The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-04-24
many VOICES;
OR, MAKING THE MOST OF
LIFE.

Y.
tional Guild, for the Benefit OF the Ne"
Church Edifice.
We find ourselves in the world by no
choice of our own, and with no certain
personal hold upon the past, but with
many and varied relations to the present
and the future. The universe bristles
with interrogation points, and clamorouS
with answering voices. We bring into
the world with us no stock of wisdom,
but learn whatever knowledge we come
to possess by the answers OF the voices
within and about us.
First of all we have the voice of expert
ence. Though we bring no knowledge
with, us, the world has accumulated a
store of it awaiting us. Through the
voice of experience she utters it to u.s.
Had each generation to start de novo we
could never make great and permanent
progress. The progress of the race has
come from its continuity, and from the
constant overlapping Of successive
generations.
There has been much discussion in
Wellington of the waterwOrks question
and of the area of watershed. There is
no reservoir of knowledge, but the whole
past of the human race has been a bound
less watershed from whose area flow
many streams of experience at which
every man must drink who shares the
life of the race.
If we would make the most life we
must learn from the experience of those
who have gone before us. Each genera
tion becomes to the preceding a genera
ton of pupils and to the next genera
tiOn of teachers. Gradually is personal
ity eliminated and the persons them
selves disappear, but the voices remain.
John the Baptist is beheaded but his
voice still cries in the wilderness. AbePs
blood cries from the ground, but it is not
his blood alone that has voice; his
faith yet speaketh. Whence come these
voices? They are many.
In the long night of the Jewish exile'
there rose prophet to us unknown, who
either uttered message or re-uttered a
message of Isaiah, speaking comfortably
to Jerusalem and crying that her war
fare was accomplished and the hour Of
her return was near at hand. Who was
he? "The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the
Lord" That is all we know of him.
Whether he was a new voice or the echo
of the voice of Isaiah, to us he is simply
a voice. Experience, faith, aspiration,
all these and all the rest are voices with
messages on the meaning OF life. lie
makes the most of life who hears and
obeys the highest, truest voices.
Closely related to experience is history.
History is experience recorded and inter
preted. Historyspeaks through the record
of her great achievements, through the
memory Ot her heroes and martyrs,
through the places which they have
beautified and the spots where their deeds
of greatness have been achieved. There
is thrill that comes to us when our feet
stand on the spots where deeds of renOwn
have occurred. A few days ago in Chica-
90 asked a policeman for the site of
Fort Dearborn. He did not know. /
said, "Well you ought to know, and !
will find it and show you. Come with
me-" So walked about two blocks with
him in tow and he followed as meekly as
l should have done had he asked me to
go with him. Soon we found the tablet
that marks the site of the block house,
and he said, 81 have passed this in my
beat every day for years, but l never
stopped to read it before" But for years
history has been crying to him, "Ho
there, you man in bluel What do you
hear? Only the rumbling of wagons and
the noise of steam whistles? What
voices speak 70 your soul? Only these
of greed and mere selfish ambition?
Have men who wore the blue and stood
as you stand clothed with the authority
of law, died for law and country and
civilization? WOuld,youdoit? Listen and
learn. Be a patriOt-even a policeman
may be and foremost among men ought
to be. Loose your shoes from off your
feet. The voice from these brick walls
is as holy as that from the bush Of flame.
God calls you to noble life. This spot
has tongue and voice and the place
whereOn thou standest is holy ground" "
Wellington has her her sacred spots.
On the spot we meet tonight noble men
and true built building jointly owned
and used by the town, the school district
and the church. How they fired the
morning salute of their first 4th of July
celebration with flint from Plymouth
Rock. Boston points to her old court
house from which Anthony Burns went
back to slavery. Wellington may point
to the attic Of the American House from
which John Bacon was not taken back to
slavery. Other towns had men who re-
membered those in bonds as bound with
them. This town had men who became
bound to loose the bonds Of Others.
Nature has voices. The spring utters
its voices in every bursting bud, in every
unfolding leaf.
ITO him who in the love of nature