The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-01-24

it ever lives. Thus the state is the
holy vase to which these living human
roses have tended and ought to tend.
The vast numbers that opened in 1776
and the myriads born of all the summer
times in the hundred years since then
have taken refuge in our nation, where
no storm nor winter can touch their
beauty.
NOT TO HIMSELF ALONE.
Thus the irfdividuals make the pub
lie, and beyond the public the state.
When the individual reads a good book,
he reads notsfor his own pleasure and
benefit alone, but also for the welfare
Of humanity. Humanity becomes great.
er when itss individuals all read and
think. Thus each good thinker, each
good artist, colors his times. His fame
becomes the fame of his country, be-
cause from him the country has drawn
life and power. Education is not
blessing to you only, but to your epoch.
It helps make the color Of those gor-
geous clouds which in the morning and
evening lie upon the horizon of the
country
Among the inspiring scenes OF this
city in the year just closing is to be
placed high that picture Of men giving
millions of money for the public ad-
vancement in taste and knowledge.
Across the threshold OF great colleges:
great libraries, great institute Of art;
and great museum ofsaA arts and SCI
ences, millions Of feet will pass in these
years and in those far:away. In the face
of financial distress this pouring out of
money has been perennial because hu-
man need runs all the year through.
The individual having onlya brief life
to I've cannot wait for the tide Of trade
to rise to a food height. He must think
all money ills temporary and humanity
lasting. Putting his hand to the plow,
he does not look back, but he looks for.
ward into that great feldswhere the
farrow is to be made and the fu-
ture wheat is to blossom. These men
who have given 81, 600, COO each, or
$100, 900 or 5000, 900 or $500, 900 each,
could not wait for prosperous days to
come, because in each human heart are
the sounding words of Lincoln's poet:
The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade.
Lie scattered around or together be laid.
FOOTPRINTS OF MANKIND.
AS noble citizens run on in advance
Of their country and discover and Illus
trate the principles which ought to be-
come laws. SIS the nation is only the
path which noble citizens have worn
with their living footsteps, so our Chris,
tian religion is made uppf the whole
volume of individual minds. What
the nation is to man as social being
religion is to man as the child Of a
God. The church did not make, it only
received. In these late years ideas de-
cline IN number because many Of the
old notions were not elaborated from
human need or logic. They were not
the paths of mankind. They were
the scattered footprints Of some man
who was wandering or lost. When one
comes upon such doctrines as these-re-.
pentance, reform, righteousness. love,
prayer, faith and hope-one finds no
simple footprints Of pope, or secta-
rian, but the great avenues beaten down
by our race. At first, as in our Old
Testament, a few explorers ran on in
advance, these whole army followed.
Tribe Joined tribe, nation nation, and
epoch added to epoch, until at last the
doctrines OF paths were confessed to be
those of humanity. In the church, in
Christianity, these millions Of individ-
uals are all stored away. their bones,
dust, their doctrines, everlasting.
Southeast of our city q few miles
there is an island on the land in the
level sea of grass. Old currents which
once moved down from the north car
rying rocks and vast masses Of hills and
mountains Of ice and stone pushed up
this heap OF earth and made it long and
wide and high. Trees, grass and flow
ers cover it, but its hidden mass tells
the story Of the old tumult. Thus the
noble doctrines Of religion tell us how
the human food ran and with what
power pressed upon the ideas that came
in its way Repentance is made up of
human tears; righteousness out Of
honor; love out of the divinity in man;
prayer, faith and hope out Of an endless
logic and experience.
The more the individuals Of our age
advance the more rich does religion be-
come in their presence. Did the mid
die ages see the value of education as we
seeit? In later times fashionable women
did not desire to read Or write. In In
dia only a small minority of women
can read or write. Thus neither pagan
ism nor Christianity cared much for
the intellect Of woman or man. Our
greater age is pouring greater meaning
into religion. AS political ideas fall
from the people into the state and
change the despotism Of the twelfth CEN
tury into the republic of the nineteenth,
thus new moral ideas are falling into