Milford chronicle., 1888-05-18
Christian Endeavor speech.

! he A"lAoMiuB paper was ietu Dy w.
P. COrsa at the meeting of the Society
of Christian Endeavor on Sunday
evening last:
Being asked by your Society to address
you on this occasion, it has puzzled me much
to know how in "fve minutes talk"
could best encourage that Christian Endeayor
which you are so zealously and worthily
laboring to engraft on the characters of the
young of this town
If,as the nurserymau transforms the whole
life of tree by the Insertion of bud, or the
engratting Of a scion; if thus in morals we
could ingraf the germ of a life that should
be, how soon and how thoroughly could in
temperance, profanity, Sabbath breaking and
the like be engrafted with a germ from the
tree of life, and out of the old roots of evil we
should have growth of happiness, alike in
leaf branch and fruit with the mother tree?
The knotty, sour crab-apple, the puckery
choke pear, the small, fuzzy cling-stone peach
the seedy, tasteless, frost grape, are each
changed in their life and character by the
engrafting of better fruits upon them. The
!
lodgmeut Of the improving germ; and after
that, for a time, it must be his care to keep
ali natural germs in entire subjection, giving
the growth to the improved fruit germ.
Did it never seem strange to YOU how the
roots of puckery pear could be made TO
produce barrels and barrels of Bartlett's, by
simply setting in time Bartlett bud on the
root cutting of that puckery pear? Or how
the most delightful Nyack pippins are now
growing in great quantities from limbs you
haYe known engrafted in the head of some
worthless apple tree? Have you ever tried
to solve the mystery of how that sap came
with all its native sourness to the point of
union with the engrafted fruit; but in all
blossoms beyond that point it has the power
only to produce the fruits of the graft
Is it not mystery quite analogous with
one we find in the human heart, where we
are conscious of evil tendencies, but are
thankful for good works obtained through
the influence of the spirit? Now ifyou shall
succeed as good nurserymen in setting a
bud of Christian cndeavor in the lives of
each young person in this town, and if after
ward, as the successful nurseryman must,
YOU so watch over the lives and interests of
each engrafting seeing that the sproutiugs
of evil are kept in subjection, and that the
new life gets all the encouragement and
strength of the individual; soon you will
have an olive grove that knows but the one
purpose, and that gives the best results.
But practically, what is a Christian En-
deavor? fl could go on a crusade to drive
the goddess from the tomb of the Saviour
or if could die at the stake to attest my
faithfulness, personal zeal might be wrought
to the point of either but there is now no
call for such zeal-or at least there is no call
for its display in that way. But the zeal
courage, and faithfulness of the Christian of
to-day is none the less heroic, and in no wise
less worthy because it must contend with
intemperance, with gambling, with lying
with profanity with Sabbath breaking with
/ hypocrisy, with cheating. 1t takes a cour-
age of no mean order to step into another
mans business and say, Here, your busi-
ness is positive injury to the morals of this
community, and it must stop !" Or, Here
uclBHDOil 1Oul idlSSHOOuS dtG du INJURY "
this neighborhood, and the sooner your conf
munications are truthful, the better for this
people" Or, "Neighbor, there is State
law against profanity, and propose to be a
witness for its enforcement against you if I
shOnld hear you cursing again.
Acts like these make rough spots in lifes
journey; they cause many friends of the
assailed to withhold friendship from the as
sailant What christian endeavor it would
be to gather into their homes at a reasonable
hour in the evening, the boys and girls from
off the streets of Milford. What an endeavor
to engraft such manhood in every boy that
he would sooner be shot than permit his
tongue to utter a word unfit for mothers OF
sisters ears.
In each and all these paths, it is of the
, utmost importance to the Jealous crusader
and to the success of his cause, that he has
no personal ambition or interest to satisfy
by the contest, that he is drawn into oppo-
sition to men, more by circumstances than
by volitiou But to be such crusader, no
man can desert his cause or strike his coIors
because one man, or perhaps a score, refuse
to recognize him on the street