The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-30
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
Mr.. Nutting's Memorial Sermon
on Public Purity.
HE SCORES LOCAL POLITICS,
DR.. W. c. Catteil, Distinguished Pres.
byterisn, breaches on the Way Of
salvation-Church Notes.

The special Memorial exercises held At
the Armory yesterday afternoon were at
tended by an appreciative congregation.
and were characterized by inspiring music
and bold and fearless sermon by the Rev.
Wallace Nutting pastor of Plymouth Con-
eregational church.
Promptly at 3 o'clock Stevens and John
+. Miller posts of the Grand Army of the
Republic. the Women's Relief Corps. and
the Ladies Aid Society marched into the
hall, which was appropriately decorated,
and were assigned their places The gen.
eral public quickly thronged the remain
ing space.
The exercises opened with the rendering
of "Sleep Thy Last Sleep" by male quar-
tette composed of E. d. Crandall. G. K.
Bowman. NJ. NJ. Grout and L. ]. Colman.
This was followed by reading from the
fourth chapter of the Second Epistle
TO Timothy. The quartette then sang
"Guide Us and Guard" and the Rev.
s. Alonzo Bright, ID. d., delivered an inn
FASHIONED prayer. This was followed by
Sankey's 1.-THE Resurrection Morn" by
the quartette.
The Rev. Wallace Nutting then preached
the special memorial sermon. The subject
chosen was 1.-THE Present Crisis. The
text was: /. Tim. vr:12, Eight the
cond fight" and III. Tim. rv:7, have
fought the good fight" The minister
. said:
Ihave taken the title of Lowells poem for the
title OF my sermon; not without an intention.
II may have seemed to some that Just as the
slave was about to be freed. and while the war
was being fought over that question-it may
have seemed to some that a crisis was at hand
which, once passed, would be succeeded by a
period that was not critical. But when tho poet
chose for his poem the title 1.-THE Present Crisis
he showed that other crises were in bis mind
When Jesus Christ was crucificd serious men
held their breath and agonized ut the sight,
looking for the crisis to pass 1t passed, but an
other came. There was resurrection; there
was another day when the Jews found them
selves again faced with the same question:
"What shall we do with Jesus?" And as we
pass along the years We always fluid that there
il crisis, and we find good men aware of it's
presence. SO when Paul was worn out with his
battle he wrote to Timothy, one of the
next generation. and bequeathed 1t to
him: Slight the good fight; have
fought the good fight" He reminds us
Of the aged battle-scarred Carthagenian general
who brought his little son before the altar of his
god, and made him swear hostility to his
fathers enemies. 1t may be true, ana we thank
God it is true that the spirit against which you
fought in your brethren of the South has passed
away. That spirit has been exercised not by
bleeding bodies only, but by bleeding hearts a.
well in the North as the South. The South is
glad to be rid of the old conditions But spirit
is hard to kill; cast out from one abode it enters
another. Your warfare was against q form of
evil IL evil appears elsewhere in another form,
tits your enemy still, not the less but more. A
good man is not merely opposed to lying: he is
against stealing also. The man governed by
conscience and sense ana feeling 10 not a crank,
who devotes all his life to the determination of
one evil. But such man has q part in every
good word and work. 1t is the mark of a good
general to look upon every side for enemies, and
not to be led astray by a feigned attack upon
one side while the enemy is getting in its deadly
work upon another side.
Your brothers and my father have passed
from Thrics blessed is the sun and rain
upon their graves-once for their sake, once for
their countrys sake and once for Jesus sake.
The whole country is their monument and the
blue dome is their temple. The birds sing their
deeds to the music of the ripping streams and
the reverberation of the cataract's roar and the
sustained chorus of the forest Winds They
have fought the good fight 1t was good In its
purpose. good in its steady courage, good in its
outcome. Their blood and their wives and
children's tears have wiped away a stain that
iiized nation. What hath God wrought Here
where the smoke of that conflict never rolled;
here where the earth never trembled with their
marshaled tread; here where the name of
that Nirginian Is commemorated who took COM
mand OF North and South in Massachusetts,
united again the toll and the faith of the recon-
ciied brothers. 1t is Pacific. ocean that they
have given us; il is hope of
highway for the nations for the interchange of
our commerce through severed isthmus with
the commerce of the South, and the flag IL the
nag OF Washington. Had it not been for their
true hearts that throbbed so painfully, but now
are still, there would not be before US gather
Ing from all the states, where the delegates
from Washington shall meet the delegates OF
tennessee, 10 forward the formation of
channel that shall bring us of the extreme
North within touch of the extreme South. They
have fought the good fight They made clear
every forest and prairie and river, that TO and
1ro may pass, with none to say him nay, every
human creature in this vast domain, getting
The best ideas of all parts OF the nation, becom-
Ing educated, emulous of good, awake to new
and better methods and learning to look up
INTO the face of God saying, al thank
thee for manhood !" They who wrought
this and are beyond our seeing have
fought the good fight More lightly lies free
toi upon their ashes; more readily viii time
mix their dust with enfranchised ground. But
their souls go marching on! If We stop where
they stopped We shall be bereft of life they
are. Their mantle has fallen upon us, and the
continuation OF their work is ours. Nothing is
finished until Gods great day. Cries still
arise, and we cannot rest with Illuminating on
The old ideas. for every decade plants the foot
OF good man upon higher ground than he ever
uod before. II we can honor the dead this day,
We can DO IL best by carrying forward their
spirit ard bringing the nation forward TO
hooler ideas. For years rang forth the cry for
those eternal principles OF liberty that were be-
ing leopardiIed, but AT first the cry was I'M
Needed, then ridiculed, then fought against,
and at las, taken UP and echoed around the
world. Thus also is il this day. Many great
reforms, that now fall drearly upon our ears,
aie TO grow iii volume, swelling on the gale, we
thali echo them as the voices OF God.
1t Is not enough that men should occupy the
same ground now twenty years ago. Believe
IL, the souls Ct your comrades. who passed Tor
gwen into the next life, are taking new ground
every day. As you stood in the ranks, you were
rot satsncd to find from month 10 month that
II WAS "ali quiet on the Potomac" You were
hot there for quiet. The cry of your heart was
u &c led forward. II is becoming then In us 70
AS what Is the present crisis, ana are we ad-
Nancinc % e? Are We conscious OF a higheF
standard than we confessed ten ana twenty
Pears ago. Are we satisfied 10 fight over again
TIE old battles and 10 build the tomhs OF the
martyrs oj our country? Is there not some
thing sor Us 10 accomplish still? There are
thousands now who are ready to euiogise sae
great men q thirty wears ago but who are sun
fidicul.ug the men of today who stand ahead OF
their age
Dor humanity sweeps onward; where today the
nsltrr staads -
On the morrow cr0uches Judas with the silver
Far In t~.,rt - cross stands ready and the