Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-08-31

uOb w tuC ood. Ii lo Lu6 cdrIu urOWn- |
ing man! The earth penetrated
with the ocean becomes a snare. 1t
offers itself, plain, and opens bill
low.-Victor Hugo.
Eihu Burritt on Wycliffe.
Mr.. Elihu Burritt took part in the
proceedings at the re-opening of Lut-
terworth Church after restoration.
In Guardian report of his speech,
we read that he expressed the special
pleasure which he felt in representing
there, in an infnitesimal degree, the
millions of his countrymen who felt
they had birthright relation to the
great reformer who made that place
the fulcrum point of that leverage
with which he moved the moral
world:
indeed, Wycliffe was the spiritual
founder Of New England. The Pill
grim Fathers who made the solemn
aisles Of the dim woods ring with the
anthems of the free, carried with
them his Bible, and sang the great
psalms Of Christian faith, and the
songs of free conscience which its
truth inspired. He believed, and
they would pardon him for saying it,
that no family Of the great English
speaking race could ever owe Wy
cliffe larger debt than did the
American Republic. He was the
torerunner of Columbus; for a cen
tury before the birth of that great
discOverer, in the walls of that par
ish church, if he might say with rev
erence, he baptized a religious faith
for an undiscovered world and an
unborn nation; and from the
birth of that nation to its present day
Of manhood, through all the long and
desperate struggles it has waged
with hostile elements and human foes,
the faith which he preached within
those consecrated walls had been a
vitality whose pulse might be felt in
all the religious and political life of
the American people, and in all their
most cherished institutions. Inspired
with the reverence that sentiment
should inspire in a thoughtful Amer
lean, he participated with them with
great gladness in all their hallowed
memories and associations of that
place and occasion. He could feel,
as he could nowhere else, how very
young was the American nation in
years. 1t seemed but a mere child
in existence, measured against the
centuries over which Wycliffe's name
and working life had come down to
them, TO this present generation Of
our common race. AS he followed
| up with them the unfinching tide of
those bygone centuries, how soon
they come parallel to the sailing of
the Mayfower and the landing of the
pilgrims on Plymouth Rock; a few
years further, and they come to
Shakespeare standing just above that
point at which England put forth the
first branch of the river of life to per-
meate and viYify the western world
and Shakespeare's day was only the
halfway milestone on their journey
back ito Wycliffe. What long ages
filed with the scenery of great events
they had to cross before they reached
the day when that great reformer
stood up in that quiet parish and
shook the Vatican and all the seated
hills Of Papal power with his grand
utterances of Gospel truth! Gap,
plause.) Considering what he was
and considering what a father he
was to Luther, Knox and Latimer
and other champions and martyrs ol
the Christian faith considering what
he had inaugurated there-that
which had swept over the centuries
: and moulded the political and relig
. ious life of nations-he fairly believ
ed there was not spot on earth thi;
side Of Bethlehem that would be re
j., garded with higher veneration in al
Christendom than the place from
which that illustrious reformer sen
forth his Bible in the hearty, homely
vernacular Of the English people Zap
! plause;) and he would venture t.
thank them on behalf of the who'll
! American branch of the English
speaking race for their reverentia
! appreciation Of the precious memor,
= the precious and everlasting mem
- ory which the life of Wyclife gave t.
:, Lutterworth. (Applause.) He thank
ed them that they held that grea
memory as a priceless treasure, a
:, the immediate jewel of their souls a
. community. In thus veneratin
and regilding, as it were, the churc
= of the illustrious reformer, they ha
- renovated and regilded the casket c
that jewel to be handed down to tn
= = long generations of the future, WHIT
= they might depend upon it, woul
hold that treasure at their valuation
: and, perhaps at higher price fC
, mankind" LOud Applause1