Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-01

M M/A
REV. CALVIN STEBBINS.
gagements to give others in the course
during the spring.
In opening his lecture, Mr.. Stebbins
said:
Mr.. Thomas Carlyle has noted the
concurrence of two events which seem
to him of significance. On the 23d of
April, 1916, Oliver Cromwell, then an un-
known youth, wrote his name in the
album of Sidney-Sussex College, Cam
bridge. On that same day William
Shakspere took leave of the world at
Stratford-on-Avon. The comment is
characteristic at once true and poetical:
THE first world great thing that re-
mains Of English history, the literature
Of Shakspere, was ending; the second
world-great thing that remains Of Eng
/ fish history, the armed appeal of Puri-
tanism to the invisible God of heaven
against many very visible devils on
earth and elsewhere, was, so to speak,
ISpeginning."
Puritanism was the legitimate child Of
the, Protestant reformation, and carried
in itself forces which when developed
were destined to exert an imperial influ-
ence upon the political and religious
desHnies of an aggressive and masterful
race, and indirectly upon all the nations
Of western Europe and upon hundreds
of millions of the peoples of Asia. In
deed not corner Of the globe but has
felt and feels today the power of English
PuYitanism. 1t destroyed the feudal
monarchy, "hewed the throne down to
a block" thus preparing the way for
parliamentary government in England,
planted a republic in America, and it's
last triumph was over slave holder
rebellion.
I When the Puritan revolution came
upon the stage in England about the
middle of the seventeenth century, a
host of great men of extraordinary
powers came to the front in every de-
partment of action and thought No one
can study those times without an i'm
preston that there were giants in those
days AS soldiers and sailors, as states
men, diplomatists, scholars and theo-
logians, they were the peers Of any men
in Europe
Puritanism may look very prosaic
but 1t had poetical element in it and
it had it's poet laureate, and no cause
ever had a greater. He was her own
child. He drew the moral tone Of his
august character from her. She nour-
ished him, and rocked his cradle; and he
in his turn defended her with all the
powers Of a mighty genius, made the
greatest sacrifices for her, and when she
had lost the throne Of outward power,
placed upon her brow a crown of i'm
mortal beauty, that will never grow
dim, and can never be taken from her.
Very few characters in the great story
of the Puritan revolution, indeed few in
the long history of England, have
passed through such an ordeal Of crit
iciSm a s John Milton, the Puritan poet.
If perhaps we except Oliver Cromwell,
he stands alone. We have on the one
side the most unqualified eulogy, on
the other the most unsparing condemn
alton. Men do not select q pigmy as
the object of their love or scorn. The
truth is, that John Milton was great,
alike in his activities and in his fear
less independence of thought and ac-
ton, and Is therefore open to attack
from all sides. Our liberties are the
securer for his statement and defense
OF them, our literature is richer and
more beautiful because. of his contribu-
tons to it. and his genius has exhibited
to the world the amazing possibilities Of
our English speech in prose and verse
Continuing, Mr.. Stebbins gave an ac-
count of Milton's parentage and the
early bent of his mind; the unpleasant
ness at the University of Cambridge:
his happy youth at Horton and mis- con-
! tinental journey. Some characteristics
of his mind and moral nature were
dwelt upon, his idealism and the cour-
age of his convictions, his limitations in
regard to the humorous his part in the
! Puritan revolution, and his twenty
/ years warfare with pen were spoken of,
/ and his narrow escape from execution
+, for treason at the time of the restora-
| ton. Then after twenty years he re-
nj oYh rtito
/ Ills habits of life in his last days were
! described. The lecturer closed with the
following account of memorial window
| erected by an American:
| There is another memorial of Milton
| that is especially interesting to Amer
| leans. In the church of ST. Margaret's.
! London, where his infant daughter and
| wife, my late espoused saint" as he
| calls her. are buried, and where in the
! yard were dumped in hole the body
! of Oliver Cromwell's mother with those
! of other Puritans, is beautiful memo
! rial window placed there by one of our
| own countrgmen. In the various panels
are depicted scenes from the poets life
The boy among his companions at ST.
! PauPs school-The youth visiting Gal
| ilee-The old man debating Paradise
Lost to his daughters. Around these
! panels are eight others illustrative Of
| Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained
In reference to the former are repre-
| sented the incidents of "a Satans sum
mons to his legions; (2) Adam and Eve
at prayer, Satan looking on; go The
temptation; and az The expulsion. In
! the upper tier the four panels are de-
voted to the illustrations, respectively,
of % The annunciaton, 90 The ma
tivity 60 The baptism, and az The de-
feat of Satan in his temptation of
| Jesus
In the tracery openings are jubilant
angels, and at the apex of the whole
| figures of Adam on the left and Jesus
on the right, representing thus the first
and second Adam respectively.
! The poetry at the base is by our
countryman, John G. Whittier,
1.-THE new world honors him whose
lofty plea
For Englands freedom made her own
| more sure;
Whose song, immortal as its theme,
shall be
Their common freehold while both
| worlds endure"
l OcrlInuinc cif1iIoY cyaoa "A ft1o 1,., g ..