Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1844-03-27
DIR. BACON'S GRAFTON.

DIR. BACON'S GRAFTON
Before the immense gathering of Wing;
in the Tabernacle last evening.
THE TINE, THE PURPOSE, AMI
THE MAN.
$40 every thing there is season, ant
time to every purpose" So, too,thert
is a purpose to every time: and as the
moment brings its duties TO the man, Sc
the age has its great duty to perform
its great purpose to achieve-its grea,
problems to solve--its great truths to pro-
claim.
But the truths which are for the whole
world to know and feel, are not left in
the form of cold, iEanimate distractions.
The age, to appreciate It's own objects,
must see them wildly represented and
exempIified in the human life in which
our temporal sympa,hies begin and END.
And, therefore, in the order Of Provi.
dence. these leading ideas of the age are
always concentrated, personilied, embed.
led and incarna,e in living forms that we
admire and revere and thus we are
fondly led to love the truth, which, in
lis disembodied existence, might have
been too high, too distant and too spiritu-
al tor our observation or appreciation
Thus we learn the great objects of the
age, the PURPOSE of the TINE, in the
MAN, whose life exempIfies and whose
genius illustrates them.
We speak of -seasons-ages--
meaning thereby distinct portions oftime.
This distinction is a matter of fact, not
fancy. 1t is practical, real, not magma
ry. Time has its tides-its intervals
A glance at the past shows it broken by
great acclanlations Of prominent events,
divided by intervals of comparative mac
ton. We have passed but one such e.
pooh in our national history-and are
now approaching the acme of another.
The period from the commencement of
our Revolutionary War to the organiza-
ton ofthe federal govt was the first The
time from that point TO the present has
been an interval made by the subsistence
of the Revolutionary wave and the grad
ual, prolonged rising of another surge.
The intermediate objects, questions and
a!sFsass have a been .j pGiqRpspls GsfHag
and pointing again.
The FIRST great epoch was. in our his
tory, like the chain OF the AIleghanies in
our geography. The present brings US
to longer, wider and lofiier range. We
are scaling the summit of a Rocky Noun
tain chain, whence we look back over
The broad valley and turbid rivers we
have traversed, to the peaks on which
our fathers stood, now Brighter with the
rays ofour late day, and beyond them to
the ocean of time past, while before us
is the vaster and illimitable sea oftimo to
come.
"Say not thou--what is the cause that
the former days were better than these
for thou dost not inquire wisely concern
lpg this" In our admiring retrospect of
the past, we often overlook the dignity of
the present. We forget that we our
selves are bearing our part IN what shall
soon be history. In every age, the
great mass of men have acted but for the
moment, insensible to the purpose to
which they contributed. 1t is our priv.
lege, at this moment to look farther than
the moment-to act with a wide view of
our relations TO the past and to the future.
1t is said that-"history is philosophy
teaching by example," 1t is more. 1t
is God teaching by the Providence even
as in creation--giving evidence Of the
same all controlling design and benevo.
lence in both. He gives the time its pur.
pose--the age its crisis. He seals the
man to execute his COUNSEL" and "gives
him for witness to the people, leader
and commander to the people," In the
light of his truth, let US look to the first
epoch in our national history, to see the
"purpose" ofthat time and the manner
its accomplishment, that we may learn
not only what our fathers did, but what
they left for US to do,--thus declaring the
end from the beginning, aud from an
Client times the things that are not yet
done.'
In new country and new world, a.
rose nation, 'born in one day. called
into being to achieve purposes before un-
accomplished though often attempted, to
reveal truths and establish principles
which had been CROPPED after. in vain for
thodsands of years blythe sages ofthe old
world. II b now Familiarity and univer-
sally acknowledged thai the establish
ment of our independence and of our ma
tional government was the commencement
of a test experiment on the higher capabil.
tiles of the great mass of mankind, and
of calculation ofthe pro5lem-'Can the
people govern themselves wisely and
iiustiy?' Yet we often speak of it as an
experiment already complete, and prob
lem now fully solved. Our Revolution
ary age did indeed establish some great
facts, before unknoicn. and did remove
difficulties fatal to popular liberty Of old.