The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-04-01
DR. MUNGER'S ADDRESS
CLOSED THE SERIES OF MEMS CLUB
 LECTURES.

On the Life mud Character of Horac
 BushnelI-Safd Bushnell Was Con
 necticut's Greatest Son-Brouaht tn
 Christian Faith Into Accord Witt
 Modern Thought.
 In the last of the course of addresses
 this season before the Mems club a
 United church Rev. pr. Theodore T
 Munger delivered an eloquent eulogy
 upon the life and character of the grea
 author and preacher, Horace Bushnell
 whom he termed Connecticut's greates
 son.
 Dr. Munger began by saying that
 there are but few names in history ol
 in learning to which we return. This
 is not because we are ungrateful, Nbut
 because we cannot carry all the worthy
 and the great ones into the future
 many must be forgotten.
 But sometimes there is one in sus-
 pense between the two fates-one who
 may be remembered or may be forgot
 ten. Dr. Bushnell, he thought, was such a one. He will stand with the few
 whom Connecticut will always remem-
 Der, with Jonathan Edwards, Thomas
 Hooker Nathan Hale, Roger Sherman and Eli Whitney.
 twill Bushnell,' said the speaker, -'come into this enduring prominence? Some of those I have named grew into remembrance. Hooker became great only when the colony bore witness to his shaping hand, Nathan Hale by en- tering the great army of martyrs, Ell Whitney by inventing a machine which changed the current of our national his tory. As the years go on, and his in fuence and genius are measured be- cause at last clearly seen and felt, 1t may be that Bushnell will be raised up to live in lasting remembrance"
 For this opinion pr. Munger gave the following reasons First, the intellect uai greatness of the man will be more thoroughly appreciated because the people themselves have come to under stand his thought. Then he bridged chasm in thought. He paved a way from the old order to the new order, and saved the churches from chaos of dissolving theology by giving them, not new theology, but an old one thor oughly reconstructed.
 The speaker then compared Bushnell to Robertson, another great preacher in this age of crisis and dissolution from a blind faith to a seeing faith. Robert son saw the danger and for years preached religion that was amenable to reason, and was full of reason. But he flashed a light upon a single truth, while Bushnell set the truth in order, o,,5 iv;t ence and life, into one category. Tn doing this he brought the Christian faith into accord with modern thought. He did not do this wholly, but he took the first step in New England, and the longest step anywhere.
 1T have left but little time" contin- ued Dr. Munger, Ito speak of him in other respects than as an author and preacher. As man, the best testimony to the estimate of him by the city where he lived forty-three years is that it's beautiful park was named for him while he was dying. To be sure, he created 1t, but that would not have se- cured it's name had not the man been loved and revered.
 "In high sense, he was popular man. There were reasons for it. He was an all-round mana man who talk ed with other men in order to find out what they thought and knew; free from all protesting airs, no dignity that ] needed to be taken care of, no sancti and no need of any. There | was no hedging in opinion, no bidding for favor-he was sound to the center. I With courage too deep and generous to be noisy, too noble to- cherish anil mosities, he was more ready to forgive than to be forgiven; and, to crown all, too generally interested in other men to be always talking about himself and his own work.
 Such man is always well liked. And when these qualities are joined to l great career they induce reverence as we'll as love, and pride in the possession If him as a citizen"
 In closing, Dr. Munger took occasion o say that Bushnelps worth is not yet appreciated as it will be, and that he vas the man of the century for New England. He said: II would say that highly as Bushnell anne to be regarded, I think not only hat he has not been overrated, but that i e is still underrated We are yet too l ear to measure him. When you drive { nto the Sierras. the foothills seem $ igher than the mountains beyond. But I o in the other direction, and the great I eaks come out. The claim can be z 1ade for him that he belongs to the f lass of minds that are named as com- rehensive. That is, he was a man of f he first order. r T do not mean that he was man of ne talents merely, nor that he had mack of doing many things, nor that f e had great learning or that his 1ought was exact and consistent, or V ven always sound. I mean instead f nat he had the gift of vision, the see- V, lg eye that looked deep and wide and T IF, penetrating until it touched the i, leaning of things. "Along with this was the construc- s we, the sympathetic faculty which en- :, oled him to put things together-the t1
 AMERICAN BRAINS. q q