The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-01-25

frost" had not snatched away from him
his ''sweet Highland Mary" as he calls
her. would We have had that most ex-
quisite poem ITO Mary In Heaven
Thou lingering star, with less'ning ray,
That lov'st to greet the early morn,
Again thou usher'st in the day
My Mary from my soul was torn.
o Mary! dear departed shade!
Where Is thy place Of blissful rest?
Seest thou thy lover lowly laid?
Hearst thou the groans that rend his
breast?' s hE
And once more, II Burns had not been
born the son Of comparatively poor pa
rents, the son of a Cottar, would there
have been so much chance Of us enjoying
the poem which will for ever keep Burns
name immortal-the poem Of poems-"The
so. 1t Is worth while thinking Of this
the many good things we enjoy through
the lives Of great men not altogether be-
ing beds Of roses.
But having thus dealt with the some
what serious aspect in Burns life and
poems. how can speak about the humor-
Gus! Can't make your eyes sparkle with
pleasure as remind you of Tam OShanter
and his gray mare Meg? or the Twa Dogs
or Halloween? or Holy Willie's Prayer?
And when you hear hhs songs sung. as
hear his Banks and Braes O. Bonnie
Doom" his "Nannie's AVA" his Aud
Lang Syne." his Scots wha hae wi Wal
lace Bled" his What can a young lassie
dae wi an Aud Man." his "A Mans a Man
for a That" his There was a lad was
born in Kyle" his "Ha! Ha! the WOoin'
O't," his FLOW Gently, Sweet Alton
when you hear these sung. what are the
feelings that take possession OF your
Zoo ltrsa 81
longings for a sight O. bonnie Scotland
again, as well as feelings OF great grati-
tude to the man whose songs are capable
of creating such feelings? Why Is 1t that
tonight throughout the whole civilized
world Scotchmen are thinking and speak
ing of what Robert Burns said ana did
and wrote? 1t Is because his songs touch
our hearts as no other songs have done IN
the history of the nation, and which,
taking his short life of thirty-seven years
into account, and the extreme hardships
of that life, make Robert Burns out TO be
the greatest poet that ever lived.
Lament His Untimcly Death
We all lament his somewhat untimely
death. We wish he had been spared to
give us more of his apparently endless
stream of melodious song. We have the
idea that had he lived longer-had old age.
with its tempering influences been granted
him, he would have enriched the world
still more with his soul-stirring poems,
and exempliiied in his own life. on his
farm at Ellisland, the noble virtues and
characteristics of his Saturday night Cot
tar. But that was not to be, and We do
not repine.
And now, fellow countrymen, far away
from your native land-the land of tho
mountain and fiOOd-away from your
rlxyIA Now nnA md nj
Doon-from your lordly Ben Nevis and
dark Lochingar, from Killecrinkie and
Bannrockburn-away from the scenes Of
your childhood-cOme join with me, with
hearts atiame, in commemorating the
18th anniversary of the birth of our ma
tional poet Robert Burns-the poet for
the people and of the people-the inter-
prefer of a nations sentiments-the eN-
poser of all that was hypocritical and hol-
low--the poet whose songs will be sung,
and whose poems will be read as long as
the world endures.
around the globe his winged words have
passed.
Borne on the summer breeze, or wintry
blast;
And tho his harp Is hushed by Deaths
cold hand,
It's wondrous tones still echo round the
land,
AS some bright star, upon the brow OF
night.
Undimmed by years, still sheds lovely
light,
So shall his fame, in every age and CLINE.
Remain untarnished by the touch of time"
When the Heart Is Young.
Following Mr. Russell's response. Miss
Lydia Sailer sang when the Heart is
Young" DIR. Mcleod swung into an
energetic protest against political cor
ruption in his response to 1.-The Scot
tish Clergy" He said:
A meeting of Scotchmen to commence
rate Robert Burns would be a novelty
without a clergyman. If Burns had good
reason to criticize the church and the
clergy, it is also true that the church and
the clergy had good reason to criticize
him. But with all his Faults We love the
memory of Robert Burns, and. as in the
past the clergy have been. so, In the fu-
ture, they will be among his warmest
admirers and most discriminating eulo-
gists.
Scotch theology is for the most part
sound and they cannot only prove but they
do also fairly illustrate the doctrine of
total depravity. We may rest assured
that Scotland in the future, as In the
past. will furnish the church with magnifi-
cent specimens of the clergy, and that
she will, also, furnish work for the clergy
to do.
1t Is true that some Presbyterians and
Puritans of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
century were a little narrow, but they
are to be judged by their own times and
not by the time in which We live, and
judged by their own age they tower above
their critics as the great oak towers above
ha pv.{. hravy Il mr.
tice religious tolerance as fully as they
should have done, but they lived in an
age of intolerance. But these hateful
bloody days of persecution are gone.
Christians would not now, II they could,
and they could not now If they would. so
persecdte each other. This Is especially
so in this land of liberty. The heritage
that We enjoy Is a goodly heritage. All
classes and conditions of men, II only they
are law-abiding, have here fair field and
may the day never come when this state
Of things will be otherwise.
Those who are seeking to subvert right
eous law are not the friends but the ene-
mics of our country. Hence the clergy
are not transcending their duty when they
are teaching ethics and when they preach
sound morality. When the clergy de-
clare that politics should be patriotism
and non-partyism; when they declare that
elections ought to be conducted honestly,
from the primary upward; when they af-
firm that stuffing a ballot box or packing a
primary is a crime against the state and
that 1t is utterly devoid of patriotism;
when they assert that to steal a nomina-
ton or an election Is in Gods sight a
crime, and that robbery is robbery,
whether 1t be that Of u political office or
of a bank: when they declare that "the
receiver Is. rs bad as the thief IL he
knows the goods to be stolen--in saying
these things the clergy are only executing
the great commission intrusted unto them,
for take 1t that the Gospel Of Jesus Christ
Is the Gospel of honesty and fair dealing
between man and man, and as long as this
Gospel is preached and practiced through.
out the length and breadth of our nation,
1t will prove to be its safety and its securi-
ty, for the Gospel of Christ Is the power