The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-08
CROMWELL THE PURITAN
DIR. BRADFORD SPEAKS ON OLIVER
GROIN WE'LL 10 MEMS CLUB.

His Place in the Puritan Revolution-A
Great General aud Statesman "A Good
Word for the Arbitration Treaty-A
Union of English People Much to be
Desired.
Rev. DR.. Amory II. Bradford of
Montclair, N. j., an editor of the Out
look, addressed the Mems club of the
. United church last evening on the sub
Ject of "Oliver Cromwell. A large au-
dience was present. DR.. Bradford
said:
Thomas Carlyle has said that the
Puritan revolution was the last of her.
oism
Before we can understand Cromwell
we have got to understand the age in
which he lived. The judgments of the
man have been most diverse. The real
discoverer Of Cromwell of this age is
Thomas Carlyle, who published his let
ters and wrote his life"
The speaker then traced the steps
which led to the Puritan revolution.
AT the beginning of the struggle be-
tween king and parliament Cromwell
was an unknown farmer in an obscure
town of England. In eleven years he
was the most famous man in the world
AT first he was captain in the parlia-
/ mentary army, but he rose rapidly
through all the grades until he became
the commander-in-chief.
"The house in which he lived and the
school which he attended in his native
town of Huntington are still there, but
ask any Of the inhabitants Of the sleepy
town where Cromwell's house is, and
he will not know, so little honor has a
prophet in his own country.
"CromWell's company, the famous
Ironsides, was a cross between pray
er meeting and an army. 1t was the
nucleus of regiment and at last Of an
army.
"At the overthrow of the king Crom-
well ruled England, because he was the
only man who could rule 1t. He was
called a protector, but was king in
everything but name. The period of
the protectorate was a period of re-
I markable prosperity for England, and
it was during this period that Eng
lands naval supremacy was establish
ed.
Cromwell is the grandest and most
/ heroic man in English history, and al
though he lived in an age of pre-emi-
nently great men, he lowered above
them all, and was without rival ex-
cept Milton. He was great both as
general and statesman.
1.-THE battles of Marston Moor. Nase-
by, Dunkirk and Worcester, the great
battles of the revolution, prove that he
was something more than a brutal SOL
dier; he was a great general He was
also a statesman. He may have been
zealot-probably he was; but he was
never intolerant except against evil
He never attempted to establish his
own church, though he had the power
to do so.
"The ambition of his life was to form
a league of protestant nations of
which England was to be the head, the
object of the league being to prevent
prosecutions The echo of CROMWELL S
appeal for league of protestant ma
tions is heard again to-day in the de-
/ mand. which will never be downed,
that the English speaking peoples be
united by band that can never be dis
solved AS one hears of the obstacles
which are being put in the way of the
n consummation of this purpose by cor
rupt means and motives in the halls
of legislation, he can almost desire that
the voice of Oliver Cromwell might be
heard again in the Long Parliament.
saying, You are dissolved
ut is pity that the English-speak-
ing races, comprising so many lands,
/ should not be knit together by some
bond of enduring friendship.
1.-The Puritan age is passing away.
Let us pray that it may leave behind
I it it's own reverence for God and love
of the truth. o that Cromwell's shad-
ow might yet fall on the drunkards,
I the corrupt, the impure, who still sit in
the halls of legislation, and drive them
forth as he did those Of the Long Par
{ lament!
'The Puritan revolution was the as
! sertion by the people of their right to
rule, to think, to worship, and the right
4 to be governed by the dictates of their
own conscience In such cause as
this our life is well spent"