Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-06-19


questions that must be met and de-
cided. They may provoke war and
strife. for the Great Teacher said he
came not to send peace on the earth,
but a sword" We are in the midst Of
this irrepressible conflict, and we must
meet it. Greatest problems cG any
age are yet to be settled by men,
the air is full Of them. They
arc brought to us from every
Countrywide "very ends Of the earth "
are come upon us--and only real live
men can settle them. Not the sword
and bayonet-they may subdue them
for a time--but the sword cannot settle
great questions of human rights and
wrongs. But the ballot of ireemen is
the sceptre Of American sovereignty
and the first inyestiture of American
manhood. 1t is the crucial test to
which must be submitted all soluble
questions in American politics and
society. The late civil war, which
buried so many noble men on both
sides, settled no question-only that
the North had more men and resources
than the South-the power Of might.
The war itself was the outcome Of the
ballot, and was carried on by the bal
lot. and since all its great questions
had been in process of adjust
ment by the ballot. What a great
power the ballot in American life Be
fore it are now waiting the temperance
question, the Sabbath, the marriage in
sdtution, the struggle between capital
and labor, the racial question, aud the
perpetuity and progress Of American in-
stitutions. Even the great Gladstone
Of England is forced to review his ad-
ministration before the ballot. Men are
wanted then to use the ballot wisely
and fearlessly. They must be men OF
courage-of more than physical cour-
age---Of high moral courage-bold for
the right, the true fearless of the
wrong--who will stand like q stone
wall for the right. Behold Cord on, the
hero Of the Soudan, and you see a
specimen Of inyincible, manly courage.
They must be men Of self-maStery.
This is the severeSt test of
courage-the great essential Of dis
cipleship with the great Master of man.
No man can master others until he
masters himself-ghen every faculty
and power, every circumstance and
condition, are forces under complete
mastery. So were General Robert f.
Lee and General U. S. Grant, the two
great masters of their day. They must
be men of strong individuality. Not
mere copyists, shadows; but men
strong in themselves, who can stand
alone, though all the world be against
them, like the single shaft in the noun
tain range, towering far above all, calm
and unmoyed. Behold Daniel in the
court Of the great Babylonsh king,
standing alone for his principles and
faith, and daring death itself. "Dare
to be a Daniel" These are the great
Whose might is not In crowns and palaces,
in parchment roll and blazoned heraldry.
But In the power OF thought: the energy
OF unsupported mind. whose steady will
No force can dsunt, no tangled path di-
From it's right onward purpose
The men wanted must be men of
purity. Why should not men be pure;
pure as women? Nothing in his con-
stitution, or life, or age, to order it
otherwise. Great advance among men
and in the age when the want of purity
in man shall be as fatal a defect as in a
woman. A man, like woman, should
be as the beautiful snow ere it
touches the dirth Of earth. Impurity
among men is one of the greatest vices Of
the day. An impure woman is damned
in society-impure men are received with
open arms and honored. So widespread
is this vice that even the mails are lock-
ed against its lecherous poison, and col
leges are afraid to publish the names OF
its students.
Want men Of truth. Truth is the
tap-root Of the tree OF manliness. Want
ing this, il cannot stand the hustling
storm or exhaustiug drought. Like a
house with false foundation and built
of loamy mortar, as Buddenseik's
houses, in New York, crumbling to
pieces while the builders are upon the
walls and scaffolds.
Men who cannot be cajolei, coerced,
or bribed in private or public station,
in legislative halls or at the ballot
box, on the bench or jury, in the pulpit
or pew.
Here we have the men wanted for
the age--livc men, OF courage, Of self
mastery, of individuality, of purity, OF
truth. Such will realize the highest
conceptions Of manhood, ready for the
noblest yocations of man--ready to be
dedicated as temples OF the living God.
BY nature in moral ruin by such at