River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1895-05-16
Rey. Gnnsanlns,s LECTURE.

is JildU given tnen on Tile uCcdSiCu, VI
the lecture on Savonarola, delivered
Monday evening by DR.. Frank w.
Gunsaulus of Chicago.
The pleasure Of listening to this
eloquent divine, whose renown as a
lecturer is as wide as the continent,
has long been looked forward to by
our citizens, for the first date fixed as
the time of the lecture was April rs,
at which time the speaker found it
impossible to leave his many duties
at home and meet the appointment.
Afterwards the new date of May 10
was made and the speaker appeared
according to announcement.
DIR. Gunsaulus is pastor of Plymouth
church and President of Armour In
stitute, Chicago. The latter is an
organization, made two years ago
through the cooperation of DR.. Gun
saulus and Philip Armour, the former
furnishing the brains, the latter the
money necessary to the enterprise.
The partnership is proving a bless
ing to the thousand young men and
women who attend the school from
all parts of the United States. The
membership is probably unprecedent-
ed in number in the history of schools
in this country, and is said TO be in
part due TO the fact that two or three
hundred men in Plymouth church are
earnestly working together for the
good of the institution. The com bin
ed duties of the pastorate and the
presidency make of DR.. Gunsaulus
one of the busiest men in that busiest
of cities. In spite of that, however,
he finds time to lecture frequently,
and is the author of two or three
literary works, one of them being
monk and Knight" Historical
Study in Fiction.
The lecturer is stiking person i'll
form and intellect, large man ply
sicaliy and mentally, one whose large
ness would be recognized at once
though you met him for but few
moments under a gateway during a
shower possessed OF a commanding
presence, penetrating eyes, and u
powerful though well modulated
voice. He has, in wonderful degree,
the dramatic fire and personal mag
netism without which no one can be a
great orator and perhaps not a great
preacher. The Doctor stated in a
private interview that what he is able
to accomplish under his pressure of
duties at the present time is owing to
the years given TO preparation along
these lines before he was subjected to
such multiplicity of demands upon
his time and attention. Then, too,
his early opportunities were excep-
tional for his father being a prominent
lawyer and legislator in Ohio during
the war, he had the opportunity To
see and hear many of the great men,
such as Chase, Garfield and Stanton,
who made Ohio glorious during the
sixties, and without doubt there is
mething of contagion in greatness.
w tlltC UllC lCCIulC hdo hOAhlhdiAg VI
on the subject of the great thirteenth
century priest, Savonarola, who made
heroic efforts to reform the famous
city of Florence, the lecturer took
occasion to use the reformer's life as
thread upon which to string an
epitome of the social, political and re-
ligious life of that century. He said
that Savonarola was Washington,
three centuries before Washington
was born; a Garrison, agitating the
people against long endured wrongs,
but living four hundred years before
the American liberator; municipal
reformer, Parkhurst being spoken of
as the Savonarola of New York City,
while the Medici family and influence
WIS the Tammany of Florence. His
lecture was replete with telling appli-
cations 10 the affairs of to-day, almost
every point in the life and experience
of the monk calling out some cutting
sarcasm on the faults and foibles of
our own times. His forcible state
ment of the sequence of human ac-
tivity, as shown in the Dream, the
Duty and the Deed will long be re-
mem ered by every nearer.
The speaker reviewed the life of the
Monk in connection with his environ
ments from childhood to his death by
strangulation,- his execution growing
nut ,e 4ba bittarnacc of tho chm -ch -
and at every step he found some
wholesome lessen for those living at
the present time. lie showed the
need of the reform that SayOnarola
attempted to bring about; discoursed
at some length on the corruptions
that honeycomed the society of
Florence; explained in vivid word
pictures the machine lions of Lorenzo
de- Medlci, and the independent man
ner in which the Monk treated the
Prince, whose influence was so great
and mode of life so luxurious that he
was called by his contemporaries,
Lorenzo, the Magnificent; dwelt at
considerable length upon the grow
ing luminosity of the Pope who feared
the liberality and fearlessness of the
man who had the spirit to refuse the
red hat of cardinal; and throughout
it all held his audience spellbound
with his mastery eloquence, his pierre
ing satire and witty illustrations.
Such another running fire Of history,
education, psychology, economy, patri-
otism and religion as the Doctor gave
to his audience for nearly two hours,
will be hard to find upon the lecture
platform. To say that every one of
his audience went away delighted
would probably not overstep the
bounds of truth. Such a lecture, n
such a man, By such a man, is some
thing 20 linger long in the minds of
those privileged to hear him. That
the wholesome truths, the large
thoughts he gave his audience will do
an incalculable amount of good in
helping TO drive out dogmatism,-
which ne referred to as 'puppyism
grown up,'-and will enhance the
value of liberty in thought and word,
and convince us over again that the
H.. .a1aact Yanna and fhaf