Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1890-01-25
Mr.. Young's Sermon on Jefferson DAVIS
End Henry W. Grady.


The following is a synopsis OF the sermon
nresehed by Rev. W. J. Young at the NJ. E..
Cburch South, on Sunday night last. his
text was from Rev. l4:l3:
Not only in profane but in sacred history
as well. prominence is given to the records
of the lives of great men. In the midst OF
the mass of mankind q few are leaders, De.
cause they gather up in themselves more OF
the thought and tendencies of the age, and
their lives, presenting as they do, a better
INTERPRETATION of those movements to which
the multitude blindly surrender themselves,
offer to the student the best opportunities Tor
acousinting himself with the era In which
thew labored. Two such men have, within
the past few weeks, and within a short time
of each other, passed away from among our
southern people, men who loved the Soutn
as Christian patriots and who were IN turn
Justly beloved and Observation-Disclosures DAVIS
and Henry w. Grady.
There was q decided contrast between
them. One had his face to the past, the
other looked toward the future. Both CHAR
aoters alike are n edful. The conservative
man gathers up the best of the past snd
transfers 1t to the generations to come Tue
progressive man, standing like Moses, upon
Mount Pisgab, views the land OF promise,
which pernaps he, himself, ls never to enter,
aud beckens on his race to nobler achieve
ments aud better possessions. vi course,
along with the material given to us by the
man of the past is much that we retain only
as bric-a-brac is like the old chair which,
brought from the attic, sits In the parior 30
adorned as to remind the visitor that 1t Is
not to be used. Still, we could not build,
save with the bricks and mortar OF our fore.
fathers /; and, while he is to be condemned
who asks why the former days were better
than these, none the less worthy of con.
domination ia he whose radicalism would
lead him to hate and malign all the past at
bad. a new era has daWned upon us In the
South. batter than the era gone by, as the
~plesent, with all its evils, ia always better
than the past, but we are not to forget that
the new South is made out of the old South,
and we. who are southern. born, can not be
true to ourselves unless We are true to our
fathers, and give them the honor which Is
their due.
But tho nov GRO has come, and / bid you
hearken to the voice of Mr.. Grady as from
his grave he would bag you to cease your
vain regrets, and apply yourself to the liv'
ing present. The South in which the plan
tsiion melody is giving place to the noise OF
manufactures and the smelling OF iron, the
| South with problems moral, political and
| religious the most moment0us any people
| ever faced, problems so important that it
makes one feel honored to be permitted to
take some part in the solution of them. No
man Is 8 nobler hero than he who, like
| Grady under the fire Of opposition, lays
| down the plan Of q coming age. The ICON
oclast is never popular. The man who with
d seer's instinos talks to US about the future
may paint for US o picture which We feel
cannot be true to life. The ful6llment OF
prophecy stirs the enthusiasm of the world,
keeps up its hopes of progress, and helps to
make the age about which 1t speaks. Such
men ara the architects, and the mass of
mankind are the builders; the practical
builder can never carry out to the"ietter the
architects plan, but the architects plan 10
indispensable. Mistakes are made, of
course, but these mistakes are only q part
of the humanity of the Incarnation OF the
divine idea In every age-en incarnation
without which We could not take it in.
But there are resemblances between them
as well. These men, both alike, show us
how God uses what man calls failures.
Grady was cut down in the prime of man.
hood. Davis, when still strong ard vigor-
ous, fell with the government he loved, and
suffered for years a living death, suffered Gs
only a great man could have suffered with
oat a murmur, for his oountry's good, CON
tont to be deprived of a citizenship which
was his due, because he desired not, by his
effort to secure 1t, to stir the strife which
good men everywhere lopged to see forever
buried. Grady had at least twenty-five
good years before him go that of both alike
=. - oar shat GoA aoonod fn haUa Ua1te6
TWENTY-FIVE valuable years. No, not was
ted. Il is not until we are gone that our
best work Ia done. Each good man may
say what the great Exemplar said. ut is Ak
pedient for you that L 60 away" Our
voices and our forms stsnd in the way of
our work. God uses Us as scatfolding,
standing on which he builds a part of the
temple OF truth but the scaffoldiDg must
be removed that the part builded may be
seen. The deeds We do, the thoughts We
think, are during our lifetime, and too
largely In OUT own human heads but when
we are gone they pass into the Spirits
hands, as Christ's work die, and then di.
vine energy uses US for the uplifting of the
world. They are as the wind which. upon
the land, struggles in vain with the habita.
lions of meD, but, unrestrained upon the
sea, blows in the sails of commerce AND
watts them to the posts of trade. Even
those whose lives seem now utterly useless,
are not 30. The flowers we pressed between
the lids of the Bible have all but their per-
fume and their loveliness, but they are even
more than mementoes, for to them cling
sweet recollections which make life sweet
err, and, perhaps, urge to nobler deeds or re.
strain from evil.
The deeds We do never die-tney live on,
changed to meet the new demands and tit
into the new thoughts of another day. Wes-
ieyauism and Calvinism are not as Wesley
and Calvin planned them, and even the
Church of Rome yields to the inevitable.
1.-THE old order changeth." Sometimes We
think that the thoughts of the past are not
in the records of to-day, but they are,
,bon ,arbone chonoed hayond ranoonition