New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-11-22
THE SERMON.


THE SERMON
II is quite n common thing for us to talk
about tue breyity ana emptiness OF human life. t ~ as
the morning cloud. cry. and the flowers which bloom
and fade between the and the setting the
ran-drop between the cloud and the ocean, and the
shadow YOU see on n summcr's day swcepng the
waving grass We speak Of IT, in our sadder moods ~ II
Wisdom had made the saddest OF all plumbers
IN allowing brief a span. and ransack the sacred
books to show how swiftly God tnrne,h man TO de-
strucion and say eth, return, ye children OF men"
And 1t WAS in mood that spoke Of this,
once to the great and gracious Of whose life
am to speak to yon toniaht. 1t was the day when
many things had taken for the truth had been shaken
10 their founda ions; but thought OF this truth
that no. TO be questioned, aud was opening my ind
about IT, with vast regret that II should be trne
when she paused for moment In her Knitting way
che had whom some word of solemn import TO be
said-and finding the word, went with hcr work while
she touched the she mad for doubling tins out
cry against tiod's providence Some human lives are
short she said and some are ya but tins Is not true
OF our life in the sense should we easily adj
mt OF ourselves, because JOb and Solomon
say but believe In life rather ample enough for all
fair uses. guard it from waste aud empty ambitions, do
our beat live 10 the line OF such Ill., and then.
whenever the Gay Tor Us % lay it down. we shall
not complain.
The less oftwentynge years ago has come back to
NO rs have thought OF her own career. And what a
gray old world IT now, into which Lucretia Mott
was born The third day " tine year. 1898 This
wonderful city Of ours was a cluster OF streets lying
down toward the water, then, and the hills tLot
blow up rom Canast. Wild pastures The splen-
did capital of the Nation was months old, aud
wonderful cities between PJsburg and the noun
tains and thence TO the other ocean were forts,
trading posts and stations OF the Old Catn-
ole missionaries. In that year Washing
ton was the hthcrsde OF his second term. TO be filed
as the first with but purpose-thc nursing OF
the Republic through the perils that beset those
earlier days; sue little mad who could easily
remember the news came TO her island home chat
he mad gone mis- rest. She babe ut the breast
the Reign OF Terror set in, and what they called
the worship OF rcasOn-the natural revolt from the
Tyranny Church and state which had covered France
with the shadow of despair; when the poor Queen
Mare was led az a lamb to the slaughter because
Of the sins in winch she had share; and when
the first Napoleon, who was to shake Europe 10 the
tire. obscure captain, whose name mad rot been
heard beyond the little circle IN which he moved Does
1t seem faraway world ana lie in which Robert Burns
was livngl She was babe in arms when hc wrote hs
mighty war song, Scots wha nae W. Wallace Died."
and was running about in her home when the world
caught wealth and for all into its heart If
mans man Tor "a that" Cowper still singing
through his pam; Scott had not written a
line of poem or story; Shelley was but five
Burke was living and the Trial OF Hastings not yet
concluded Irving. who was to challenge tue dogma
about Amcrlc books and bring il TO naugnt lad
Of ten LAMB, whose sweet numOr is among our choicest
treasures had written line, and Carlyle was still
unborn Flu ton in This year give u. the first hint In
the thought that ships may be moved
George stephenson merry bar foot boy just gin
nug 10 about q coal pit At IL day. These
inventions and discoveries that made the mbers
Of the human family such close uehbOrs and have lifted
tlc world So grandy toward better life. were only
resting germs the human mind. Aud this the
world INTO wlcu my friend born, whose hand held
within this month she lay waiting the angel to
bear away 10 her rest
she born Nantucket, the cleanest bit OF land, so
far ms the white man ID concerned, know OF this
planet-a little island sixteen miles by four. living
the sea. where families 200 years
ago from the PaIian main, that they might be
serve God and live their life III their own way aud
made the sandbank "A sort OF second Plymouth Rock
II is the island from which the Fraukns went, believe
to Boston, mother Of them rests on the downs
under stone when bears date nearly rs old as the
last century. / have been told that there
was kinshp between this family and
that Of winch Lucretia Mott was born
You could easily believe TINS, indeed from the rese
hiance between friends heal and face, when she
lOsopher. She born also OF the ceunest tribe |
Know OF In our human famlIy-the Society OF Friends
And she c5Se by inheritance to this root OF grace
which bossomed beautifully through her lifetime,
and bore such mob e irut The island has maintained
the nobiest moral standard for toan 200 years
that you find in Massachusetts; and within
Tins this strain OF followers
Fox, John Woman and the fellowci liens Of William
Rotch, who when Dunkrk bcsiegcd by the English
in this 1793 and the Governor of the town made
a proclamation that every able-bodied man must ngnt
would nos do that, but said quietly, IL is against
there is one place where the shot Is fatal thy
men dare not to help the wounded Now VIII thank
thee II thou wilt permit me to care for that place. lie
work quietly he had spoken. taking the men
to the hospital hey fell, while the shot was flying
thick about him let the enemy know by some means
that they must not throw their shot where Friends"
were nursing the wounded. and them mind him.
He at last from the thick danger without
scratch and when the wives OF the officers quite
bewdered because their husbands did not tell them the
truth about the way things were going within he walls
they at last in body to this Nantucket Friend and
said :" We can believe You now ct us know the worst"
Ny good friend would tell me sometimes about her |
life the island In those early years, and II like |
chapter from INC Aresda Inc standard OF morals was
hlgL and the safeguards that toe keep
Ing Of the commandments seemed matter OF course.
The families who there FIRST ntermarried. that
IL seemed rather one family tree than seven. These
you draw out leviathan with nook nll |
mis- skin with b4r5ed irons" hold TO him when he |
among the merchants" They were the first first |
Df the whalers, hndng them of snore
ransack the oceans for them. clean round the globe
rney the mon. too, WAC built the first lighthouse
when It's blessed radiance this wOrd
and manned and maintained IL for many years before
Government tooS this work IN hand. They treated
tie red man steadily poor brother took HIM with
them on long voyages aud found hun capital whaer:
pouRhed aud sowed his land for him very often the
spring, and made OF them justice Of the peace
adjudged, In the FIRST that before him. that
both plaintiff and defendant should receive % sound
whipping.
Her people fairly well 10 do, and she told me IL
the ON there and IN Boston, where the family
~ 1--we wnen she about twelve years old, TO
send the children OF such families 10 select schools
her father sand tns would minister 90 pride and
80 sho sent To school wlgh the rank file. And
tubs she WAS glad TO remember, because had
certain nearness to the patent and STRIVING poor
which might have missed-altnOugh she did finish
education at boarding school In this STATE teach
Ing part OF the tlmo ven a. leaning And the
80 h. L-. L.. IL.