Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-03-08

lne Holy NhInOnC OnuItIt Tue mtNnouiht WINK
of IL ; and he has been canonized in his life !
time by the blessings and the prayers Of thous-
ands Of the poor.
The other Saint Francis was something Of a
scamp in early life. His escapades are care
fully narrated by his biographers rs a good
background for his latter sanctity. Finally
he was Aogged and thrown into prison for his
offenses and while in prison he was converted
and devoted himself to the service of the
poor.
Much of this is true Of the modern Saint
Francis. He, too, found Christ in prison
(for the prison is place where men some
times find Christ in more senses than one)-
and gave himself up TO a service whose de
mands and whose rewards he did not then at
all forecast.
Medieval Europe" says the historian,
loves much to the Franciscans. They went
everywhere. and were like flames of fire
wherever they went. First of all they reused
the masses. Poor men, wearing nothing but
brown frocks girded about the waist by bits
Of rope, they brought the gospel home to the
poor By and by they made themselves felt
in every walk of life" It begins to look as if
modern America were going to be large
debtor to the new order of Franciscans--t
Murphy's men. If ''the masses" of medieval
Europe were any more thoroughly reused
than the masses of some of our American cities
and towns have been by the preaching of
Murphy il must have been a sight to see
them.
1t is to the poor that Francis Murphy
preaches-the poorest of the poor-the men
who have lost their manhood and honor and
self-respect in the bondage of strong drink.
And when he breaches they listen. No doubt
about that Night after night the largest halls
are crowded to suffocation hundreds stand
for hours, or cling to the edges of platforms
and ratings of galleries. listening to his proc
lamntiOn of liberty to the captives and the
opening of the prison doors to them that are
bound.
He is study-this man Murphy Get
seat on the platform if you can, where you
can watch his movements The great crowd,
orderly and CHEEKY, is waiting for his appear
ance. Suddenly there is a Frightening of
faces and a clapping of hands and Murphy
walks forward, bowling to the audience, shak-
ing hands right and left and beaming on
everybody. He is a short man. about az tall
as Moody but not quite so stout, though his
chest is full and his limbs are muscular. The
face is Celtic but shapely, the bright eyes
look out from under heavy eyebrows the
clean shaven jaw is firm, and the generous
mouth is curtained by black moustache. A
good d-natured man, beyond q doubt; and on
the best of terms with his environment.
The service begins with singing. The great
choir lead in two or three of the gospel mel
odies" of Bliss and Sankey, the congregation
joining in the chorus and there are one or
two sacred songs of a more pretentious char
acter by singers who go about with the apos-
tie of Temperance to sing the gospel, after the
manner of Sankey Then Murphy rises, BIZ
BILE in hand, and reads a few verses, COM
menting on them in homely and pointed
fashion. His exegesis is sometimes queer
-, Nl,.N IlaI
ten yields good doctrine. If the sacred writer
does not say just what the expounder repre-
sents him saying, he might well have said
it, Then there is a short prayer, and the
orator naturally passes along ways of familiar
and informal talk into the speech of the even
ing.
The story of his own life makes up a good
part of all his speeches. If he stays only
day or two in place you get an abridgement
of it if he tarTies longer he gives it to you
at length, in installments, with more or less
of discursive moralizing and description and
appeal thrown in evening by evening. The
story is well told. You would not tell so
much of it if you We're in his place but you
do not feel after all. like censuring his frank
ness. You can see in his experience the
depths of degradation and woe into which
drink plunges men and he evidently thinks
he has n better right to show you the dark
side of his own life than that OF any other
mans. Often as he has told the tale it is far
from being a mere recitation. His heart
swells with emotions that are not simulated,
and the tears start from his own eyes as he
speaks of the woes of mother" and the chill
dren in the days when drink was cursing his
home
Now and then he strikes of into digressions
humorous, descriptive, dramatic, c,-some of
which are very telling. The story of the Irish
girl, who felt so grand riding in her mistress's
carriage that she wished she could stand ON
the sidewalk and see herself drive by, is capi-
tally told and always when he drops into
his native brogue the Irishman that lie gives
us genuine bit of character. Some of his
more tragic passages are simply tremendous.
His description of Sheridans Ride, for ex-
ample, or his imaginative portrayal of the
''upas tree Of mtemperance, are astonishing
performances. Such rhetoric, such elocution,
such acting are not often heard nor seen. He
races back and forth across the platform he
roars like Gagged tiger he leaps, at the eli
max of his passion, three or four feet into the
air.
OF course you do not approve all this it is
not your way of doing it. Neither do you ap-
prove all of Murphys orthoepy or syntax.
But it does the business. Crude though the
| performance may be, i'll spots, it is telling
performance. The acting is immense, but it
| is scarcely more excessive than is often seen
upon the classic stage. The rhetoric may be
faulty but it is a big hearted man that is talk
ing and the people do not stop to measure
| his words by critical standards. And now and
then comes a passage of natural description
or a touch of human nature that mark the real
orator.
What is better, the spirit of the man and his
methods of work are so wholly Christian that
| they disarm criticism. You can't querl with
me, he says every day, 'for l won't querl I"
| If the Catholic priest forbids his people TO at
tend Murphys meetings, Murphy eulogizes
Father Mathew and says not word about
the priest except in kindness. For the rum
seller" so long the black dragon of the tenn
perance reformer, he has nothing but sympa-
thy And if the prohibitionist denOunces
him for his gentle treatment of the liquor
dealers he only says to the prohibitiOnist
God bless you we are going to get every
body to stop drinking liquor, and then no
| body will want to sell it," Not a word of
censure or deRunciation falls from his lips.
Better still, his whole reliance is ON the di-
vine power. All his meetings are intensely
religious meetings All the songs that are
sung are sacred songs. The pledge includes
the phrase God helping me- Every man
who signs it is told that he will need Gods
help in keeping il. And almost all of those
who are reclaimed in his meetings confess
their sense of this need and their purpose to
seek this help.
There is nothing to say in the view of all
this, except to heap Murphy's oft-repeated
benediction ON his own head and cry God
bless him !" May the new Franciscan order
grow faster and live longer than the old one
May the boys with the badges of blue like the
Gray Friars of old go everywhere and be
wherever they go like flames of fire" kin
| a r L., L
ard, and lighting the way by which he may
escape from degradation and woe !-EditOr's
Table, Sunday 4 afternoon for March.