Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-09-05

who are in it. The country is look
ing more and more to young man
hood and womanllood. Your faith
ers and mothers, sturdy oaks
though they may be, must fall in
tho march Of "Southern progress
ere the battle is begun and OH
your shoulders the mantle of tlieil
departing glory must fall. The
history Of the past furnishes no
such opportunity as is opening up
before you. Prepare, then, to en-
ter the ranks of Southern progress
and reconstruction, and to fill with
honor, credit and profit to your
selves, your families, your country,
the life that opens up before you
with promise SO inviting to every
son and daughter of the South.
The young men are coming down
from the North and putting in
their young strength and man
hood. At Birmingham, Florence,
Chattanooga, Roanoke, the young
men are in the lead and making
things lively. Get Off the goods
boxes, throw away your cigarettes
and the whisky,and any habit that
taking the young strength and
manhood out of you, and do some
thing; do 1t now. Strike while the
iron is hot. You were made for
free action. This alone is life and
development. If you have never
done anything i'll your lives before
do something now.
And to you, my people, let me
say again that material develop.
ment is right, is necessary, is GER
tain, but it is not all. Our "salva-
tion and strength" is deeper, broad
CT, more spiritual. Yea, this ultra.
material progress Of the South, un
less met by something nearer q
"golden mean" in Christian educa-
ton and institutions, is our great
danger, if not our certain dcstruc-
ton. You tell that our reverence
and religious spirit is yet strong,
earnest, hopeful; that modern skep.
tical thought, iSms, scofers, do not
flourish in our midst; that our
body, social and polite, is undis-
turbcd by communism, strikes,
riots; that "our masses do not mu-
tiny against law and established
order" True, there are every.
where in our land earnest men and
women reverently thanking an
"Almighty Father" for food and
raiment, sunshine and rain, seed
time and harvest, "into whose
homes shines the light of God by
day and by night, and yet it goes
without the saying that immense
material development do not come
without great social and political
dangers. And while this material
progress is working, some people,
some land must stand out a light;
some Moses "teach the law engra-
ven on tables of stone;" some
Joshua must lead the Israel.
ties over this Jordan; some priest
must bear this ark Of the covenant,
lest our own people be our own de-
struction. Let me advocate the
formation and maintenance of an
educational, scholarly, Christian
society throughout our country de-
voted to art, science, letters, that
may become bulwark against
this ultra-material development
and destructive spirit. And l say
now, as l have said before, that no
town, no people, no country has a
better claim to be the seat of such
society and influence.
And to you, young ladies, my
friends and pupils, as Southern
young women with q ''power of
purity" a sweetness OF disposition,
a freedom of spirit, loftiness Of
soul, retain, whatever else you may
lose, your Southern individuality
and cast. You will be told that
you are mans equal; his peer in
intellect; that every avenue is
open to you that man enter that
!. you can become lawyers, doctors,
, preachers, voters. statesmen. noli.