The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-07
DR. GUNSAULUS' LECTURE,
Address on the Theme "The
Later EIoquence of Puri-
taniSm."
AngIomaniacs and Dudes In That In
stitution-VieW of the Labor
Question.
DR.. F. w. Gunsaulus, the greatest pulpit

DR.. F. W. Gunsaulus, the greatest pulpit
and, many concede, the most eloquent
platform orator of the day, delivered a
lecture at Plymouth Congregational
Church last evening on the theme of "The
Later Eloquence of Puritanism." His
audience was charmed not alone with the
eloquence but the commanding yet win
ming personality of the famous young di-
vine.
In the course of his lecture he paid a
high tribnte to Thomas Starr King. He
referred to DIR. Parkhurst as the Savon.
arola of New York, and was caustic in his
illusions to Harvard College, which, he
said, since the days of Wendell Phillips
has fostered Anglomaniacs and dudes, and
characterized the unwillingness to invite
Wendell Phillips to speak, in his alma
mater as ''cowardly scholarship"
'Puritanism has always been eloquent.
The very attitude it assumes is always the
attitude of the orator. 1t is as eloquent as
it is beautiful and inspiring. Isaiah was
the first Puritan. Spoil Speedeth and
Pray Hasteth' and "A Remnant Shall Re-
turn were the names of the prophets
sons, and there has never been Puritan
movement into which those elements have
not entered. 1t is the iconoclastic spirit of
Puritanism that protests against public
wrongs. Spoil speedeth' is the watch-cry
of reformers. But the mission of Puritan
ism is not alone to protest. Most protes-
tantism protests too much. There is an
optimistic note in the tones of reformers.
1t is "a remnant shall return
"Puritanism is the simple faith that in
itself is eloquence. 1t has always insisted
upon the greatness of the human soul.
Since the time of the Nazarene Peasant in.
stitItions have been but instrumentalities
of the SOUL 1t is Puritanism that has
lifted mans soul to God. 1t makes the
pauper's soul of as great value as the CAPT.
talist's. There viii always be a labor
problem, a living protest against oppres-
sion, so long as there is drop of Puritan
blood in the world.
''In England in 1920 there was a warfare
which made that of 1776 posi-
bility. The existence of a Crom-
well made that of Washington
possible. There came a grander music
than that of 1920. The eloquence of 1776
was as much grander than the earlier har-
mony as was the cause of that time greater
than that of 1920. But the life of a Wash
ington made the career of Lincoln posi-
BILE. Between the two epochs of those
glorious careers came the brilliant figure
of Daniel Webster. He faltered when he
came to the test of Puritanism.
THE hour when Webster's Puritanism
was at its Hottest height he gave to the
union now and forever, one and INSOFAR
able 1t was when he deserted that prin-
ciple that John Whittier dipped his pen in
branding ink and wrote across the brow of
the fallen orator 'Ichabod' The time
came when imperial youth demanded at the
hand of the orator of the past a rod
of empire. At the close of Webst er's last
compromise address young man said to
the orator: Mr.. Webster, do you know
that by that speech you have rivete0 chains
upon the slavesP No. answered the
orator haughtily, and he went home
to die.
"Again the young mans voice is heard.
Lovejoy was murdered for Puritanism as
against lmpuritanism. Boston heard it.
In Faneuil Hall the youthful soldier for
Puritanism, Wendell Phillips, first raised
his voice in protest against that murder.
The young voice reverberated in the sub
FINEST music of the time. He was the
bravest, cleanest soldier of the Puritanism
of the DAY. For forty years, for more than
q generation, he appealed to the consciences