The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-04-11

England. Handel's monument was hi,
hallelujah chorus. They who give Oh
pray for church have their monument
in all that sacred ediace ever accom-
plishes. Wilberforce had his monument
In the piled up chains of q demolished
slave trade. Peter Cooper has his mon
/ ument In all the philanthrOpies which
for the last quarter of a century he en-
cOuraged by his one great practical Of
| fort for the education of the common
people. This Is a style of immortality
for which any one without degradation
may be ambitious. Fill all our
] cities with such monuments till
the last cripple has his limb straigh-
tened and the hast inebriate learns the
luxury of cold water, and the last out
cast comes home to his God, and the last
domination Is eXtiTpated, and Paradise
Lost" has become paradise Regained." "
But notice also that the longest life
path hae terminus. What a gauntlet
to run-the accidents, this epidemics, the
ailments of ninety-twO yearsl 1t seemed
as if this man would live on forever.
His life reached from the administration
of George Washington to that of Presi-
dent Arthur. But the liberal hand Is
closed and the beaming eye Is shut and
the wOrld-encOmpassing heart is still.
When he was at my house l felt was
dead and we learn that the largest
volume Of life has its last chapter, its
last paragraph and its last word. What
are nlnety-twO years compared with the
five hundred thousand million years
which open the first page Of the great
futurel For tn let us be ready. Christ
came to reconstruct us for usefulness,
happiness and heaven. 1 know not the
minuti@ of Peter COOper's religious
mi Infr
their creed and some are better. The
grandest profession of Jesus Christ is a
life devoted to the worlds elevation and
betterments A man may have member
ship in all the orthodox churches of
ChTistendOm and yet If he be mean and
selfish and careless about the worlds
condition he Is no Christian; while on
the other hand though he may have
many peculiarities of belief, If he live
for others more than for himself he ia
Christ-like, and think he must be a
Christian. But let us remember that the
greatest philanthrOpiSt of the ages was
Jesus Christ, and the greatest charity
ever known was that which gave not its
dollars, but its blood, for the purchase of
the worlds deltVerance. Standing In
the shadow of Peter CoOper's death,
pray God that all the resources of
America may be cOnsecrated. We are
coming on to times of prosperity that
this country never imagined. Perhaps
here and there few years of recOil or
but God only can estimate the
wealth that is about to roll into the lap
of this nation. Between five years ago
when visited the South and my recent
visit there has been a change for the
better that amounts to resurrection.
The ChattahoOche is about to rival the
Merrimack in manufactures, and the
whole South is being filled with the
dash of waterwheels and the rattle of
spindles. Atlanta has already $6,O00,-
900 invested in manufactures. The
South has gone out of politics into busi-
ness. The West with its ineXhaustible
mines going to disgOrge silver and gold
aud pour the treasuI eS all over the ma
tiOn. May God sanctify the coming
of the people. The needs
are as awful as the Opulence is to be tre-
In 1860 there were 100000
people over ten years of age in the
United States that could not read, and
over 100000 who could not write and |
nearly 100000 Of them voters. We
want 5000 Cooper Institutes and |
churches innumerable, and Just one re-
ViVal of religion, but that reaching
from the st. Lawrence to Key West, and |
rom Barnegat lighthouse to the Golden |
Gate. We can all somewhere be felt in |
,he undertaking. like the sentiment |
and the rhythm of some anonymous poet |
who wrote:
'When am dead and gone
Ga And An. the mold nc 2, upon my breast.
Only He did his best"