Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-05-30

The life and character Of William Ew-
art Gladstone, the dead English states
man. was the subject OF an interesting
sermon delivered Hast evening at the
Fourth Street NJ. e. church BY Rev pr
i'll. Sooy. DR.. Sooy said thar the news
of the death OF Mr.. Gladstone had been
received with sorrow throughout the CIV
ilized world. Russia and France do not
love England, yet they mourned the loss
thar England sustained. Although this
country was in the midst OF anxiety ana
war we had time TO praise and pay trlo-
ute TO the great statesman, William f.
Gladstone Mr. Gladstone was the great
est statesman and citizen of his day. He
did more to mould the destinies Of ma
tions than any statesman who has lived
Gladstone was of English birth ana
Scotch blood. The Gladstone family pos
sessed all the characteristics Of the
Scotch race God had given Gladstone
every gift of ancestry, mind and body
that could be conceived or could aid him
to success. In the history of the English
parliament there has never been any man
who had won so many triumphs. There
were some who We're the equals Of Glad
stone in politics or oratory, but not in
Fox, Chatham or William Pitt,
or other Of England's greatest states
men and orators could be found
all those great qualities of mind
and heart that We're possessed by the
great Gladstone. If he had not been fa-
nous as an orator or statesman, he would
have been great as an author. He was
the aut 81 of a number of valuable works
at "a and So years of age. Some of his
treatises on metaphysics have bothered
the leading scholars of the world.
But it is, perhaps, as a statesman that
he will be best and longest remembered
throughout the world. For over 50 years
in the public gaze yet in all those years
he never stopped to the level Of the COM
mon politician. He knew as a statesman
how to impress principles upon the minds
of the men in parliament as great axioms,
and he was able to lead them in the direc-
ton he wanted. He sought Office, but
looked upon office as public blessing and
a public trust. He never tried to make
money out of office and refused a pension
and an earldom.
DR.. Sooy stated that Gladstone had been
criticized for his alleged inconsistency and
changefulness. He was one year one
thing and the next year the opposite, vet,
the speaker argued that this trait Of char
acter was one of the brightest and best
qualities of his greatness He was capa-
BILE of learning and developing, and could
change with the providences of the day
or developments of the age. During the
last war he expressed his sympathy for
the Confederate cause yet before the
close of the war he announced himself as
having changed his opinions, and that his
former ideas were wrong, that the Union
cause was right and just Entering public
life as tory, and afterwards as q dem
ocrat, he helped to transform England
from a mere monarchy to a democracy
with a monarchy at the mead of it, We
can remember in his last days how his
eloquent voice was raised in behalf of the
prosecuted and suffering Armenians. If
Gladstone could have had his way the
Turk would have been put out of Europe
just as we are trying to put the Spaniard
out of the western hemisphere
AS great commoner he will be longest
known in his own country. The people
loved him, NOT because he was great. but
because his motives were righteous and
led him to champion the cause OF the
masses for fifty years. His name will all
ways be to the poor Of England what the
name of Lincoln is to the negro of this
country. AS Washington was the "Fa-
Their of His Country" Lincoln the
"Emancipator," so Gladstone will always
be known as the Grand Old MANI
DR.. Sooy stated the key to the secret OF
Gladstone's power lay in the fact that he
was Christian and great Christian
This was the secret of the true and last
ing greatness Of this grand mans life He
was a man who believed in his own pow
ers. He knew he was a great debater and
orator, knew he had power over parlia-
ment as well as the people. vet he relied
implicitly on Divine power and aid
through all his life
DR.. S0oy spoke of some of the char
acteristics of Gladstone as a man. his I'M
failing courtesy, his humanity, which was
disclosed in every day of his life, and 9TH
er traits that made him beloved person
ally by every person whom he met