The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-11-20

nor his seed begging bread. Psalm
xxxvii. p.
OF HUGUENoT ANCESTRY.
IN the 18Th of December, 1916, |
" first breathed the breath of life.
Since then eighty years have passed.:
years of wonderful activity and his
tory, material, mental and spiritual.
The geography of the world has been
strangely changed; its history has
developed new phases; its knowledge
has vastly increased; its science and
philosophy wonderfully advanced;
its literary stores augmented; its
faith broadened and vitalized; its
hope Enlightened; its sympathies
quickeped; it's comforts multiplied.
OF all this progress | have had my
due snare of enjoyment, personal
and social, and my life has indeed
been "worth living" 1t has been
said that this depends upon the
liver" with a double meaning. In
the lower sense, have been highly
blest. / have been able to realize the
experience of blessing, while taking
little thought of the ordinary discom-
forts of life, and able to bear IFS
more serious experiences with phil
osophy and Christian resignation. In
the higher sense of the phrase | can
claim no eulogy. Ny ancestry be-
queathed to me wealth of constitu-
tional healthiness, the value of which
l appreciate more highly today than
ever before. | am not aware of any
scholastic honors among them. But
remotely they were French Hugue-
nots, of blood equal to the best, noble
men if not noblemen, faithful to
their convictions unto exile or death,
of vigorous Calvinistic principles. l
cling firmly and gladly to their fun
damental thought-the sovereignty OF
God. 1t was my paternal GRANDPA
theirs experience to become an earn
est Methodist before my day. | still
joyfully hold to the Distinguishing
doctrine of John Wesley, in which |
was brought up to youth, that love is
the supreme attribute of the Divine
Being. And it used to be supposed
that Calvinistic thought mingled with
Wesleyan thought, earnestly held,
was sufficient to account for Univer-
salist predictions. But in middle
age learned that my maternal grand
father had shared in an early Uni
versalist movement in my native city.
1t was not remarkable, then, that
when, in youth, the opportunity
came, was prepared to accept the
prophetic, the apostolic, the trans
cendently Christian faith, ito hear,
mark, learn and inwardly digest
it" This Calvinistic- Wesleyan
Universalism, thus flowing into
the stream of my life, has not
'cut the nerve" of conscience, of
reverence, OF Christian activity, of
brotherly love; but on the contrary
has tended to stimulate and sustain
it; and it has made "life worth liy-
ing" more abundantly.
NEW YORK CITY.
The geography of the earth has
greatly changed within these years.
Referring to our land, and beginning
with my native city, New York, its
population at the time of my birth
was about $4,000; that of Brooklyn
about 5000. Now, soon to be made
one-already made one by legislative
enactment,-their total population is
100000. New York was then by
natural selection competing with
Philadelphia for the primacy among
the American cities.
The enterprise of the State of New
York soon settled the question by
the construction of the Erie Canal,
which connects the waters of Lake
Erie with those of the Hudson River.
This was begun in 1917 and COM
pleted in 1925. we'll remember the
triuraphal procession in the city of
New York in the latter year which
celebrated this great enterprise. This
opened the highway of commercial
progress between the region OF the
great lakes and the great ocean, and
gave the city its pre- eminence, as the
business and financial American me-
tropolis, which it has thus far main
tanned.
''THE NEW COUNTRY"
Ny earliest recollections embrace
the fact that parental relatives were
removing to the "new country" which
proved to be Central and Western
New York. And when, later by ten
years "the Far West" was spoken of,
it referred to the region just west of
the Mississippi. In 1888, when l was
but sixteen years old, Chicago was
organized as village, having but
fuanfv-eioht vOters, NOM n boasfs a