The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1894-01-11
OUR LEGACY AND OPPORTUNITY
From "Pilgrim Father" Address
delivered Dec. Oath, 1898, at Oak
land California.
By Rev. VIM. GEO. TRowER.

and impudent audacity is self
glorihcation. God the Ruler of
nations has prospered us as He has
no other nation. On this occasion we
are reminded of the providence of
God in our history, as we look back
over two hundred and seventy-three
years to the landing of the Pilgrim
fathers who left us such a priceless
legacy of freedom, inspiration and
opportunity. -
The weary men and women who
landed on the shores of Massachusetts,
ON that cold December day in 1920
had no conception of what they We're
doing for us of the twentieth century.
The rock upon which they landed
was fit emblem of the perpetuity OF
the liberties and institutions they gave
us. They had been tossed about the
waves, buffetod by storms; they had
been in perils on the deep. The
nation they found has passed through
storm and tempest; political and
moral waves have dashed over the deck
of the ship of freedom, but the
| Pilgrims on this vessel like the
passengers on board the Mayhower
have landed on the Plymouth rock
of Providence, and to-day the grand
old ship rides the waves and braves
the tempests fearlessly because of
what the Pilgrim Fathers left us. The
inheritance is ours,-let us use it
wisely and remember gratefully
our Fathers.
1.-The Legacy. First of all it
was legacy of freedom, not license,
but real freedom. The Pilgrim and
his family going to church with his
Bible under his arm represented a
different kind of freedom from the
infidel of to-day whose freedom is
unlimited license. They left us to a
vision of Gods Fatherhood and mem s
brotherhood. The freedom they gave
is freedom to sacrifice, to service,
from selfishness and of iberality
toward God, to worship according to
orr honest will, freedom to love all
men. Sturdiness is a part of the
legacy, such as we need be reminded
of during this decade of our national
life,-a stern ruggedness that urged
them and made them capable OF
pushing out and into the "trackless
wilderness" of their day and which
has given us pioneers of thought anC
invention. They came over honest
God-fearing men-descendants from
the Britons, Scots, Romans, Saxons
Northmen,-ft progenitors of our in
situations. From the stock that de
manded their freedom from Kine
John at Runny Meade,-they left Us
Briton liberty and fearlessness, SEQ
Persistence, Roman self-respect, Saxon
| sturdiness and Morse ruggedness
Through them has come the Magn;
Charta of our liberties, our con
situations. We are the heirs Of all the
best that Pilgrim Fathers brough
with them. The Revolution was {
child of the Pilgrims love of freedom
free church and a free school arr
children Of these Fathers. An un
trammeled conscience, love of home
devotion to principle, all are in par
at least the inheritance from tn
Pilgrims. .- ..,
Their sturdiness is worthy of on
emulation, they and their descendant
have been the pioneers of discovery
they have tracked the mountains o
difficulty, lived in the valleys of con
, tentment and forded the rivers o
disaster Their descendants ha7
been pioneers Of civilization-i
Literature, -Longfcllow, Whittier
Holmes; in decentralization
Phillips, Beechor; in Theology
Edwards, Dwight; in Politics, TIL
Adams, Webster, Sumner;-these III
inheritors of the Pilgrims. All the
asked was the privilege of worshippini
as they saw fit, the right of sci
government. They discovered AM
fought for these principles. Tn
compact made on board the Mayfowe
l was the father Of the sentiment uttere'
@ by Abraham Lincoln, "a government
6 of the people, by the people and 70
the people" The college founded b.
r John Harvard was the father of tn
t public school system of to-day, tn
4 log meeting house was the progenito
] of the tens of thousands of churche
|. scattered over this continent. All thi
and much more we owe to the Phi
P grim Fathers. The race is united il
= it's families and it's succeeding gener
s atoms. We are the effect of what ha
gone before. They learned of Chris
and we learn from them. We, too, ar
5 called for freedom.
0 No intelligent man can look abou
/ him without realizing the need of jus
qualities of character. There ar
great moral evils before us, and W
l. need the sturdiness of the Pilgrim.
yea, the manlinass Of the Christ. Th
Fathers prove untrue, the commo
= saying, "Christ's religion will do fc
women and children, but not for man
Z If to be manly is to be firm an
a strong and to do the right thin
), in the face of a sheer, to befriend th
q outcast, to prefer insult, shame an
= death to lie, then we need this kin
" of religion. There is no weakness
Il the spirit that cleansed the temp
5, with whip and was uGabashed i
n the presence of Caiaphas and PLAT
O This is the kind of sturdiness we neet
in tho face of the possibilities that L
. before the church of Jesus Christ, {
it converting the world to HIMSELF; {
IS the opportunities that lie before TIL
V nation to make concrete the doctrir
! of the brotherhood of man." do W
- not need to make use of our legacy
" The opportunities that are ours al
o tenfold greater than they were tu
V hundred and seventy three years agt
q Unprecedented opportunities to al
our fellow men ought to inspire Ill
IS precedented zeal. We ought to awak
y David Garrick said, 1--WE actors preser
y fiction as if it were truth; you preacl
g ers present truth as if it were fiction
8, When we look at the black cloud thu
% envelopes SOO,OO0,0Oo heather we al
l.. almost appalled, and are ready to sa,
n "who is sufficient for these things
n We, with Bible in every home, wit
'r our christian press, our christia
4 r. L