Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1858-03-19
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We are not Saints and we don't know exactly who is
But we haze sort of affection for real genuine Saints
not exactly because they called Saints but because
many of them were genuine heroes of humanity and
ligion men of high enthusiasm and noble purpose-men
who abandoned all the alurements of ease, comfort
wealth and social enjoyment to carry the truth of those
who sat in the shadow of darkness, in whose mis-
sion civilization went hand in hand with religion. We
reverence also those old national traditions which
balm the memory of beneactors of this Glass; and identify
their with the nationality of the people to whose
welfare their lives were devoted. Every in Europe
is proud to rally under the name of some chvalrous
soldier of the apostle or of the
apostles who came to tell them Of the glad tidngs of
salvaton-some noble christian warrior, who in the
vice of his divine master, shrank from danger and
was deferred by no privation The lives Of such
as Paul. as Peter, any of the martyrs, who sealed
their profession with that blood which the seed of
the Church. present scenes of moral sublimty-of true
courage of sefsacrcing devotion to which the annals
of war; of bloodshed of national ambition, of
national patriotism afford no parallel That the memory
of such men should be cherished is right 1t is good
thing for the ngshman, the Scochman or the Irish
man preserve and cherish the memory of Saint George
st. Andrew or Saint Patrick. 1t is good thing to
pay respect to the memory of benefactor 1t is good
thing to have one day hallOwed by feeling, some
recollection which connects nationality with religion and
carries the mind back to date anterior to all existing
factions in politics or secs in religion.
We know little of Saint Patrick, but what little re-
mains of authentic history reliable tradition, shows
him to have been an able devoted courageous and learn
ed missionary, noble and good man, who gave his
life and its energies to spread the gospel in Ireland,
whose apostle he may well be called Whether canon
lied or uncanonzed we know not and need not enquire
his name comes down to us as the instrument through
which great work was wrought, great good accom-
pshcd and religion apart one entitled to that sort
of respect which attaches to the of national ben
efctor and whose birth day deserves commemoration
by the race he served as does the birthday of Washington
by the people of the United States.
If there be one thing more than another in which the
mind and feelings of the present age Detective it is
the element of reverence of respect for old traditions
which form half the beauty aud nearly all the poetry of
existence and without which religion itself would be but
cold and eless Therefore, it is that would see all
the old national Saints days kept up-Wc would like to
see the IriShmln and his descendants warm to the name
of st. Patrick and love the shamrock from which the
Missionary himself drew that most beautiful Illustration
of the doctrine of the Trinity. We would the Welsh
man warm to st. David and his cek, the Scotcman to
ST. Andrew and his thistle the Engshman to ST. George
and his and the American people, the heirs Of all
the great of the world the nhertors of their arts
and literature, also preserve what is truly gentle and
! filming in the traditions of their ancestors.