The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-04-02

Turning aside now from this apology,
BET NJ rejoice that lift was the fate Of the
lamented Senator to live for only part Of
earth and for only part Of religion, that
1t pleased him to live for % magnificent .
part Of both politics and religion a. is
found In the words peace. Justice and
liberty. It was not Mr.. Sumner, You re-
member, who advised the partnership of
Bibles and rifles in the early days Of
Kansas. No, in oil this forty years Ut
pubic life, Mr.. Sumner stood by the
power Of argument Of light Of Christian
civilization alone. His hymn was the
poets psalm of Peace:
Were half The power that ais the wssld with terror
Were ha6 the wealth bestowed ON camps and
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were NO need Of ersenals OF forts:
The warriors name would be name abhoned,
Its hand againet ito bFotheF, on it, forehead
Would wear foeevermoee the curse Of Cain.
In the pulpits Of the whole land the
Gospel doctrines have for the most part
been applied to only individual welfare,
and chiefly to that welfare beyond the
confines Of States, beyond the grave;
afraid for the most part to preach what
they called politics, and having to an
alarming extent such bad politics that 1t
was perhaps fortunate that they remained
silent even by theological mistake, the
Christian ministry had In the last genera
lions left the gospel Of nations to be
preached by the few disciples of William
Penn and by such virtual Quakers as
Charming, and Whittier, and Sumner, the
greatest Of all.
Upon him there was no restraint. no
creed, no policy, such as Influenced Web
ster and Clay. No fear of violence No
fear of public scorn, either from Boston
or New Orleans, ever held HIM in any
considerable chain; but from him. the
freest man our country ever had in its
dark day, came the gospel of nations, in
all its bethlehem beauty of truth and OF
spirit.
In the present and, more yet, in the
near future the pulpit will confess that
Charles Sumner was the minister at its
altar in the dark days when it was afraid,
and in doctrines to the grandeur of which
it had not the intellect, nor the courage,
nor the humanity to ascend. Penn, and
Charming, and Sumner came in with that
part of Christianity which belongs to the
constitution of nations; and when we re-
member that . grand, free, enlightened
State is the land in which the cross can be
reared with most success, the orators who,
upon the field of statesmanship. apply to
society the three Christian doctrines of
peace, liberty, and justice must be con-
fessed to be standing very near the hottest
ministers of religion. As the church
helped Mr.. Sumner, gave him hearts will
ing to listen to his long argument. SO he
helped the church by sending back to it
men who evermore tried to combine the
character of Christian with the character
of citizen.
But Mr.. Summers attachment to peace
was no more absorbing and unbending
than his devotion to liberty. But liberty
is twin-sister of peace, as bondage is the
companion of force. As Franklin glOried
in saying, Where liberty is, there is my
country" Sumner equally gloried in say
ing, Where liberty ia, there is my party"
Down this channel Of freedom for white
slaves in Barbary and for black slaves in
America, he poured torrent of eloquence
for twenty-five years, stream of argu-
ment which, gathering up the wisdom of
Greece and Rome, the experience of En-
gland, the battle-shouts of Marathon and
Bunker Hill, the blest vision of the poets,
the longings of Washington and Jefferson,
and then bedecked with the flowers of .
gorgeous rhetoric growing up either bank,
moved along like an Amazon toward the
sea. 1t has been said recently by apublic
man that "Mr. Sumner surpassed all
statesmen in the love and study of the
right" 1t was this deep prepos-
session that led him to espouse
the cause of the slave. Words which he
himself applied to Charming thirty years
ago return now to settle upon his own
forehead. "Follow my white plume"
said the chivalrous monarch Of France.
Follow the Right, more respondent
than plume or orif1amme," was the watch
word of Sumner.
But all this long history you know
well, for in this hour, when death has
come to quicken our memory and love
an hour which makes an enemy friend
that past-all struggle for the slaves
from the discOrd of the Mis-
souri, Compromise down to the death
of Mr.. Lincoln-a tragedy which closed
the long, awful drama-hashes through
your hearts with no detail of sadness
left out. But to-day we can only turn
aside from the usual themes of the
sacred desk to bless the heavenly
Father for this child that came in the
name of that form of civilization which
finds its best exponent In the Savior OF
mankind, and that there was one tongue
which for generation made the best elo-
quence of this free land beam with the
light of Him whose Gospel is not only a
perfect salvation, but q perfect civiliza-
ton. the vital air not only of saint but
of citizen.
But we cannot close these thoughts with
out asking you to read in this urn OF per-
ishable dust but of imperishable memory
a lesson of hope which may serve Us all
in coming days, perhaps Of the country,
but surely of our own heart. When Gov
eminent and pulpit and press were voice.
less and hopeless a. to q time when the
nations flag should be freed from its last
this sight which 10 closed now
saw plainly in the future day when all
the States would be free and when the
national banner would proclaim liberty
and Justice wherever It should wave. His
was q hopefulness which nothing but
death could abate, and blessed with such
q prophetic, almost inspired, sense he
in all the years of our civil war was
calm, and was to Mr.. Lincoln-up0n
whose mind and heart burden
rested which would have wearied
an Atlas accustomed to sustaining
thee globe-a daily messenger Of
faith and hope In man and God. Per-
haps the marble-like nature of the states
man was peace and strength to Presi-
dent whose heart was always full of ten
derness and melancholy strangely min
gled. That immense power of hope
which has always attended men of ideals
the angel of their need-accompanied
Mr.. Sumner in all hours. and held him up
far above the discord of the passing time.
A poem which he greatly loved shows us
what kind of hymn sounded In the sky
over his daily toll:
There's fount about to stream,
Therosa llQht Ghout tn beam.