The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-10-23
Lecture Upon the Use Of Being Knock.
ed Down.

DR.. J. W. Lee delivered q very fine
lecture at Walker Street Methodist
church last evening. His subject was
"The use of Being Knocked Down." DIR.
Lee applied his subject /:
/. TO the making of nations. On the
two great rivers of the east, the Euphrat-
es and Nile, the most brilliant civiliza-
tions of ancient times were built up.
These rivers flowed through and fertilized
the fairest portions of the globe. The
people gained wealth without effort. 1t
was gathered from the spontaneous pro-
ductions of the earth. They we're sub.
iected to no knock downs in getting it.
Hence they did not hold 1t long, and
gained no valuable acquisitions to charac.
ter in the process of getting it. They
soon died of inanity and corrupt luxury.
They left no valuable literature and art
to posterity.
There was little strip of mounta inous
country situated between these great
rivers, into which Abraham moved with
his family and dependents to build a
civilization. The means of subsistence
were hard to get The soil was barren
and unpromising Therefore the people
had to put thought and effort into the
soil TO make 1t respond with fruits and
food.
What the soil lacked in fertility they
supplied by persistence and greater effort.
The result was they secured all the
grapes and honey and corn they needed,
besides intellectual snd neral strength,
which made them the greatest nation OF
ancient times. The Jews left law and
poetry and literature that continue in
our day to bless mankind. They were
in captivity first by one nation and then
by another; they were subjected to all
kinds of privations and expressions.
Thus amid hard and forbidding condi-
tions they wrought out civilization
that will bless mankind forever. Their
knock. downs only served to bring out
the enduring and noble elements of char
acter, SO wonderfully displayed in Moses
and Ieaiah. /.
Another nation, coming up about the
same time, produced also great civiliza'
| tiou. As 10 the case of Judea, Greece
had none of the easy coudi.ions of life
found in Egypt and Babylon. But in
spite of hard conditions they lifted them.
aelves into leadership in all that is great
| in literature, ennobliDg in statemanship.
and exquisite in art
In modern times there are two nations
in Europe, one at. the source of the Rhine
and the other at its mouth, Switzerland
and Holland, which illustrates the value
of severe conditions in making people
great. Switzerland to-day has hardy,
brave and cultivated people, who have
made themselves rich aud Independent
| in spite ofmountains and ice. They buy
our cotton, pay freight nit across the
sea, get it to their mountains, bring coal
! from other countries, then manufacture
this cotton into fine cloth, send it back
over the sea, pay high tariff on it and
still underBell our own mills.
Holland, atthe mouth of the Rhine. is
great nation, about one.fourth the size
| of Georgia in area, but with q population
of 4,O00,O00 people. They started with
nothing but go much sky. They did not
even have soil. The North sea covered
that. By running dykes down into the
sea and back to the land they enclosed so
much of the sea. Then by pumping the
water out of this enclosure they had 80
much soil for cultivation. So inch by
inch they captured their country from
the ocean. It is protected by dykes from
the fury of the ocean to- day. Upon these
dykes around Holland men stand night
and day, actually policing the sea. They
have not only had the North sea to fight,
but Spain and other nations of Europe.
Yet ia spite of all this, Holland is the
richest nation in proportion to population
on the face of the globe. Hollanders
own more railroad stocks in this country
than any other outside nation.
DR.. Lee also enlarged on "The Use of
Being Knocked Down.
2. In the making of science.
8. In the making ofphilosophy.
4. In the making of men. BE showed
that the toll, uncertainty and pain to
which men we're subject furnished the
most friendly conditions for getting ont OF
human beings what there was in them of
strength and character.-Atlanta Consti-
tuition, Oct IA.