The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-06-18

4
thing it is to suffer and be strong-aye, to
suffer that you may be strong. I under.
stand your proud impatience, and how you
sometimes sadly murmur:
"Art is long and time is feeting.
And our hearts though stsut and brave.
| Still Ike mutiled drums are beating
| Funeral marches to the grave"
But remember, young gentlemen, when
tempted to abbreYiate the art, that the shorter
the art the sooner the funeral. See to It that
the funeral is not unduly hurried up.
II. have spoken hitherto Of the metal
and its casting, but am not unmindiul Of
the fact that guns are not manufactured to
be exhibited as specimens of artistic skill.
| to be.afrayed in shining rows and inspected
on occasions OF dress-parade, like the pre-
sent, but for struggles the most momentous
that ever shook the world. A gun is thing
| to be discharged, and to be discharged it
must. first be charged. And this brings
me to my second point-tbe vital point
OF acknowledgements and ball-a power
to project and thing to be projected.
God be thanked for. po,cder. I am well
aware that famous English poet has credit
ed the devil with the invention of powder.
believe in giving the devil his due; but
Milton gives him even more. Powder is q
grandly benefcent invention. Few things
have done more to mitigate the savagery as
we'll as shorten the duration OF wars. Bru-
tal passions do not now flame half so high
as when foemen grappled hand to hand,
their hot breath on each others cheeks,
their keen knives feeling for each others
hearts. For myself prefer to die decently
at the farthest possible range. God be
thanked for powder. Powder now does
the work OF war, and in war is prime ne
cessity. OF what avail are myriads OF shot
and she'll unless there be powder. to drive
them home? Even so in the human consti-
tuition there must be something correspond
ing to the powder in the gun. Here is a
man OF great weight of character, OF great
calibre-a great gun, if you please-and yet
the weighty words and thoughts do drop
SO ieebly from his mouth that they
fall unheeded to the ground. Intelec-
tuality, no doubt, is a mighty fine
thing, but mere intellectuality-cold, hard,
heavy intellectuality-is rs poWerless as a
pyramid OF cannon-balls piled up in the
yard OF government arsenal. There must
be something lack OF the ball. So back Of
intellectually there must be the impulse of
honest conviction and the expansive and
explosive force OF generous feeling. /
know we have fallen upon n fastidious age,
W uEu TIC ISuuClDCIO VI NttVuAS io WV S'p-
preston OF emotion, and when TO call q man
Sensational is to damn him beyond redemp-
ton. And yet make bold to declare in
this presence that the man who is incapable
Of experiencing a sensation in his own per-
son, or Of awaking sensation in others. is
only contemplate fossil and not living
power.
Let us appreciate the worth OF powder.
The heart is meant to be a powder-mill-
let the mill grind. Let the arsenal be
stored, and be not afraid to use the store.
You may be called an enthusiast or fa-
natic; no matter for that, so you hit the
mark. But let US ever remember that pow
der alone Is not enough. Blank cartridges
will serve the purposes OF Fourth-of-July
celebration, but for the forefront OF the
battle in the forum and on the hustings, in
the pulpit and the halls of legislation, where
causes Of great pith and moment hang in
perilous suspense, then, then you want the
rife-shot Of solid thought. The worlds
grandest battles are foughtn not with lead and
IRON, certainly not with words alone, but
thoughts, for thoughts are things, and fly
farther and faster, and strike deeper and
harder, than any missiles that ever went
hurting through the air, demolishing not
merely ships of iron and strongholds OF
stone, but systems OF superstition hoary
with age, and thrones OF despotism in-
trenched in power, having this to dlstln-
yuish them from shot and shell: that they
are productive us we'll rs destructive forces,
and where they strike they spring, spring
into the flower and frutage Of the worlds
srandest civilization. He, then, who would
fling his power in the longest lines must
project himself in the solid shot OF thought.
No matter where the ulaerials come,
Just so they have the ring OF the true
metal. 3Icn do not create iron, they
only dig it up and fuse and mould.
So even the worlds nOblest sons OF genius
do not create the materials OF thought.
They only dig them out OF mountain chains
upheayed along the centuries, or gather
them I'D on historic battle-fields, where the
ground once trembled beneath the tread OF
Titans. -
But OF this be very careful. In material
guns the balls may be ordered OF size to
suit, but As no two human souls are OF Just
the same calibre, lie who undertakes to shoot
the shot Of other men Will find the only
victim is the man that fires the gun. Let
him gather his materials wherever he will,
but fling them into the furnace OF his own
souls thinking, fuse them with the fires OF
his own souls feeling, and then mould
them into forms adapted for his own souPs
projecting.
Ill. But the finest gun that was ever
mounted, and the choicest ammunition that
was ever manufactured, will amount to no.
thing unless there be a proper AIM. This
last point was developed to show that more
men fail to hit the mark from want OF steady
aim than from want OF native calibre; and
concluded as follows:
Brethren of the alumni, ] congratulate
YOU on your record and the honor by you
reflected on your ilustriouS Alma WGtcr. |
have spoken Of her as grand old foundry !;
but tonight, with her gathered sons about
her, she rises also rs fortress impregnable
and beautiful, for each son is Gun ever
ready at her summons to let drive with hea-
West charge in the guns OF her foes. Solidly
may she ever stand. Long may the furnace
glow. Long may the metal glow Higher
yet her ramparts rise. Wider yet her fame
be spread, till the thunder OF her guns shall
be heard in every land, and as the echo
comes back to the Old Dominion, Virginia
Baptists shall proudly say: That is one OF
our guns that you hear. God bless the
Baptists of Virginia who have reared this
monument to Christian learning, and God
bless alma Mater.
DR.. Henson was loudly applauded and
warmly congratulated at the conclusion OF
his address.
The Banquet.
The banquet at Ford's Hotel which fol
lowed was splendid affair. Gotten up in
Pizzinis best style, aided by the kindness
OF Ford in appropriately spreading the
feast, the banquet was all that could be dc
sired, so far as the refreshments were con-
cerned.
Hon. s. II. Pullam presided with charae'