Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-10-02

I here today suf1erlng 1Or Otners. 1Ol
know and God knows that it is vicari
ous sacrifice. But on one limestone bill
about twice the height Of this church
five minutes walk from the gates o
Jerusalem, was the sublimest case o
suffering for others that the world eve
saw or ever will see Christ the victim
human and satanic malevolence the exc
cutioner, the whole human race having
an overwhelming interest in the specta
Gle. To open way for US sinful mel
and sinful women into glorious pardon
and bigh hope and eternal exaltation
Christ, with hand dripping with th'
rush of opened arteries. swung back thu
gate, and behold II is red gate, a
gate Of deepest hue a gate Of carbuncle.
What is true IN spiritusls is true in
temporals. There are young men and
older men who hope, through the right
settlement Of this acrid controversy bo-
tween silver and gold, or the bimetallic
quarrel, that it will become easy to
make living. That time will never
come. IL never has been easy to make a
living. The men who have it very easy
now went through hardships and self
denials to which most young men would
never consent Unless they got it by in
heritance you cannot mention 20 men
who have come to honorable fortune
that did not hght their way inch by
inch and against fearful odds that again
and again almost destroyed them. For
some good reason God has arranged it
for all the centuries that the only way
for most people to get livelihood for
themselves and their families is with
both hands and all the allied forces Of
body, mind and soul to push back and
push open the red gate the gate Of car
buncle. For the benefit Of all young
men, if l had the time, l would call
the roll of those who overcame obstacle.
How many of the mighty men who
went one way on Pennsylvania avenue
and reached the United States senate on
walked the other way on Pennsylvania
avenue and reached the White House
did not have TO climb over political oblo-
guy? Not one. How much scorn and
scoff and brutal attack did Horace Mann
endure between the time when he first
began to fight for a better common
school system in Massachusetts and the
day when a statue in honor Of him was
placed on the steps Of the statehouse
overlooking the Commonsg
Read the biography Of Robert Hall,
the Baptist preacher, who, though he
had been pronounced Ounce at school,
lived to thrill the world with his Chris
tian eloquence, and of George Peabody,
who never owned a carriage and denied
himself all Injuries that he might
while living and after death, through
last will and testament, devote his un
counted millions to the education Of the
poor people in England and America,
and Of Bishop James, who in boyhcod
worked his passage from Ireland TO
America and became the Joy Of Metho-
dism and blessing to the race. Go to
the biographical alcoye in city, state or
national library and find at least every
other book an illustration Of overcome
obstacle and of carmine gate that had to
be forced open.
Living Gates.
What is true Of individuals is true Of
nations. Was it a mild spring morning
when the pilgrim fathers landed on
Plymouth rock and did they come in a
gilded yacht, gay streamers flying? No.
Ii was in cold December, and from a
ship in which one would not want to
cross the Hudson or the Potomac river.
Scalping knives all ready to receive
them, they landed, their only welcome
the Indian warwhoop. Red men on the
beach. Red men in the forest Red men
on the mountains. Red men in the val
leys. Living gates Of red men. Gates OF
carbuncle.
Aboriginal hostility pushed back,
surely now our forefathers will have
nothing to do but to take easy posses
sion of the fairest continent under the
sun. The skies so genial, the soil so fer
tile, the rivers so populous with fnny
life. the acreage so immense, there Will
be nothing to do but eat, drink and bt
merry. No. The most powerful nation,
by army and navy, sounded its protest
across 1000 miles of water. Then came
Lexington, and Bunker Hill. and Mon
mouth, and Long Island battles, anc
Valley Forgo, and Yorktown, and star
yation, and widowhood, and orphanage
and the lS colonies went through suffer
ings which the historian has attempted
to put upon paper and the artist to pu
uDon canvas, but all in vain. Engraver
knife. and reporters skill, and tele
| 0raphic wire, and daily press, whlci
| have made rs acquainted with the nor
rors of modern battlefield, had not ye
begun their vigilance, and the story O
the American Revolution has never 6eei
told and never will be told. 1t did no
take much ink to sign the Declaration
of Independence, but it took a terrli
amount Of blood to maintain it. 1t wa
an awful gate Of opposition that TN
men and wonderland the women a
much as the men-pushed back. 1t wa
a gate of self sacrifice. 1t was a gate o
blood. It was gate Of carbuncle.
Red Letter Days.
We are not indebted to history TO
our knowledge of the greatest of nation
al crises. Many Of US remember it, AM
fathers and mothers now living had bet
ter keep telling that story to their chill
drep. SO that instead Of their being de
pendent upon cold type and obliged .
say. ION such q page of such booi
Won can read that, will they rather b
able TO say: my father told me So
"My mother told me so" Men ant
women who vividly remember 1861
and 1862, and 1868, and 1854, be your
selves the historians, telling 1t, not wit
pen. but with living tongue and voic
and gesture. That is the great use
Memorial decoration day, for the call
lilies on the grave tops soon becom
breathless Of perfume, and in wee
turn to dust like unto that which lie
beneath them. But the story OF courag
and self sacrifice and patriotism told ol
platforms and in households and by tn
roadside and in churches and in ceme
teries by that annual recital Will b