West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1881-06-08
BY HON. VIM. Il. STEVENSON.
Mr.. President, Ladies' and Gentle

'SONNNN'Nt1
men,.
The State Committee has impos-
ed upon me the very delicate, and
yet very pleasant duty of extend.
ing welcome to the frie nds of
Sunday Schools throughout the
State in attendance at this Conven-
ton, as well as to all our friends
whose work is in the great Sunday
School cause. ...... -,,-t
We see before us, Mr.. President,
Sunday School workers from every
part of our State, from our largest
cities and our smallest villages;
from our mountain Businesses and
our fertile valleys; those engaged
in UNCONVENTIONAL schools, in union
schools, in mission schools; and |
am rejoiced to say that there are
also those present engaged not only
in Sunday Schools proper, but who
have carried the good work into the
industrial schools and orphans
homes, who instruct not only sweet
and gentle children who live in
happy homes, but also the father
less and motherless who cry for
bread, or dwell in places Of poverty
and sin. | trust | shall be pardon
ed if I digress here to state that the
strongest impression ever made
upon my mind in regard to Sunday
Schools was during an incidental
visit to a mission school not a hun
dred miles from Parkersburg and
it is not flattery but merited COM
pliment when / say that the school
was instituted and successfully
conducted by the worthy President
Of this Convention.
All these schools have one com
mon object-to make good children,
good men, good women, good neigh
bors, good citizens to prepare men
and women to do their whole duty
here, and prepare them for an i'm
mortal life hereafter Could we do
less, dear friends, than to give those
engaged in this noble work a kind
ly greeting? ..-
But you come especially, my
friends, to represent the claims Of
children, to perfect plans for the
benefit of the children. 1t is this
fact, perhaps, more than any other,
which gives you claim upon our
hospitality that should make you
welcome to our hearts, and to our
homes. The world is yet to be saved
largely through the instrumentali-
ty of children. When the Great
Teacher wished to impress upon his
followers the idea Of the highest
type of human perfection, He took
little child and set it in the midst
of them and declared that of such is
the Kingdom of God, When He
wished to convey to them the ne
cessity Of personal purity and the
highest form of religion, He told
them that unless they became as
little children they should in no
case enter the Kingdom His
thought is the one which actuates
you; that the world should yet be
redeemed through the simple but
mighty agency Of children.
There is to come time, though
perhaps it is yet far off, when ma
lions shall not learn war any more,
when weapons of destruction shall
be forged into implements of hus-
bandry when the lion-like spirit
of war shall be transformed into the
lamb-like spirit Of peace; a tim e
when the song sung by the angels
to the shepherds of Judea, Of peace
on earth and good will toward men,
shall be fulfilled time seen as yet
only by the eye of faith, through
the dim vista, in the green up-lands
of the future but which is to come
as surely as the sun Of far-off
years.
When that time comes; when
men cease to destroy when the spir-
it of peace shall rule in the councils
of mankind, instead of the spirit of
hate; when men shall honor their
benefactors instead of their destroy
ers; when the glory Of God shall
cover the earth as the waters cover
the sea, is it not said, to make this
prophetic picture perfect, that a
'little child shall lead them ?"