St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-11-11

LESSONS FOR YOUNG MEN DERIVED FROM
THE LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD.
From the New York Herald

LESSONS FOR YOUNG MEN DERIVED FROM
THE LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD.
tFrom the New York Herald.I
The Rev. DIR. COllyer took the life of
the late President as the subject of
his discourse last evening. He said
that he had felt, in reading the
accounts of President Garfield's life,
that he would like to draw some les
sons from it. The name that has grown
so noble and will shine like a star in
the history of our republic has no great
traditions about it brought from the
old world to the new through which
we might make good the saying we
take for an axiom, that "blood will
tell" He traced the Garfield family
from the first known records down to
the early manhood of the late President,
when he paused to see whether he
could find one of the keys to the
secret of James A. Gartield's worth.
This finding the true woman for your
wife, the speaker then said, is to some
of you, | suppose, as you think, mere
chance. | dare not say so. ! dare not
say so, because believe that when
young man is sweet and wholesome,
as AOidui was, anu HIS HOOt
square head on his shoulders, and Il
good warm heart i'll his breast, and can
stand for one clear factor in the worlds
life, and nOurishes as pure reverence
toward all the women he meets as that
he feels toward his mother and sisters,
being not selfish in his seeking, the
the chances are that this young man is
not going to be taken in. There is IL
maid waiting for such a young man, as
| believe, who will meet him on this
fair and even ground, and love him
and trust her life to him, and make his
own life more beyond all telling than
it ever could have been without her,
and bear children to him, if it shall
please God, to he to them both the
glory and the joy of their life. Such
maid was waiting for this quiet, man
full young fellow, Il daughter of that
fine old HuguenOt house, the Ballans,
who have made such Il noble mark in
many ways since they came over here,
and especially have done so much
toward helping us to a sweeter and
SUMMER faith in God and i'll the life to
come.
This noble woman, James A. Gar
fields mother, was the perfect match
for her husband, as far as we can trace
them, i'll this also, that, besides the
wonderful beauty of her life, she was
not of the slow Saxon sort at all, but
had the radiant spirit in her of the
bravest and brightest blood of France,
and so brought fire to the stubborn,
slow growing oak and set it burning
in clear plane. james A. Garfield
was his mothers boy. He was not
content to do what the Gartields had
done time out of mind and no more,
he must push on toward the front, he
must live under wider sky. 1t was
not mere ambition any more than it is
in the young fellow who grows to be
six feet tall. To attain that stature it
was the inner impulse caught from his
mothers nature and made strong and
sure by the splendid staying qualities
that were in his father. Mr.. Collyer
then pictured the home of President
Garfield and his widowed mother, dwell
ling on their trials and poverty, and
from that he passed to the various incl
dents in the Presidents life, drawing
instruction from them here and there.
In concluding he said: One other
point only | can touch, and then
must leave him. He fell in love with
Lucretia Rudolph bright and early,
and that was Il very good thing to do.
No safeguard | can think of after Gods
grace can be better than this pure and
loving neXus which unites two hearts
once for all, and sets youth and maid
en- dreaming their happy dream. And
just as it was with the father so it was
with the son ; he found the one woman
in all the world for his wife, because
he was worthy to find such a woman.
But they were young, and the world
was all before them, and the world was
yet to be sought through for a living.
| 1t lay somewhere, no doubt at all of
that but the time had not yet come to
demand where that living was, and so,
like wise young people, they waited
about seven years and then they were
married. James A. Garfield had by
this time gone back as IA teacher of the
tongues to the college where he swept
the floors and made the fires, and his
salary solved the problem of a living
in simple way, such as they desired.
And so the story ends on his wedding
day, as he stands with the happy light
in his eyes, and with the bonnie bride
beside him, who has so beautifully
worn her crown of sorrow decked with
heavens own light through the long,
sad days of this summer.