Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1881-08-13

Rev. .. Irenaeus Prime, ID. ID.
From the N. Y. Observer.


do not "feel like one who treads Alone"
etc. That kind Of sentiment does not be-
long to one who has as many friends
around him now as ever, and rejOices in
them as in perpetual youth. Life is Sc
riOus, and full OfiwOrk also, but is better
done by taking it cheerfully, living up
to ones opportunities, and trusting God
to make the end better than the begin
ming.
Coming here to take part in the annual
college festivities, when young men are
going out into the race or the battle of
life. l am thinking of the boys that
started with me; and there may be
something in their story worth telling.
When Samuel j. Mills left the door of
this college, tradition says that he gave
expression to resolution to make him
self felt on the other side of the globe. 1t
was not vanity. He had no self conscious
ness of power. But he was one of the
company who had prayed by the haystack,
and there devoted their lives to preach
ing the gospel to foreign tribes. He ex-
pected as well as resolved. The faith of
the men in the eleventh of Hebrews was
his. And he went forth to do for the
world. He did his work, died in the flush
of youth, and was buried in the ocean
midway of the continents he had stirred.
His purpose has been motto at the
college, and might well be inscribed on
its dOOr-pOst. Many have gone forth
with or without the same resolution, who
have done the same work. One of my
own class we had predicted to be future
statesman. The highest hOnOrs of the
republic did not to us appear too high for
its attainment. He gave as fair promise
of such distinction in 1929 as Mr.. Gar
field did in 1859. 1t is very early to
prOphesy what boys will be when they
are in college. But my observation of
so fami lar, "The boy is the father of the
man." The man is but boy grown up.
Not the smartest, nor the most studiOus,
nor the best boy, is to be the greatest
and most successful. But the makeup
of the boy, the moral and mental COM
binatiOn, will often so develop in youth
that you say "the elements are so fixed"
in him that "this will be man."
We felt that he had power in him, and
looked for great results. He did not
fail. But the "eXpulsivelpOwer of new
affection" drove out the aspirations of
ambition, and he became a champion of
the Cross of Christ. Like Mills, he made
himself felt on the other side of the sea.
In the year 1854 rode from Beirut, in
Syria, five hours up into the gOOdly Leb-
anon, passing houses with grass on the
rOOfs,-that witherS SOOn-WOmen with
horns, and sheep with fifty-pOund caudal
appendages, and came at last to an
humble cottage, where, with wife and
children, dwelt my college friend whom
we had prophesied would sway senates
with his word. He was teaching a school
of Arab boys and training them to preach
the gospel! Afterwards, as we rode on
horseback across the plain of Sharon,
blooming then with roses that bear its
name, he told me how the death of his
mother had led him to fOrsake the pur-
suit of this wOrld'f hOnOrs, and losing
them to find the glory that is revealed in
the kingdom and crown of the Redeemer
of men.
Another of the same class went out
with the purpose, then formed, of being
a minister, and, if the way were opened,
of going far hence to the heather. He
was sent to the islands of the sea, and
was one of those men whom the Lord
hOnOred with the power of the Holy
Spirit as in the day of PenticOst. Twenty
five years after he first went to the Sand
witch Islands asked the trustees to give
him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.-a
distinction as unexpected to him as to
be translated after the similtitude OF
EnOch. They asked me:
"Why, what hath he dOne?"
TO which / made answer: HE has
taught the divinity of the gospel with
such success that he has converted three
thousand souls from paganism to God;
and if you can find any minister who
hoo dono mora hu al m, 90 N LOT tho nj m T.
ment be poured on his head and not on
my friend"
They sent the degree to him in Homo
lulu, and he still lives, pastor emeritus
of that great congregation, to whom one
of the converts breaches, while he sits by
his side behOlding what things God hath
done by him. With his wife and children
he has visited me, and then gone back to
end his useful and noble career among
the many whom he has turned to right
eOusness to be stars in his own crown Of
rejoicing.
OF my own class, not one sank into an
unhOnOred grave; not one has lived to be a
grief to his friends or shame to his
alma mater. All, all, shave done what
they could" and that is all that God re-
quires of any man. None have climbed
the heights of worldly greatness, or have
won what men for the most part covet-
wealth or fame. But all have tried to
serve God and their fellOw-men faith
fully. DR.. Mark Hopkins, clarum ct
venerable nOn,en, was our tutor, and
while he was president he wrote to me
that the wide usefulness of that one class
was enough to show to him the greatness
of the work in his hands.
Twas sitting in my New York office one
day when a bruised, blOated, red-faced,
dirty fellow entered. A stranger he was,
and norfainIu I uaa not dnai rona of hia