The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-11-19
GLORY OF THE PRESENT.
Rev. Levi Gilbert q Thorough Optimist
A Lecture Course.

"The Glory OF the Present" was the subject
on which Rev Lew Gilbert delivered the first of
q series OF lectures at the First Methodist
Episcopal church last night The attendance
was much smaller than the subject and the
manner in which the speaker handled 1t
deserved. This course of lectures Is Tor tnc
benefit of the Madison street Methodist Episeo-
pal church, q lecture being arranged Tor every
Wednesday evening for six weeks.
Mr.. Gilbert said that a certain class of
people are always grumoiing about the
pres.n. and claiming that osden times
were SO much better than these,
but they never furnished any proof of the truth
of their assertions. He said these assertions
were denied by Lord Macauley and Thomas
Brown and excellent reasons given therefor
The present age, he said, is characterized as an
age of corruption and incaruate selhsnness ev-
erywhere-no integrity, no honesty, anywhere.
But ne thought this was rather pessimistic
view, not based on the actual conditions. He
argued that all that was good in the past ages
had been handed down and the best
preserved, and that man had been
constantly progressing that there never before
was time when men lived with as much ease,
security and comfort now. and though some
economists controyert this claim regards the
working people. he still maintained that even
though capital gobDles up the lions share OF the
advantages OF industrial progress, nevertheless,
sAe coHuitioHS OF the working people nave ma
terialIy improved-that they have better shell
ter, clothes and food than ever before
The speaker declared that America has
been the Eldorado of all European peoples.
but that Australia is fast becoming the America
OF the future in point OF immigration. He ac-
counted for the tendency in the population OF
the country toward the cities, by the TACT THAI
the cities afforded the greatest advantages Tor
education. social intercourse. refinement, art
and ali that is progressive in the age.
Mr.. Gilbert thought 1t possible for any mar OF
average ability and push TO prosper under ex-
listing conditions, and referred to a leading
merchant OF Tacoma, who was once peddler
on the streets, and a leading shoe manufacturer
OF 81. Paul, who rose from the cobbler's bench.
Invention, he declared, was Fevolutionizng the
industrial system OF the age, and had doubled
the productive capacity of the people, and no
one can conceive of the ultimate possibilities of
invention in the line of electrical contrivances,
referring TO the telegraph. telephone, phono-
graph, electric light and the application of
electric power as being but the dawn of the
possibilities in this field in the future, when
Sahara will be fertiliZed and the air navigated
as the land and water are now.
The speaker referred to the intellectual and
moral advancement. arguing that statesmen,
authors and artists greater from an intel
lectual and moral point of view than ever be-
fore, and closed with an eloquent appeal for
the consideration due the spirit of manhood and
progress of modern times.
On next Wednesday evening James Hamilton
Lewis will deliver the second lecture of the
series, his subject being "Great Men Who Have
Been Christians