points the way to a conception of both his opportunity and his peril. His opportunity is the direction of a power which not even kings can long dare to defy. His peril is that he may fail to direct it into the right channels. He may guide it in such a way that it can carry the race steadily toward a day of complete justice for all. On the other hand, he may listen to some lesser voice than that of truth, or seek some lower aim than that of right, and thus lead the thinking of the world astray. The opportunity is glorious and the peril is serious, because men will become what they think, and the world will conform to what they become. Thought life is fundamental.

In the midst of an age of war, the world is struggling for peace. The law of the jungle ceased to be the recognized principle of history, and war lost its standing as a means of obtaining justice because of the efforts of a man to guide public opinion by means of a book. No one could have conquered militarism with a sword in the old days, and it is doubtful whether it can be done now, but the strong silent force of enlightened opinion can do it.

The history of modern international law as a basis for the preservation of peace among nations really began with the publication in 1625 of a book entitled _De Jure Belli et Pacis_. It was written by a Dutch publicist by the name of Hugo Grotius. This book came from the press in the midst of the Thirty Years’ War, and it began a process of leavening the popular mind with the idea that justice can be obtained by peaceable means. The end of that process will yet be the complete triumph of international law over international strife. It was the pen of a writer which was used as the original instrument for the blazing of the path to an age of concord and fraternity.

The great literary need of the present day is for a man who can snatch the torch from the dead hand of Grotius and bear it a little farther. He will not receive high praise from the militaristic camp, but his efforts will be appreciated by those who really love their country enough to desire its preservation from the blasting blight of war. Some gifted pen will yet inoculate the popular mind with an ideal of peace and brotherhood which will make war forever impossible.

No one will ever be able to measure correctly the influence which the pamphlets of Thomas Payne had in the crystallization of the sentiment which held the early American patriots to their cause. The historians have not neglected, however, to give them large credit in their final reckonings. They provided a sort of mental artillery, making possible the work of the advancing sword of a Washington.

The break between the sections was healed with mortar which was mixed not only with the blood of the soldier, but also with the pen of the writer. The one thing lacking for years was the decision of the popular will to settle once for all the difficulty between the states. One day in June of 1851 there appeared in Gamaliel Bailey’s paper, _The National Era_, the first installment of a story entitled _Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly_. It was written in the spare time of the busy wife of a theological professor, and she herself did not take it very seriously at the time of its publication. The result was, however, that in less than a decade public opinion had crystallized, and the sections were ready for the test. The rest of the story needs no telling, but the memory of Harriet Beecher Stowe deserves to have it said that the history of America in that time of crisis was largely moulded by the hand that held the pen.