Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-02-26
7 almage's Garland for Henry W. Grady.

7 almage's Garland for Henry W. Grady.
REVIEW OF TIE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF
THE BRILLIANT EDITOR AND ORATOR.
HIS PATRIOTISM AND FAITH.
The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage says the
New York Herold, YVES an intimate friend
of tie late Henry W. Grady, whose sudden
death occurred while the Brooklyn clergy
man was travelling in the East. DIR. Tai
mage during the services of the Tabernacle
congregation last Sunday morning at the
Brooklyn Academy Of Music told how great
was the shock to him when he learned,
while at Constantinople, of Mr.. Grady's
untimely death.
Taking the life and public services Of the
young editor srd staiesman as theme,
DR.. Talmage made his sermon an analysis
and review of the character of Mr.. Grady,
| whose memory be eulcgized with great
earpestness and snlemniiy.
From DR.. Talmage's discourse We make
the following extracts
81 have no doubt that he had enemies,
| for no man can live such an active life as
he lived or be so far in advance of his time
without making enemies. some because he
! defeated their projects and some because he
outshone them. Owls aud bats never did
like the rising sun. (Applause.) But /
shall tell you how be appeared to me, and
I am glad that told him while he was in
| full health what l thought of him. Me-
4 r.o1 t.
are often mean enough, for they say of a
man after be is dead that which ought to
have been said of him while living.
His father dead, Henry W. Grady, a
boy fourteen years Of age, took up the
battle of life. It would require long
chapter to record the names of orphans who
have come to the top. When God takes
| away tie head of the household He very
often gives to some lad in that household a
special qualification.
"Early obstacles for Mr.. Grady were
only the means for development of his in
teliect and heart. And loi when at thirty
nine years Of age he put down his pen and
closed his lips for the perpetual silence, he
had done work which many man who
lives on to sixty and seventy and eighty
years never accomplishes.
|
"Summer before last, riding with Mr..
Grady from a religious meeting in Georgia
on Sunday night, he said to mo some
things which l now reveal for the first
time. He expressed his complete faith in
the Gospel and expressed bis aston,shment
and his grief that in cur day 50 many
young men were rejecting Christianity.
"Mr. Grady not only demonstrated that
an editor may be Christian but that
very great intellect may be gospelized.
'There was that particular quality in
him that you do not find in more than one
person out of hundreds of Thousands
namely, personal magnetism. A magnetic
man throws it over others as hunter
throws lasso. Mr.. Grady was surcharged
with this influence, and it was employed
for patriotism and Christianity and ele-
waited purposes.
"What the greatest Of Englishmen said
of England is true of America and of all
Chris endom. The men at the top are the
| friends of God and believers in the sanctity
of religion. So great are the responsible
ties of the editorial profession, so infinite
and eternal the consequences of their work
and SO many are the surrounding tempta-
tions that the men of no other profession
more deeply need the defences and the rein
forcements of the grace of God.
"And then look at the opportunities of
| journalism. praise the pnlpit aud mag
Nifty my flee, but state fact which you
all know when say that where the pulpit
touches ne person the press touches five
hundred The vast majority of people do
not go 10 church, but all intelligent people
the responsibility of the minister is great,
| the responsibility of editors and reporters
is greatss.
Come, brother journalists, and get your
ordination, not by the laying on of human
hands, bnt by the laying-on of the hands
of the Almighty. Spread before our chill
dren an elevated literature. Make sin ap
pear disgusting and virtue admirable. Be-
lieve good rather than evil. While you
show up the hypocrisies of the Church,
show up she stupendous hypocrisies outside
| the Church.
''Be lot, as some of you are, the mere
echoes of public opinion; make public
opinion. The nightiest opportunity in all
the world for usefulness to-day is open be-
fore editors and reporters and publishers,
whether of knowledge on foot, as 10 the
book, or knowledge On the wing, as in the
| newspaper.
$40 the opportunity the newspaper press
of this country and other countries have
given me week by week to preach the
Gospel to the nations, ! am put under so
much obligation that defy all editors and
reporters, the world over, to write. anything
that shall call forth from me one word of
bitter retort. Reformers and religious
| teachers, instead Of spending SO much time
and energy in denouncing the press, had
better spend more time in thanking them
for what they have done for the worlds iu-.
teligence and declaring their magnificent
opportunity and urging their employment
of it all for benefcent and righteous pur-
poses.
eRADY's PATEIoTIsM,