The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-11-28

ship OF talents, or means, OF Whatever
sort, are willing to get up out OF our
sloth and ease and selfish dilettaute-
ism of service, and get down among
the people who are battling amid
their poverty and ignorance-young
girls for their chastity, young men
for their better ideal of righteousness,
old and young alike, for one clear
ray of the immortal courage and the
immortal hope = then, verify, the
Church, in its stately splendor, its
apostolic orders, its venerable ritual,
its decorous and dignified conven-
tions, is revealed as simply mon
strous and insolent impertinence.'
"This is also the age of intelli-
gence, the age of catholicity and the
age of woman. The New Woman,
says friend of woman's progress and
of the workingman, is but the old
woman developed by the necessities
of the times. She has come with her
kingdom, and has come to stay. A
weapon of offense and defense more
powerful than dynamite will soon be
given to woman at large. She should
have it, for it was her birthright
from time immemorial. If she can
not make better use of it than
men do sometimes, she must be idi-
otto, indeed. Two hundred voca-
tions previously closed to her are now
occupied. But few universities bar
their doors against her, as did Ok
ford and Cambridge. Nothing, per-
haps, more strikingly proves wom-
ans advance than her actual partici-
patton in government.
Lastly, ours is an age OF peace
and arbitration. The peoples of the
world are largely for peace because
they hate destruction, because they
have a growing sense Of the respon-
sibility of race for race.
"And the people rested them
selves upon the words of Hezekiah,
King of Judah Who has come to
the kingdom for such a time as this?
Where shall we find our leaders, and
what shall be their characteristicss
From the people, is the answer. Oc-
casionally we may have Canon
Wilberforce or a Lady Henry Somer-
set, but generally the leaders for the
times in whom the people rest them
selves will be from the people. Says
Browning: The man most man, with
tenderest human hands, works best
for men, as God in Nazareth
"The father of Demosthenes was
blacksmith; of Virgil, an innkeeper;
of Shakespeare, butcher; of Crom-
we'll, brewer Franklin was a
printer, Lincoln a railsplitter, Christ
a carpenter. This is true today.
Frances E. Willard, Catharine Booth,
Annie Hicks, John Burns, Clara Bar
ton, Susan B. Anthony and others
our hearts recall are of the people
and for the people. Our leaders
I speak today to our leaders in the
greatest of reforms. What are the
characteristics needed in such times
as I have just pictured, that the
hearts of the people may safely rest
in us, as Hezekiah, King of Israeli
The characteristics are: First, unset
fishness, self-sacrifce; second, the
dignity of man; third, the vision of
God. We need to overcome our
eccentricities and failures; we need
to be anointed for the homes in which
we tarry, as a saviour of life. We
must be anointed for an exalted SER
vice. Christ is our leader. He is the
ideal leader. Only as we embody
that Christ and lift his cross can we
meet the worlds need and fulfill our
high calling as 'laborers together
with God. >"