The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-18

l
 all the opportunities in which we ma | be benefit to others, or to the churc
 and to society in general. To so liv
 as that each day shall record some goo | deed done in our unselfish way for som desirable object. This should be tn | ideal life towards which we all aspire
 The saddest thing which comes to u
 in the review of the past is the failur
 of improving the opportunities whicl
 have been within our reach.
 AS one who has gained a higher ele vation on the ladder of time than an. of you, my hearers, I have to confess
 that my saddest regret is that the op
 portunities for usefulness which hay,
 come to me l have not more faithfully
 improved, and standing on the eleva
 ton above you as 1 do 1 would call tt
 you below me to seize the opportunitie.
 of usefulness as they pass and make
 the most of them. have also the com. fort that every good deed done ha.
 brought rich reward
 l have thought that perhaps some.
 thing of a historical character whicI
 should suggest some of the changes
 WOflU both physical and in the realm of Chris. tan progress, might prove profitable and instructive for the present occasion
 IT we contrast the circumstances of the child born in the beginning of this twentieth century wit, those of one porn seventy or eighty years ago, the contrast becomes marvellous, whether you think of the church or of society or government Whether you think of commerce in any of its forms, or of the nationalities of the world, or of the progress of science ill any of it's depart ments, there seems to have been a grand advance all along the line of things.
 rake up the geography of those early times l have suggested, and in our own country little was known of the region of the west, On the map it was writ ten as an unexplored region. But now out of that territory have been made more than half dozen states contain ing cities with hundreds of thousands of people like Chicago or St. Louis. There are states and cities with their commercial interests which reach around the world. In place of the wild Indian and the buffalo we have col leges with their rich endowments of hundreds of thousands of dollars and manned with officers of the highest at tainments in science in all it's depart ments. California and all the Pacific coast was comparatively unknown re- zion peopled by Indians and a few Spanish missionaries, but now that western coast has its hundreds of thousands of people. with it's cities and with it's states of California and Oregon and Washington and its Alaskan ter ritory.
 Then we were sending the home mis- to the west to its scattered population; now we are receiving from the west scholarly and eloquent men to fill the pulpits of some of our metro- politan churches, and professors to fill the chairs of the different sciences in our colleges. Then the west was as un- known and as little heard from as China or South Africa to-day.
 If you study the geography of foreign parts of the world the continent will be
 
 closed against all foreign intercourse and it was death to be shipwrecked on the coast. It was not till our boy had grown to be forty or fifty years old that Commodore Perry opened Japan to the intercourse of the world.
 The Sandwich Islands were just re- ,eiving missionaries from the Ameri- ,an Board and coming from cannabal- sm under the influences of Christian Australia was compara- lively an unknown land. But now Japan has become one of the recog- lized powers to be taken into considera- ion in the settlement of the great na- ional problems which now confront the world. The Sandwich Islands have be- lome an integral part of this govern nent Australia to which England ban shed her convicts has now become a epublic except in name. It has it's chools and colleges, its house ot par lament and it's churches, it's eminent cholars and ministers who appear upon he platform in England and in Amer ca and who rank among the most dis l inguished men of the age.
 We might continue this contrast and how how countries have changed in | heir civilization and governments have | hanged their territorial boundaries and | heir forms of government were there ime. It would open our eyes to the geographical and historical hanges which have taken place, and | he advantage which the child born to- ay has over the one born in the be- inning of the past century.
 But the progress in science has been qually great The science of geology 1r example, was looked upon with sus- icion by the most learned men of the mes, It was thought to conflict with le teachings of Scripture, but now it
 made to conform to it's teachings and 1e most earnest and intelligent len in the church are it's warmest ad- ocates In place of conflicting with le teachings of the Scripture 1t is made
 strong evidence for their conforma- on. And the footprints of creation in le physical world became one of the rong witnesses of the truth of the criptures and of the omnicience and of Jehovah And as to the onders of modern science in all it's ,rms. They have been coming forth ke the stars of evening which one af- Y another appear in tho evening sky Il the whole heavens are arrayed in le grandeur and glory of the stellar orld. The social and religious situa- on has changed alike with the physi- ioto l