The record-union., 1893-02-20
TRUE LEADERSHIP. "
The Life of Phillips Brooks Cited as
an Example.
Synopsis of Sermon Preached Yes
terday by Rev. t. j. Horner
at Pythian Hall.
In his sermon at Pythian Hall yester-
DIV tho Rn1. II I Hnrnar said.

stract truth as such may be admired
down through the ages, as, for instance,
the ethics of Aristotle or the moral max
inns of Marcus Aurelius, but when char
acter appears upon the stage of human
life who embodies in his own personality
what philosophers dream of and moral
lists write about-a character in whose
veins the warm currents of human feel
ing flow and whose voice gives express
sion to those feelings in accents no less
tender than true to the universal long
ings of the human heart, and whose ac-
tions confirm both voice and heart, then
love, love that commands the lover, goes
out to such q character to react upon the
world, inspiring it to become what he
would have it be, for love of him.
He who can inspire the worlds atfec
tionS can command the world.
Any individual who can inspire love in
another becomes a hero to that one, and
without conscious effort influences that
one for better or for worse. Love COM
mands admiration for the attributes of
the loved one, and, following in the wake
of admiration, comes the effort to initiate
those attributes.
Few people in the world are original
enough TO be independent of their feel
ings.
Napoleon by his force of will inspired
the people of France to follow him all
over Europe To battledelds of victory and
TO look upon his ideals as the ideals of
| the nation. But an influence like Ma
poleon's, though it commands millions
for a time, cannot be q lasting influence
because not based upon the hearts eternal
nature. But without Napoleon France
could do nothing while the people wor-
SHIPPED Napoleon's ideals.
So completely does human nature sur
render all its individuality into the hands
of its leader, when that leader embodies
] I.,l1
out his word Of command, a whole peo-
pie may become utterly helpless in time
OF danger; but as long as his faculties are
under good control and he uses them to
advance the cause that the people have
accepted as their cause, though in reality
it may be but the prompting of his own
ambition, they will follow him to the
bitter end, and lay down their lives at
his bidding. Such has been the history
of the world.
! The leader is the vine and the people
are the branches, and while he lives they
feel that without him they can do moth
ing.
Witness the love of the people of Eng
| land for Gladstone. But again, human
nature is so many-sided and human
powers are so one-sided that the world s
leaders seldom develop more than one of
! the elements that go to make up fully
rounded life, consequently the cause
| which any one man may represent is
| necessarily subject to the limitations OF
| his nature.
With Napoleon it was simply will.
| Everything that did not minister to his
ambition was crushed out OF his nature.
! But when the other departments of hui
man nature are not allowed to have a
hearing they remain in allegiance until
will has had its day and then they come
TO the surface OF life with their protest
and demand leadership in due turn.
! Revolution after revolution has told this
sad story in the life of France, and the
late developments in regard to the
| Panama Canal scheme show them Just as
ready to-day as ever to follow any leader
who can inspire their confidence.
The fuller the development of human
faculties Leader may possess the stronger
will be his hold upon the people and the
longer will his influence be felt after he
has gone. But let him lack any one oil
the higher elements of the SOUPS nature
and his influence will sooner or latel
come to All end.
Human life being both bodily and spirit,
ually united i'll one organism here on earth
any exclusion of the desires of the one il
order that the other may be the gamer
can but result in reaction and cause revo
luton and anarchy in the mind OF the in
dividual as well as in the nation.
The leadership, therefore, that is des
tined to exert lasting influence upon the
world must embrace both the tempora
and eternal elements of life, so that those
feelings and admonitionS which haV,
their beginning in the temporal way, ad
vance into the eternal.
y leader whose influence is to be for al
time must develop in his own personality
the whole round nature OF man. tempora
as well as eternal, and must embody thost
ideals that i'll their innermost hearts tht
Il Il
that IN the abstract may be as old a:
human thought, but which in the con
crete are yet to be realized in the life o
each individual human soul.
such character was j eSuS of Nazareth
A peasant prophet whose pulpit was The
fisherman's boat or the mountain ledge
His theme, the imminent God-the kinp
dom of God within the soul OF man. Tht
fatherhood Of God, the brotherhood O
man. out of these ideas grow all thu
duties of life.
Putting aside all speculative theologi
cal considerations, f." said Professor Beard
land looking at the matter simply from
the historical point OF view, Christ is tn
strongest, most enduring, most ViViC
force that was ever introduced into tn
world"
Coming from critical historian of tn
highest standing, unbiased by precon
ceived notions, or the feeling OF necessit,
to make history and dogma agree, thes
words carry great weight.
Granting this statement we can ac
count, at least in measure, for the IN
huence which the late Phillips Brook
has had not only upon the determination
OF which he was the acknowledge,
leader in America, but upon American
life in general; for in his personal charac
ter he embodied much of the Christ-ideal
Loving that ideal until his own nature
| hot t1.rl, oh N bor !,
to his own bosom the devotion OF grea
, host and led them by the force OF his owl
commanding personality, as truth in tn
abstract could never do.
Though belonging to one of the mos
exclusive religious bodies in America, b.
was no sectarian. No member OF it stoot
so like a rock as he against the effort
for the Protestant Episcopal Church il
America the name of "the church, a
though no other body of Christians had
right 10 the name of Church"
have seen him stand in the same pul
, pit with a Unitarian minister and speal
of the same great indwelling spirit of tn
l Infinite which the UnitarlanS have al
/ ways emphasized from Channing.down
a broad churchman he could yet wall
/ in an ecclesiastical procession besid
: the highest churchman in America
and ''twitt" him as he looked down upol
his spare form as being in no sens
broad"
He was one of the most cultivate
f preachers in America, yet ne was abso
, futely devoid of self-consciousness.
Few people who visited Boston ielt tina
, they had done the city" until they ha
worshiped in Trinity Church and near
Phillips Brooks. At first sight one wa
fasc mated by the manliness of the ma
whose well-proportioned form rose 81.
feet iour trom the floor. The service
usually lengthy, was so hastily 'pu
u, ,c,,erl,,, that nna who uas moi ancnS