Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-05-07


years, often hidden, now concern
| ing itself with august personages and
events, and again taking hold upon
the destinies of humble individuals
and out-of-the-way places, it goes
| forward, or is helped forward, often
in the strangest ways and By strange
means, to its final consumation. 1t
is never delayed for single moment
never turned aside. The very
things which for the time being seem
to defeat it, only help it on it's way.
And if occasionally it drops out OF
view, as though broken off, it is only
for time to pursue a hidden path,
and then to appear again in some
new age or new life it has created.
Now and then great name stands
out prominently in history, made
great by some divine call. Thus IN
one of the early ages a man was
chosen, from whose loins a nation
should spring. From the hour
of his birth, from before he was born,
he was tie chosen man. And when
the hour struck when the new nation
should begin to be in the person of
this man, God called him and set
him in his place, and began to edu-
cate him, to shape him upon the an
vii of bard experience, and so to
prepare him to become the father of
a great and wonderful people. In
like manner Milton was chosen to be
q great Poet, and Mozart was sent to
be great master in music, and Frank
lin to be great Philosopher and
Statesman, and Washington to be the
Father of his County. They might
never have been known other than
as common men had not God chosen
and appointed them their work. And
we see in these instances that when
God wants man for any piece of
work, he calls him. He may be in
oDscurity, or he may be pleading law
in Springfield, or selling leather in
Galena but when q Presidential
chair is to be filled by honesty, in
tegrity and patriotism and when a
great captain is needed to lead our
armies to victory and save the life of
the nation the lawyer is called from
his briefs, and the leather-dealer from
his counter and the want is supplied.
[ have IN my mind this evening
| the name of another providential
man and what | have said concern
| lug the calls that come TO men, and
about the methods in which out-of-
lhe-way individuals are sometimes
strangely brought forward into prom
inence, is designed simply as back
ground on which to hang his picture.
By birth be was an Englishman, and
by trade blacksmith /; and he
| wrought at bis anvil for u living. He
was Just common man, not learned
at all, aud of only humble social
standing; and among those who
knew him, his customers and neigh
bors, he was distinguished only for
his industry, thrift, and steady habits.
There were hundreds and perhaps
thousands just like him in these res
poets, standing on just his level, in
the city where he lived. One day a
call came to him, and be was obedi-
ent to it. And it has always seemed
to me that there must be inspiration
in iron-why, L cannot tell, unless it
ia because | have known SO many
who while working at the forge have
some how got preparation for noble
achievements in the fields of litera-
ture and science, or of politics and
craftsmanship. Be this as il may,
the man about whom [ am talking
was suddenly moved as by a breath
of inspiration, to do certain work
already prepared for him. And
there grew up within him purpose
that absorbed him, and assumed the
mastery over his life, And so while
he continued to hammer away upon
iron shaping it to his will, he forged
out this purpose into shape and
wrought with well>directed blows
for it's achievement. And in doing
this he struck out upon the anvil of
destiny an enduring fame-he linked
his name to an institution, which, in
the grandeur of eminence to which
it has attained, has lifted the common
and unknown man into glorious re-
nown.
leave you to guess the name of
this man, while | go on to say
! God makes some men as he makes
nations, or as he marks world. And
he makes institutions in the same
way. 1t is by stages of growth.
There have been men, and no doubt
there are such to day, who could not
have been produced in less time than
four thousandIyears. In building the
world God commenced with mass
of nebulea--he consolidates it, fuses
it, then cools it, then breaks it up,
then rains upon it, and sets the at
mosphere to work upon it, and then
in the soil created plants forests, and
these he buries and turns the sea
upon them, and great beds of rock
are formed above them and every
where then these are broken up,
and plowed by GLACIERS, and valleys
and mines are formed, and the seas
are gathered into great basins, and
tribes of animals successfully appear,
and when at last millions upon mill
ions of years and ages have passed
away, man is created, and the grand
work is finished, and God rests. A
great lite, or a greai institution, il
produced In much the same way. Ii
is born to day-that is, its final birth
is to day but its beginning was per-
haps q score of generations, perhaps
many hundreds of years ago. 1t:
parents, or its causes, are many, and
chosen. Figs do not grow on thist
les. Finally, after many births, in
each of which this life, or this insti-
tuition, has appeared in shapIier and
grsnder form, it at last reaches its
perfection, and the world ia filed
with its fame.
| have before me letter from the