Wichita eagle., 1889-01-26

which he came in contact, and he wrote OIL
the spur of the moment under the fragran
birch trees In the healthy glens or amone
the moonlit sheaves, the gushes o
music flowed warm from his hear
Like true Scotchman, the pendulum O
his life swung from one extreme to thu
other. but the penalty of great genius, the
| want Of power to govern his actions anC
bring about that equilibrium that charac
terizes the well balanced life, kept him in
his erratic course. One peculiar
ity about Burns was that he had the power
as no poet ever had of touching the popu-
lar heart IN his writings. On this account
his poems never grow old, but we can al
! ways turn to them, whatever our mood,
and find something to rest and refresh us.
1t is very pleasing to think of him in his
calmer hours as he sat by his wee bit
ingle," with his family around him, in
| structing his family in the scriptures and
in the catechism and confession of faith OF
| his church.
In speaking of his children to friend he
says:
Il rule them as ought, discreetly,
And often labor them completed.
And aye on Sabbath duly, rightly,
on the questions large them tightly
Till faith wee Davoc's turned rae gleg,
Though scarcely LANCER than your leg,
He'll scteel We off Effectual Calling
AS fast as any in the dwalling."
Burns was religious man. 1t must not
be forgotten that the man who struggles
for the best things in religion, even if he
never attained to them, is religious man,
! and that him to whom much humanity
has been given, lives on the same time.
and travels on the same pathway, as did
the peasant of Nazareth. Burns vision
did not extend to the grandest or the most
| supreme heights in the religious world.
! He saw human weakness and some incon-
| sistency among those who were spiritual
teachers and leaders, and yielded to the
| too common mistake of paying more at
tentlOn to the men and their errors than to
the principles and doctrines they were
pleased to teach and to preach. TO them
would have been applicable the phrase adj
dressed TO critics of an earlier age: "What
is that to thee? Follow thou me-" And
yet was he not under Providence an in
strument in bringing about better state
of things in the church by such poems as:
The Kinks Alarm" 'The Holy Fair"
Holy Willies' Prayer" 1.-The Two Herds"
and other poems Of the same nature. The
| best friends he had would have rejoiced to
have seen him take flights of which his
genius was capable-higher than were his
choice, and yet the sparks were in him
struggling for release. Had he lived
longer, pernaps he would have given rein
to his muse and proved that the patriotic
and the humane which dwelt in him, had
received spiritual conservation. We love
to look at Burns. however, in his last att
tudes, in his ASPIRATIONS, rather than in
his errings. 1t would have been strange
indeed if he could have lived through his
time and environment and come out a
saint. We are thankful for all he did that
was good, and great, and grand, and pure,
and this was much. We are thankful for
the Immortality that has made him the
poet of mankind We are thankful that
through him Scotland is known and cher
ished today in all lands, and by the best
are thankful that Burns never deserted
the people. We are thankful that criti-
cism of the man is dwarfed every time we
open his book. The character of Burns
expands the more it is studied. Every
year men are discovering beauties in this
mans life which were not before revealed.
We are finding traits which have been OBJ
scure simply because they have been hid
den under heaps of rubbish, of praise and
blame. We are discovering points of pur-
lty and consistency, OF eXaltatlOn
and spirituality which never could
have existed in man who was
selfish or irreligious. 1t is because of true
greatness in the man that it becomes posi-
bic to magnify his life nearly a century
after its close. 1t is the fruition of great
ness and true manhood that is revealing
itself as we wander throug III the fascinat-
ing realm of Burns poems. There is prob
ably no aspect of Burns more strongly de-
veloped to those of us who have strayed
away from our native homes than the in
creased appreciation of past associations,
and the enhancement of the sacred MEM
cries of our old domiciles which the pc
rusals of his poems and songs has worked
up in us. lie has filled our hearts with
hope and We are impatient to travel over
old ground and, if possible, to meet old
4-,,a d 4. fl,a fnaA @f
yore. We may, many of us, have trans
fcrred our allegiance as citizens, but SO
long as the memory of Burns shall live
our hearts shall beat warm with undeniable
love of Scotia.
After a song ''Robin" by Mr. J. T.
Campbell, and another You'd better bide
a Wee" by Mr.. w. Bracken, 1.-The Land
o Cakes"
''Thee. Caledonia, thy wild heaths among.
Thee famed fer martial deed and sacred
song"
Was responded to by Mr. J. T. Hanning.
Scotland is a small country, a part only
of an island of which England is the other
part. A long, long time ago this island
lay solitary and unknown in the great ex-
panse of water. The foamlng waves dash
ed against the cliffs and the bleak winds
blew the forests. The islanders who were
called Celts or Poets and Scots, knew moth
ing of the world and the world knew
nothing of them. At this period they
were savages. going almost naked, or
dressed only in the rough skins of beasts
The HighlanderS are perhaps the most !
part of the Scotch nation. In
the early time they signalized themselves |
by their repeated resistance to the Ro- !
mans. The great Caesar, the Emperor |
Claudius aud Agricola came with /!
their vast armies but these
people, the Caledonians as they were !
called. resisted them at every inch Of |
ground Certain hills of Scotland are |
supposed to be vast heaps of stones piled /
up over the graves of those who fell fight |
ing in these bloodest of battles. And [
when new enemies arose-wlfen the SaXons /
from the north of the Rhine and the great |
river of Germany came, these Scots or
Celts defended their county with bravery |
that was wonderful-thaJ sent terror I'd |
the trembling hearts of their enemies
AT this period the Highlanders were
little better than Savages, but there was /
inbred in them a love of liberty. Their
land, too, was not made for slavery but
for freedom. Her hills and mountain
heads, her cliffs, her lakes and her moores
were an impregnable rampant against in
vasion. Protected by natures bulwark
which has been as a rampant to preserve
them, they remained for hundreds and
hundreds of years distinct and an indie
pendent people But after lapse of time
much of the distinctive character of the
Scots is lost. Along the eastern coast of /
Scotland are planted Norman English sud
Flemish colonies which not only changed
but perhaps improved the condition of the
people socially. morally and relig-
ously. And these influences have
gradually penstrited into the
inland districts until now the Teutonic
and not the Celtic language and manners
are established among the greater part OF
The population but amid these changes it is
nj ar,astinC to nnfa that the military arflnr |