The Portland daily press., 1898-01-17

crowded churches are as empty as country
barns in spring time, and men of ability
by the thousands who live all around tht
empty churches which they support from
habit, don't know what to believe; don
know whittier they are going OF what II
to happen to them after death, or whether
death Is anything more than the endlne
of present physical conditions and a tenn
porary career-the pathetic or farcica
finale of an accidental evolutionary devel
lopment,- suggestion in eternity OF
a God, or of forces which might have beer
God if they had only thought to name
themselves promptly before modern sci
Ience had made it impossible for them to
coalesce into deityl
No, friend, the great questions that
concern the well being of us as people
are not settled. nor as yet even dis
cussed The discussion is all ahead OF
you. You will not get through it easily.
public halls, speakers will be hissed and
pelted as of old Mobs will roar and
howl along your streets. and the social
and civic fabric be shaken in all its
mordises and Jared in every stone and
brick of its foundations before you shall
come out of the tumult in peace. Do you
say, 81 tell you, sir, the American peo-
pie are equal to any and every emergency
and will be able to save themselves, l
reply, "Friend, be not too confident.
History is not with you. There has nev-
er yet been a people able to save them
selves, and over against your boastful
| saying, 1 put this humble one, That
God, the Almighty One, will save us and
! not we ourselves, il we are saved at
| through our best thought, our hard COM
mon sense, our quickened and highest
! spiritual life and a revival-on broader
| lines and sounder basis of the people s
conservative faith in him. Into the
midst of the New England people
gathered by the press in one vast audience
| around me, cast this prediction and ask
them to remember it. 1t will be wise in
| them not to forget; for the day cometh,
and is even high, when New England
| will have to think, aye and act, too, once
| more. do not doubt that the old blood
will beat red and true to itself when God
warns it by his summons again.
Therefore I ask: Is this the time, when
God, across the impenetrable darkness of
the future, prints huge Interrogation
mark and calls upon us to translate the
answer into act and statute, to give up
one of the chiefest methods of instruc.
tion and the noblest avenues along which
to roll truth and right onward to their
triumph ever in vogue among Leoplei
In truth such folly is too apparent to
be done while SO many yet live who can
Cclu6luUoE Wu0U uAO ivGCoA WOE IA UAC
days preceding the great revolution.
| Why it might also be said that the lyoe-
um between 1850 and 1865 was the revolu-
tion. For the life of a generation and to
three generations of hearers it gave to
| God human voice of such eloquence and
commanding emphasis as mortal lips
had never furnished since Pericles, plague
stricken, sent farewell to Aspasia and the
voice of Roman oratory died down to 81
| lence in the marble tomb of Cicero.
| There was Clay and Giddings, and
Corwin and Garrison and Beecher, and
he of indescribable force and charm, the
Incompatible Phillips, going from State
to State, city to city and town to town,
praching the evangel of liberty for the
slave. Oh, how they voiced Gods right
eousness! Thar audiences hissed and
cheered, cursed and applauded. sneered
and wept, pelted them with stones and
eggs, burned them in effgy, chased them
| into Jails for safety, but still the old ly-
ceum grit held to the line God snapped
across their souls when their mothers
bore them, and under whatever strain
not a finger of their grip loosened. 1t
was as if Saul Of Tarsus-that name of
storm softened hy Holy Church to St.
Paul-had discovered his lost grave under
the Capitoline hill, and through the de-
bris of centuries had burst upward, and
multiplied tenfoid, WAS once more storm
ing his way ITOIn pagan bUhUo u pagan
state, converting the Gentiles.
And the platform on which these men
stood, on which they taught and preached
and pleaded for Gods great truths and
from which they cheered the people on,
until, going slowly, but ever higher.
they stood on its own level, men tell me
New England today laughs at and has no
more use for. l doubt it.
Why, New England is the same today
as she ever was, only better. The light
my eyes first saw was hers and within
her borders, lnan and boy. I have lived
until my head is whitening, and no one
has ever said / was not born with the
seeing eye, the hearing ear, and that
sense which interprets and measures pub
lie forces. And I repeat that New Eng
land is the same as S ever was, only
better. She has the same keen wit, the
same sly humor, the same sound sense,
the same seeming EkepticiSm and real de-
votion, the same readiness to cheat in
bargaining and the same heroic aptitude
to die for the truth, as she ever had. The
dough in the Yankee is the best in the
world, but it wants few hundred years
more of baking-that is all. Concord
and..Lexington and Bunker Hill and Val
ley Forge with the continental homespun
and rags and the grit under the rags
would be once more realities II the occa-
sion called. II you put your ear to the
ribs OF New England Wnen sne rouses
you can hear her heart beats sounding
liko the roll of drums
But what was the old-time lyceun
Was it bit of machinery; bureau de
convenance for merely making speaking
appointments, a cunning invention which
enabled few gifted men to increase
their incomes and small clerical force
to earn their ten per cent commission?
No, thousand times, no: The old-time
lyceum was no mere organization what
ever. It was the mind and soul and
heart of New England seeking the right
way tn think and feel and do. 1t was
the latent thought, the hidden emotion:
the painei and outraged conscience OF
New England seeking expression. 1t
was the Voice of her noblest instincts
crying in the wilderness of that dark
and dreadful time when every dollar
in her money tills jumped with fear at
the mention of the slave, and almost ev-
cry Bible in her pulpits had to explain
and apologizeffo being Gods book-say-
inR-"P Prepare ye tho way of the LORD,
and make his paths straight That is
what the old time lyceum platform was.
and as such it stood, as regards its audi