, 1881-03-27
BISHOP M,LAREN.
Bishop McLaren followed, and spoke as


To me the chief si9nlhcance OF this occasion
is the fuct that, in community young. fresh
jubilant, and triumphant IN developing ihe ms. ,.
memorial of our great calamity takes the shape
or an iptellectual DEVELOPMENT It seems 10
eay: Mind Is above matter, y seems 70 say
money is not tho truo wealth: 1t reveals the
prospect, that, in the secondary Stage OF o, onr
We propose to make progress in the cultivato1
of the intellectual powers and Ct tne graGes ana
humant:es that shall lft US ABOVE rne pane OF
a merely material prosperity.
This, | say, is to me the radiant thought To-
night.
It has further occurred to me that this par.
ena eenas 10 1e as ot atty
which we owe in two directions.
This leads me tirst To remark that. uotWith-
time, VIC are all in some sense members ono Of
another. -.Wecannot escApe corporate relations.
Every Individual belongs TO and IS constituent
element Ii the past and In the future: and what
is rue Of The individual Is true of the com
munity.. Hence we are involved in duties that
have reference both to the past aud to the
Now, it seems to me that in no way can we dis
charge our obligations to the past more band
someiy than by sedulously treasurtug Its litera-
ia its literature TINT the thought Of the past
really survives. The oldest things or our era
to-day are the MSS Of the earliest centuries.
md they are as young now rs when they were
written. Temples crumble to ruin; de1aced
hierogiyphs tell only partial tale; the great
pyramid that dees time has no tongue 70 te hn rs
talks to you in just the same times and wth e1
actly the same language with which 1t addressed
those who rst gazed @ upon us 1o
aud whose little brooks Tenuyson makes say
For men may came and men may 60.
But go on forever,
even the natural world suffers great changes
faf n ktn
correc1ly; but books II preserved at all are pre-
served in their integrity and completeness The
play. ana treatise, thus perpetuatinE and hand
Ing itself over its successors: and we must see
to it that TINT past 10 which We o~e SO much, ia
But we must avoid narrow and selfish fdea
Of our conservative work. Not for ourselves
only, but for them that come after. must We Ia
bor The grautr and marble which we put Into
cur cemeteries trnnsTnit only memories that
like Heering shadows, shall soon pass away. But
in gathering and banding down to the future
rrent uensnre-house OF literature and art. we
beoueath Il heritage at once priceless aud en-
dearInE When she Caliph Omar. II the story Is
true, burned the Aiexandrian Library. In the
name Of Mohammedan fanaticisTn. ha inflicted q
calamity nut only on contemporary civilization,
but IN I'LL time. We In Chicago are poorer to-day
for thar loss. What treasures of thought and
history perished there! How many insolublo
problems in every department of humao affairs
were created by the destruction Of testimony in
want to SEQ a massive ciif,ce built here that
shall become the pride OF thRiand, in which, ny
every contrivapce Of arpthe ever-increaslng
st.s 81 1a peope hs
In the ages to come. \ -...- -
Let us write a policy offinsurauce in stono,
rather than compensate for it; and the ChicagoRn
OF 1ps1 will have 1t to say Of us: I'VE know Of
the great iire of an hundred and ten years ago,
not by,uemcry of the material losses that al
most crashed the men OF that day, but by the
foresight 4har prompted them and the uncon-
querable eaerEy that enabled them to beqneatq
spfepdprl" r..