Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1899-03-17

From the prosecutions of the pilgrim
fathers and the Huguenots in other
lands God set upon these shores ma
ton. The council fires Of the aborigines
went ont in the greater light Of free
government. The sound Of the war
whoop was exchanged for the thousand
wheels Of enterprise and progress The
mild winters, the fruitful summers, the
healthful skies. charmed from other
lands race Of hardy men. who loved
God and wanted to be free. Before the
woodmans ak forests fell and rose
again into ships masts and churches
pillars. Cities on the banks of lakes be-
gan to rival cities by the sea. The land
auakes with the rush of the rail car.
and the waters are churned white with
the steamers wheel Fabulous bushels
of western wheat meet on the way fab
ulous tons of eastern coal Furs from
the north pass on the rivers fruits from
the south And trading in the same
market are Maine lumberman and
South Carolina rice merchant and Ohio
farmer and Alaska fur dealer. And
churches and schools and asylums scat
ter light and love and mercy and saliva
tion upon 70. 000 600 Of people.
An Optimistic View.
| pray that our nation may not copy
the crimes Of nations that have per-
ished that our cupof blessing turn not
TO wormwood and we 90 down. | am
by nature and by grace an optimist,
and l expect that this country will con-
tinue 10 advance until the world shall
reach the millennial era. Our only
safety is in righteousness toward God
and Justice toward man. If we forget
the goodness Of the Lord to this land
and break his Sabbaths, and improve
not by the dire disasters that have again
and again come to us as a people, and
we learn saving lesson neither from
civil war nor raging epidemic. nor
drought, nor mildew, nov scourge Of
locust and grasshopper; il the political
corruption which has poisoned the foun-
tains Of public virtue and beslimed the
high places Of authority, making free
government at times Kissing and
bvword in all the earth; il the drunk
enness and licentiousness that stagger
and blaspheme in the streets Of our
great cities, as though they were reach
ing after the fame Of a Corinth and
Sodom. are not repented Of, We will yet
see the smoke Of our nations ruin. Tie
,,;llorsof our national and state capitOls
will fall more disastrously than when
Samson pulled down Dagon, and future
| historians wsil record upon the page
| bedewed with generous tears the story
that the free nation Of the west arose
in splendor which made the world stare.
1t had magnificent possibilities; il for
got God; it hated justice; it Rugged
its crimes: it halted on its high march;
il reeled under the blow of calamity;
il fell. and as it was going down all the
despotisms Of earth from the top OF
! bloody thrones began to shout; "Ahal
So would we have itv' while strug-
Cling and oppressed peoples looked out
from dungeon bars, with tears and
groans and cries Of untold agony, the
scorn of those and the woe Of these,
uniting in the exclamation; Look
yonderl There fell great star from
heaven. burning as il were lamp, and
il fell upon the third part of the rivers
and upon the fountains of waters. and
the name of the star is called Worm
| woodp"