Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-18
A BROAD LECTURE.

| Rev. Joseph Cook Lectures on a Number
| of Comprehensive Topics.
The first lecture of the Sacramento Lee
| ture Associations third winter course was
| delivered last night, at the Congregational
| Church, by Rev. Joseph Cook of Boston.
There were about 700 persons present. 1t
was fine and a representative audience,
creditable in high degree to the public
| taste for good lecture courses. Mr.. Cook S
subject was Leaders and Misleaders." He
| is forcible speaker, distinguished by
lucidity, orderly arrangement of his argu-
ment, vigo7 of expression and incisiveness.
He held the audience for two full hours,
| not more than dozen retiring before the
close.
To present fair synopsis of so extended
! and scathing lecture and upon a subject
| that swept into its embrace nearly every
| topic that engages public atten ion or has
| had it, IL the last quarter of a century, is
simply impossible at the late hour when
| this is penned, and if full report il would
take page of the RECON- UNION Unjust
suffice to indicate the drift of the discourse,
which was an exceedingly bold one, and
| trod on many toes.
The disappointing thing about the lecture
was that while Mr.. Cook started out with
statistical statement of the plumber of
| the colored race in the Southern States,
and what their numbers would probably
bear on the centennial of emancipation,
some 80, 100000 or more, and indicated that
| he deemed the negro question and the
policy of the Government upon it, most
vital and of deepest concern to civilization,
! ne did not, as on other topics, state clearly
| his views as TO remedies and the outcome.
! On all else he was mphatic-radically so
ON that he was trife hazy. He content
ed himself with referring to the natural
adaptability of the colored man for labor
| in tropical chimes, and the unfitness of the
white to meet him in such regions in the
| field of labor equally. The whole tropical
| region of the two continents he seemed to
| indicate would become the field in which
| the negro will work out his destiny. In
the meantime, our duty is to conserve his
education and guarantee to him enjoyment
of his natural and political rights Those
are misleaders who preach autagonism that
will keep the negro dependent.
The questions OF rapid transit and ease of
communication were considered as poten-
tial factors in the schems of civilization
that are making all men kin, and the sky
| the roof of common dwelling. True men
must i've AOA t-.CAA Wv anu I'll UdtlOBS.
The leader is he who sees the divine pur.
pose and acts in that direction; the mis-
leader, he who lives for the present hour
only, and is cut of harmony with the pur-
pose Of God. The leader acts in line with
The eulf current of Providence. which by
its drift Is lifting up the masses with per-
feet freedom. 1t is not Nature alone that
moves this current; Nature is the glove
without the hand and God is the hand be-
hind the great current.
There are three tests of the true purpose
of Pro7idence-seil-ev truth-as. that
the shortes: distance between two points is
straight line; experience in the long run
as. the uniform events during long periods,
the land marks with which we meet, indi-
eating uniformity and pointing out the set
of the great current of purpose; harmony
with the spirit OF inspiration-abilityt to see
God in the purpose. With these tests lead
ership is TO be determined. He is the true
leader who accepts self-evident truth, the
| teachings of experience in the long run,
and is in harmony with the spirit of Di-
vine power. Such leaders cannot but
choose the right path and know the great
gulf current of the purpose of God.
| He then passed to application of his tests
to the temperance question, in which he de-
clared that the liquor traffic is the greatest
I agency OF evil, holds in lis grip TIE i..i.s-.-