Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-07

this Is the great alternative presented to
you to-day. Unnumbered thousands of
strong, true hearts will press into this State
In the next five coming years. You may
prove true to duty and to the responsibilities
OF Christian civilization, or you shall be
crowded to the rear, and your own fathers
will be the first TO place the trust in truer
and safer hands. Long before the bloody
fingers of rebellion were clutching at our
nations throat the poet Lowell, in prayer
for Justice to the fugitive slave, thus plead
with his fellow-citizens of the North:
Their darkened heart from error ere they
harden it 10 sin;
But If before his duty man with Hstlcss spirit
stands,
Ere long the Great Avenger takes the work
from on his hands,
God gave this golden State into the
hands of your fathers; they hold it in
trust for you; but be sure of this: He
will not suffer this brightest of all the
stars on Americas sky of blue to be
dimmed of its growing brilliance. If you
do not prove faithful He will send among
you those who will construct from the
shifting elements of this western civiliza-
ton the empire of truth and freedom He
has designed it to become. In the coming
ten years God is to infuse into the arteries
of this State the blood of much of New
Engand's best and truest. From the
White mountains TO the Rockies the cry
is Westward. how and the men of Cali
fornia, to-day, will be lost among the
teeming crowds of the East tomorrow.
In less than a decade of years the East
will (snl,ror,,o
soil. If our young men of to-day are to
take the reins of government into their
own hands few years hence, they will
have to prove their title to the birthright
not by manipulating that policy bred in
the saloon, but upon grounds of integrity,
of moral worth, Of Christian manhood.
After speaking of the comparative dan
gers of idleness, of timidity and too early
zeal, the speaker said:
True. activity brings dangers with it,
mistakes and temporary failures, and much
will be undertaken with zeal that mere
force and energy cannot accomplish; and
yet the poet sings truly:
% We cannot bring Utopia by force;
But better, almost be at work in sin
Than in a brute inection browse and sleep
No man is born into the world whose work
Is not born with him. there is always work
And tools to work withal; for those who will,
And blessed are the horny hands of toll.
The busy world shoves angrily aside
The man who stands. with arms akimbo set
Until occasion tells him what to do;
and he who waits to have his task marked out
Will die and leave his Grand unfulflled"
Ease and comfort and immunity from
care, my friends, mean danger if not dis
aster, and their end is obscurity and obliv-
ion. Better to buffet the waves and breast
the storm upon a rock-bound coast, though
shipwreck threaten every hour, than
lie becalmed forever in the tropics.
l know that you will not fail to
comprehend the necessity of the
hour. Perhaps you will ask: "What has
the symbol of this Association to give me
to meet it with assurance of success? |
have life and health, and a consciousness
OF the power of manhood. know the true
nobility of resistance There is no grander
symbol in all the religious faith you offer
than that of the lordly oak hooking the
storms of the ages, and waving its arms in
proud defiance. |, too, in the conscious
ness of my integrity, will resist the storms
of temptation and will defy their power"
Yes, my brother, but take from the king
of the forest the life principle that lends
toughness to the fibers Of its massive bole,
and elasticity and suppleness to its sway
ing boughs, and ere long the raven croaks
from It's blasted summit, and the worm
gnaws leisurely at its rotting heart There
is something at the heart of character that
must be yours, if you would keep fresh
and green the powers of your
maturing manhood. The life principle of
your being is the gift of God 1t must
loci Of ha oil - =
| Spiritual Author. And it is no weak and
unmanly thing, this religion of Christ, our
| Master. That is no symbol of weakness
which has inspired thousands to march to
the rack, the stake and the guillotine as if
going to the celebration of some holiday.
"Return with thy shield or upon it." was the
bidding of the Spartan matron as she sent
forth her son to the battle "At the foot
of the cross or upon il" was the watch
word of the Christian Church for dozen
generations. Believe me, my brothers,
the Spartan spirit did not breath its last
at Thermopyle, nor find its grave in
Sparta. | run my eye down the course of
history and everywhere | see blood stained
battle-tields; broken shields, dismantled
guns and manned and dying men; every
where and always the conflict of truth
with error has been with confused noise
and garments rolled in blood" But
| Justice was ordained from Eternity and
| Christ has linked it to mercy forevermore.
| The truest, grandest figures in civil life
are the Christian warrior, the Christian
I statesman.
John, whose words have been read in
your hearing John, the tender, loving
| disciple, whom Jesus loved, was no weak,
| effeminate Christian. He was one of
| Christ's Boanerges- Sons of Thunder.
1t is well for us to remember this, that the
| disciple best loved of our Savior was one
whose loving womanly affection was so
highly priced because it was found in a
setting of indomitable will and infexible
resolution diamond flashing from a set
ting of solid gold. And | like these let
tiers of John, because they are the blessed
words of the Gospel of Love, falling from
the lips of one of the Sons of Thunder. 1t
teaches us that Il Gospel of Love is not of
necessity Gospel that pules and whines.
| No, no This Is no weak sentimental ex-
| perlence to which we call you. Listen to
this climax of Peter: " Add to your faith
virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to
knowledge temperance, and to temper
ance patience, and to patience godliness,
and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to
brotherly kindness love" Does love look
weak atop of such Il structure of moral
masonry? Why, it is the apex of greater
than Egyptian pyramid. Take for your
abutments such structures as this, and from
them you may dare to throw across the
stream of life your bridge of Christian
love, and walk it without blush or fear.
There is no other bridge, however founded,
that will not totter beneath your tread.
When Byron, as brilliantly gifted a poet
as ever lived, was nearing the close of life
he summed up the years of goddess ex-
perience in these words:
| My years are in the yellow leaf
The flowers and fruits of love are gone.
The worm, the canker and the grief
Are mine Alone
A few days before his head
was struck off by Roman
executioner, Paul, the aged, the most
gifted of all the followers of Christ, wrote
to his young friend Timothy these words
/ am now ready to be offered, and the
time of my departure is at. hand; l have
fought good fight, | have finished my
course, | have kept the faith henceforth
there is laid up for me crown of right
business, which the Lord, the righteous