The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-10-08
THE CHURCHES YESTERDAY
Rev. G. T. Browns Lecture at
the First Congregational.
YOUTH OF sAVoNARoLA. .
TRIUMPH OF GENIUS CoNsECRATEn
TO LIBERTY AND GOD.
DR.. Utter Speaks at the Unitarian
Church-An Improvement in
Christianity"-Rev. L. ID. RidgIey's
Third Lecture at st. Paups
Church on Christian Science.

Rev Clarence T. Brown lectured last
nigh upon 1.-The Youth of Savanarola'
1.-The first character in the series upon
Historic Young Men"
A large audience was present and the
decorations of autumn vines were
very beautiful.
When you have read the life of Saw
onarola you find yourself possessed of
something more than a biography
and that is a great affection for the
man.
! In spite of the Dominican robe which
he wore, you feel the charm of the
man. You forget that he was a monk,
or an Italian, or a man of the fifteenth
century. He has the freshness Of gen.
ius, the immortality that makes him
contemporary to the man of every age.
| He was born at Ferrara in 1452, in
the century which CASTELAR, has called
''the April of modern history" In
that great century he was to play a
conspicuous part. While the world OF
art and letters enjoyed the splendor of
a great revival of learning, Sayonar-
ola came upon the scene to bear wit
ness to the pristine glory Of righteous
mess.
"Savonarola," says CASTELAR,, "repre-
sents two things vitality necessary at
the moment in which he appears; first,
the revival Of religious consciousness,
and secondly, the renewed application
of the conscience to the reform of So
cial life.
The boy gave promise of the man.
Like most of those who have laid a
hand of power upon the world, he had
/ 81 ~
mother 'infuses into his cup of life the
honey of her maternal affection, and
perfumes 1t forever"
| He was a born idealist. From his
boyhood he lived in realm made rich
| by noble sentiments and visions. He
yearned for righteousness as the flower
for the light. His soul yearned for the
broad open blue of freedom and truth.
He was an eagle to whom any chain
torture. He loved books. His passion
ate, mystic nature was balanced by a
love Of facts and industry in seeking
them. "He studied day and night"
| He looked with indignant eyes, even
as a boy, upon vice and crime. He
hated the music which foated from the
upper rooms Of a palace where cellars
were dungeons, where the cry of pris-
oners smote his ear. His young heart
was wrung with ineffable pity for suf-
fering and horror of wrong"
| Such a boy is likely to be lonely in
any age, and particularly In that, when
society from top to bottom seemed lost
in total moral Indifference.
| He fled in 1474 to the Convent OF Bo-
logna. But ere long he finds that even
| the church has grown Indifferent and
corrupt The ancient mother" the
| true church, Is the victim of Rome.
In vision he beholds her torn and
bleeding by this great foul bird of
Rome and he breaks forth passionately,
20 God, lady, that I could break these
great wings!'
Thus early do we catch the keynote
of the martial music to which his ca
reer is to be fought.
During seven years at this convent
the fire Of his Indignation grows more
fierce. It Is forge at which in OBJ
security Is being wrought and tempered
the royal sword by which by and by is
to be unsheathed at Florence and lead
the greatest reform Of his age.
When at last he came to Florence
the fair city seized upon his affections
with all the vehemence of a passion,
and he loved her ever after as a man
loves his bride. The story of his cold
reception, his growing influence, and
the rising tide of his indignant protest
against her folly and her slavery to
the Medici until at last he held the
great city breathless and waiting for
his word is the story Of the triumph
of genius consecrated to liberty and to
God