The Portland daily press., 1888-03-06

ness, Of society-history like this, giving, as
you nave done through all this long period,
not aims alone, not money only, but the cost
lier gifts OF personal interest, attention and
Kindness, and the products Of the labor Of
your own hands.
This capacity for prolonged life, for an in
definite duration, is the most striking and
characteristic feature of an organized society
or corporation. Such a society seems TO
have solved the problem, or rather TO have
realized the dream, Of alchemy and the mid
die ages, the dream OF an earthly immortali-
ty. Its members must change, they grow old
and die, but the links of the golden chain re-
peat themselves. are forever renewed. The
society itself. an invisible, intangible, imma-
terial thing, remains always the same, the
same in the next generation or age as In this;
the purposes and hopes, the very spirit even,
of the founders living on in the unDr0ken
line and order Of its succession.
As we trace the history Of such a society
1t seems to acquire an individuality. OF its
own, to have a soul, Notwithstanding the
maxim against corporations having souls.
We find it easy and natural to personify 1t In
our thought, to think of it as living person,
OF this Samaritan Society as OF a noble wo-
man, to whom in some mysterious way
length Of days, an Immortality OF youth, has
been given, devoted always to words and
deeds Of kindness, pursuing year by year the
same daily round Of hopeful and generous
duties, following the footsteps OF misfortune,
not afar off but near by, with qulckened and
eager pace, with helping hands, with words lords
OF courage and hope, grateful as the llght
breeze upon the hot brow OF fever.
From the inspection Of this society II
seems to have shared in the religious life OF
the First Universalist Church, from which II
sprang The written declaration. Of the
founders remains to attest the motives by
which they were prompted, the spirit In
which they acted from the first. IL was in
the love OF an Infinite Father, in the spirit
OF the teachings Of the New
Testament, in the hope Of future life,
under solemn impression Of religious and
moral obligation and duty, that its deep
foundations were laid.
But this was true in no severe OF narrow
sense. Like the church with which it has al
ways been more Immediately and directly
identified, 1t has itself been one OF the strong
estinhuences to liberalize the religious spirit,
to soften religious differences, tending al
ways to overlook and to Overstep the bound
ary lines OF merely sectarian division, and 70
lend its aid alike to those Of every Christian
sect and name and to those Of no Christian
church or name. 1t was in behalf of the
poor outside the churches, that its first
efforts seem to have been specially directed,
as those most needy and for whom least pro-
vision was elsewhere made.
In this field and In this spirit, the Samari-
tan Society for years labored almost alone.
In later times other similar societies have
been formed, a sisterhood of charities join
ing company with 1t, one by one; but this Is
always the elder sister, in whom all take
peculiar pride, whose forming hand and in
fluence have been upon them all.
How strangely we are accustomed to mis-
conceive the real significance OF passing
events
1t is probable that the foundation OF this
society made but the slightest ripple upon
the surface of social or public affairs here in
Portland in 1928. Business men, under the
strain and pressure Of practical affairs, hard
ly lifted their eyes from their ledgers or
their law-books to welcome or to notice the
advent of the new conner. But now, what
other municipal event, Of the year 1928, OF
business, of politics, Of public or private
Importance, would be commemorated with
the same interest, pride and gratitude as
that with which we celebrate the sixtieth
birthday of the Samaritan Society. The
vain titles of the victories Of yustinian"
writes Gibbon, approaching the history Of
the Roman law, have long since crumbled
into dust, but the name of the legislator Is
inscribed on a fair and everlasting monu-
ment.y Even in this world, it Is the things
Of the mind and OF the heart which endure.
In comparison with these, material interests,
whatever splendnr may attach to
them, seem ephemeral and vain. 1t
Is this long life Of what Is good and
true and helpful, the permanence which in
heres In it, which has been to men the per
petual promise that the evil of this world IS
but seeming and transitory, that good shall
somehow be the final goal Of i'll the basis Of
our hope and faith, that "behind the dim un-
known, standeth God within the shadow,
keeping watch above His own"
Doubtless you have all shared the regret
which felt In reading the history Of this
Society written by Mr.. Farmer-to whom as
the historian Of the Samaritan Association
our city as well as the Society itself Is un-
der constant obligation-that many Of its
most valuable records were destroyed in the
great fire Of 1866; and yet found my mind
inclined to turn away from this regret to the
reflection that the true record of this Socie-
ty was ot,and could not be upon the written
page Its real record is in grateful human
hearts, in the growth and progress in all
good things of the community in which 1t
dwels, in the smiles which during all these
years it has brought back to the saddened
faces Of the aged. for whom at best little
of pleasure was left in this world,
aided and shielded and lifted to better
plane of living than would otherwise have
been possible for them, and in all the mani
fold, gentle, social influences which have
flowed from it as 1t has pursued its way, like
flowers springing from beneath its very feet
OF the Samaritan Association L am sure 1t
may well te said, that the past at least is Sc
cure. Let me close with the wish that the
future may realize, may more than realize,
all the favoring auguries which attend 1t as
now it enters upon Its seventh decade, and
that in the lives and personal experience of
its officers and members may continue to be
repeated the truth of its own legend
BLESSED Is he who considereth the poor"
The remarks of the speaker were fire.
quently interrupted with applause, and when
Mr.. Symonds had finished the dances were
called, which occupied the remainder of the
evening