Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-01-17
MEN FOR THE TIMES.


1t is sometimes said that the times, and the
peculiar circumstances of a particular age, call
out the men that are needed for that particular
period and Martin Luther George Washing
ton, and other leading spirits, are referred to,
for illustration of the remark. There may be
truth in it; but perhaps it were better to say,
that God raises up and sends forth such men,
from time to time, as the exigencies of the
times require such men as will establish the
right and promote the truth,
Our earliest Puritan forefathers, who came
as pioneers into this Western world, were the
right men, and came with the right characters
and motives, to lay the foundation for virtu-
Gus and great people, and to herald them in.
And, later still, the master spirits of our old
Revolutionary Era, and that Immediately sue
ceeding it, to organize and perfect a Federal
government and constitution, were emnently
the men for the demands and exigencies of
those stern and trying times. And, it may not
be too much to say, that those trying times
nourished up those noble men, and by the Sc
we're discipline of poverty and pioneer life,
made them what they were-men to do and
dare any duty, amid whatever of sacrifice and
personal danger.
But, will men, such as our present times and
nearby future will require, be raised up, nurs-
ed as we are in the soft lap of ease and luxury?
Will men be found, now and soon, who are
willing to cast away wealth, prosperity, and
ease-espouse great ideas, great principles,
when unpopular, great reforms, and, by great
sacrifices, go forth to proclaim the right, to de-
fend the weak, and do great work for the ma
ton? This is really serious and earnest
question. 1t seems to us that our country is
yet to ask for morally great mentor heroes
In Congress and out of Congress- in Kansas
and in the old States, North and South,
battles are to be fought over, not with the
sword and rifle, we pray God, but great
moral battles, that will ask, yet, for great
men-men who will sacrifice much for lber-
ty and duty. Shall these men be found
Will the expressions and injustice of the
times bring them out ? Will God raise
them up? Shall liberty bleed, without
great souls to help, after such trophies of
victory and triumphs of glory, as she has al
ready achieved in America! We humbly
trust that it will not be so. What if the bat
ties of freedom are to be fought over again in
these United States, battles less casual, but
not less mighty, battles for higher freedom, ex-
tending to all men, and destroying slavery from
our wide domain, which the former wars did
not do-wil the God of the oppressed, the God
of nations, raise up the men and thrust them in
to his vineyard? We trust it will be !
1t must be so, we must have the men for
the times, or slavery and not freedom will fill
this great nation.
Mr.. Prentice, in his lecture, in this city last
week, asked for MEN for the TIMES. This is
what we should all ask God for. This is what
men should offer themselves on the affairs for,
If need be, of our country and of our God. In
the Christian ministry, at the bar and bench,
in Congress, and in the State and National
Executives, our present times call for men, in
corrupt and morally heroic, men willing to
battle against all wrong, men fearing God and
AeeelAlS al Clldll IlOl the more 1alID-
full teachings of pure Christianity give them
us Shall not good men and true, be elected
to fill the high places now occupied by the
mere party politician, the pro-slavery dough-
face, the obsequious office-seeker Is it not
high time that the cries of crushed and
bleeding humanity in the South, the outrageous
meanness of slavery propagandists in our new
territory, the dastardly cringing of politicians
to slave poverty men in the high civil and jul
diclal stations of the nation-is it not time that
all these evils and dangers should Thoroughly
arouse the people, and call out the truly great
and noble spirits of our land and the age, to
the grand work of saving Liberty, and, by the
power of Truth on the national mind, of over
throwing slavery! Let our prayer be, God of
the Harvest, raise up the Men for the Times
LII.