The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-21


the revolutions of nearly two thousand years
through the gradual triumphs OF error by the
gradual corruption of the people-througn
the terrible penalties which slowly but surely
came as whitening vengeance from heaven; and
through seasons of moral darkness which ap-
peared as If hope had fled from man. In all
these wonderful mutations, not mere rulers OF
leaders are answerable for results. They were
but the creatures of the ebbing and flowing tides
of popular degeneracy, or of the struggles OF
the people for their temporal or spiritual anne
lioration. The State corrupted the Church; the
Church subordinated the State, and the batte-
axe smote the affairs where the faithful wor-
shipped The name and ceremonies of the
Church were prostituted to the fiagraut abuse
of external government, until nauonas
and religious decay made civilization
reproach. We point to the Reformation al
the date of the new Christian era that has s.
rapidly advanced and ennobed the human race
But when and what was the Reformation
Luther and Calvin were but the builders of
Professionalism. Its foundations had long been
laid, its corner-stones had been fashioned by
centuries of consistent devotion, and all It's
materials had been framed and seasoned for the
imposing temple. The martyr of Bohemia had
gone to the stake century before, and Wick
life bad taught still half century earlier. The
line of reformers is unbroken from the date OF
the Son of Man until now. There were periods
when their voices were hushed, and when they
would have taught as to the winds had they
dared to teach; but there were everyday lives
in every State, whose purity of character aud
action were like the silver dew
drops of the morning when the
earth is parched to desolation. And when the
struggle began, the world was in travail for two
centuries before the Reformation was born.
The ''reformers before the Reformation" are
not unnoticed in history; but before them still
were the ever living currents of Christian life
Like the waters of the western DESERT which
hide from the weird and burning waste, but rise
again where there are life and beauty, Christian
excellence and Christian influence coursed
nvoy ar1 fhrnn M
swelled up as the flood-tide that bore Luther
and Calvin to the great work. Luther ignited
the latent spark that illumined the world. An
unscrupulous Dominican friar made him revolt
against the power from which he had accepted
Holy Orders. The first step once taken, he
earnestly sought the truth, and as he advanced
he was followed by many who had long aided to
influence and had long felt the influence OF,
the Reformation. He little dreamed of the
slumberiDg unrest that was beneath the serene
surface of the Church. When he boldly erected
the standard of regeneration, the quickened life
of the people made his journey to Worms
triumphal ovation, and he entered the city
chanting the song of the disenthralled, for the
Reformation had its MdrSeiLLdiSe. Nor has the
lapse of time, nor the rapid strides of enlight-
ened progress, changed the chief agency OF
Christian advancement. The Church has great
teachers-men whose fame is worldwide, and
many stars may be worn in their crowns. And
we have books, and journals, and periodicals.,
and tracts, which tell at every door of the way
OF oVei a tSe a
Christian life that is silently but surely restrain
ing evil and telling to all around it, in gentle,
ceaseless whispers, that the good only are happy,
hopeful and great.
would not seek to dim the lustre that
brightens the memory of the names which are
interviewer with the worlds great events. Not
one leaf should be plucked from their laurels
They are as bright beacons along the dark ways
of our journey, and they are standards which
fptit ulafin Hhn 10Th xynr MI
standard, the higher will be the measure of your
attainment. You may fall far short of the reali-
zation of your dreams, but no earnest efforts in
the right direction can be wholly lost, Still
behind you, and far off yet behind
others, will be struggling mortals
to take fresh inspiration by what you, in your
failure, have won. But would remind you of
the source, the currents the tides and the ha-
vens of the troubled waters on which you are
about to embark. The broad ocean of life is
made up of individual lives, and each has its
labor to perform in rearing the angry waves of
the tempest, or in settling the calm surface of
the worlds repose. l watched a clear, coll,
bubblipg spring as it rose on the summit of the
rocky range, and its little streamlet hurrying off
in fretful murmurs to the eastern sea. An OK
would drain its overflow, yet it is the source of
the Father of Waters 1t dashes down the rude
declivities and foams through the narrow ca
mons, joined in every ravine by its tributaries,
until 1t washes the precious metals from their
long hiding places and quenches the thirst of
the luXuriant mountain valley. Around ii on
every side, through the chaos of bald cliffs and
green ranges, come many streams of
every character and temperament. Hot
geysers are flung into the air, and from the
pierced rocks the cold, crystal waters flow.
Strange minerals give the hues of the chameleon
to some, and others encrust their fountains with
monuments created by the wealth they hold in
solution. Here are boiling currents and there
are tepid wells and yonder are silver lakes;
but all, all course onward and are lost in the
river which in q lost In tha St
ocean. Did | say lost?-let me recall it, Not
one drop of all those various springs is lost.
Not one of all their varied qualities goes for
nought. Though all are mingled in one tenn
perament, and all become alike in their
elements, yet each has its Office in
moulding the qualities of the river aud
the ocean. Nor are these little sources
limited to the task of shaping the character of
the great streams into which they dow Each by
itself has some good work to do. They have
cooled the lips of people and Of creatures which
we know not Of They have gathered the
mountain riches, in single sands, during forgot
ten ages, to be ripe for the necessities of civii
zation. They have opened new fields for sci
| ence, or made paths plain where the learned
have stumbled. They have swept the scant fer
ulity of the rugged hills, and made broad
meadows for man to develop into beauty and
plenty. Each babbling rivulet, and each parti-
Gle of itself, have never been idle nor have they
| toiled in vain. They may have been sent to
! flood the plains, or to fill the mountain gorges.
! Thence they may have been dffused as the mists
of Ethe morning, or drunk in by the insatiate
earth. But they have ever returned and ever
will. They may rise and fall in some far dis
tant cline, to revive the dropping plant or gilt
ter on the fragrant flower; or they may come in
the scalding tear or in the tinted rainbow, or
in the gentle dews or in the destruction of the
tempest.
What would most pointedly illustrate is the
value and influence and duty of each individual
everyday life. But few even of the most learned
can have their names inscribed on what we call
| the GseorOlI of famau hut thaf rara attainDoa,,