The Frankfort roundabout. [volume] (Frankfort, Ky.) 1882-1908, 1886-10-16
A SERMON,
DELIVERED By
Rev. J. Nee. Blayney. D. D.,
IN the Fist Presbyterian Chmek,
Eaxkfort, Ky, Sunday egsn-
ixg, Oct. 10Th, 1886, after
Centennial Week.
s'For None of us Liveth to Himself" Rom. 147

"For None of us Liveth to Himself" Rom. 47.
During the past week the story of CEN
fury of our city's life has been told, and
accentuated by such a pageant OF parade
and decoration and illumination, as has
rarely been surpassed in this or any other
part of the land. That story has been a
most interesting one, and has been set in a
dazzling picture ia the memory of the
generation. The whole community has
been interested and aroused as never be-
fore. The eyes of the present generation
have been fixed upon the shadOwy forms
of the past that still live and walk in our
midst, and shall for centuries to come.
We have been taught in the histories of
the day how even animal instinct has left
its trace on the life of man. The buffalo
builds highway into the painless wilder
ness for the advance of civilization, the
beavers home fixed the spot where now
stands the Capitol of sovereign State.
The lives of the brute creation emphasize
the teaching of the text "None of us liveth
to himself" No matter how low our lot
may be cast in the scale of humanity, it
may be but one remove from the beasts
that perish-we get help to mould the life
of the centuries to come-and we dream
not to what extent.
Our attention during this Centennial
week has been largely pointed to few
conspicuous personages of the past, as
though these were the sole or chief build
ers of this community. Igrant you their
names are observation-disclosures to be proud
of-names we all would like to have on our
genealogical tree; but the actual builders
of what we see about US to-day, some of
them are not at all, no more than the
gifted orator of the day who pours forth
an hours eloquence at the laying of a cor.
ner-stone, is the builder of the magnificent
edifice that rises there. All! I tell you,
there's been a powerful sight of Drawn and
brain built into the structure we inhabit
that does not glitter before the eye like
the fresco on the wall or the gliding on the
dome, but is rather the very granite and
girder and groin which constitute the sub
stance and form and strength and beauty
of the whole fabric. It was a kind of
hammer and trowel and hod work that
has made the real Frankfort of to-day, and
not the incidental circumstances that great
orators have poured forth their eloquence
here-that Burr plotted here-Lafayette
rested here-Or Louis PHILIPPE danced
here. No, would tear away all this tinsel
and gewgaw from before the eyes of the
young of the present generation. There
is enough of that in their dreams without
making it the cOloring of great Centen-
nial picture. The names of those great
ones who have really toiled on the fOunda-
tiOns of our social structure, / would by
all means give conspicuous place ON the
citys escutcbeon; but its only small
,loo of< oil
The roll Of those who have wrought we'll
here contains many q name that has never
been woven into poets verse-many one
would sing the unsung tonight. I would,
if could, cause to defle by before your
eyes al! those who during the century gone
have toiled in any manner ON the common
edifce--who have dressed stone, or made
brick, or laid in trowei Of mortar. all
these are the real architects of the commu.
nifty. All these deserve we'll. All these
have helped to enrich the heritage with
which we are blessed.
Prominent among the influences that
have shaped the life of the century,
would extOl the Christian home and the
multitude of noble women who dexteri-
ously wrought there, giving the touch of
beauty, of goodness, of heroism to the
plastic material God has brought to their
hands. While men at the bar and on the
forum have been about the bOotless task
of trying by the breath of their eloq uence
to bend or break the sturdy oak of man
hood, their wiser wives and sisters in the
seclusion of home have been moulding
with gentle hand the plant sprout Of child
hood, and giving it form and strength and
beauty at will. Which, think you, is the
greater achievement, in the light of reason
and history, the brilliant forensic efforts of
a Marshall to bear down his opponents by
twenty years of relentless following, or
the quiet, patient moulding of the moth. !
ers who gave to Brown and Innes strength
of character to resist temptation and so to
withstand the torrent of the great orators |
oft repeated and powerful invective?
Which will shine the brighter in the centu-
ries to come? Which of the achievements
would you choose for your own to-day and
to have throughout the mighty hereafterY
All! we often stupendiOusly mistake in our
estimates of the moral forces that mould
the generations. The elOQuence Of q |
Marshall or Clay may thrill and enthrall !
for the time, and may be spoken of with |
admiration throughout the land, and We
may be proud to claim those great men for !
ancestors or fellow citizens; but the men,
DRY of mothers life and words will re-
main stamped imperishable on the hardest
heart, and oftentimes bring back the
prodigal from the ends of the earth to |
weep over her grave. Her influence is
mighty and lasting. The lightning may |
glare and dazzle and rive, and thunder |
dreadfully; but it is the quiet, gentle shin
ing of the sun that builds up the giant oak |
which heavens heaviest thunderbOlts can |