The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-04-22
THE GREAT MISSION
Gov. Aycock's Lecture on
Joan of Arc Last Night.
n a Charming Talk at the Baptist Female uni
versiiy the Governor Points Out Some
Interesting Lessons.

N~DN go
v~ersity, Governor Aycock delivered a
charming lecture upon Joan Of Arc. a
large audience of students and their
friends, A. and NJ. boys and many Raj
eigh folks had gathered to hear the Gov
ernor speak. All were delighted, and
many pronounced the address one OF the
best eXtempore talks on the subject they
had ever heard. At the close of the lee
ture the applause was so loud and long
that the speaker was compelled to come
before his audience again.
The Governor began in a humorous
vein, saying he had once written a lee
ture on Joan of Arc, but that had been
when he was in love, and when he went
to look for his manuscript, he had been
unable to find it. Speaking Of his love
for his native heath, he said he loved
Wayne county better than any county in
North Carolina, North Caroline better
than any other State, America better than
any other country, and this world better
than the next. This sally evoked much
laughter, and then the speaker turned
to MS subject in earnest.
He told very beautifully and with much
force the story of how Joan Of Arc re-
ceived her mission when she was twelve
or thirteen years old, and then so gov
erned and trained herself that she became
able to fulfill her great work. She had
no prestige or influence from her kins-
people or any other source, but was sim
ply imbued with her mission to save her
beloved France, whose cries she had
heard, whose blood she had seen shed.
She felt it her duty to go forward on
her work, and for five years she was
developing herself to that end. Although
she had never come in contact with
men outside of her own family, yet she
dared to approach the stern officials and
ask then to intrUst her with the COM
mand OF the armies of France, or the
| strength of her story of her mission and
purpose. She even gained admittance TO
the king and told him Of her mission,
to see MIN crowned, that the archangel
| had spoken to her. When the religious
teachers asked her how it was that if
God could accomplish all this with her
help, He could not do it without her, she
replied that if they would give her the
| armies, God would give her the victory.
! Then came the first great victory at
Orleans. and then victory after victory
until the final browning of the king at
Rheims.
From the grand success of this sim
pie and apparently Intellectual girl, due
to her implicit faith in her mission, Gov
ernor Aycock drew the lesson that if
one will only have faith in some mission
or duty, the accomplishment of it can
be effected, no matter how great seem
the difficulties, or how insurrountable the
barriers. He dWelt much upon the years
| spent by Joan of Are in preparation for
her great task, learning that perfect self
atnegation which was necessary to the
fulfllrent of her work. Her ife was
wholly unselfiSh. She knew that she
would share in none of the rewards and
glorics, but had a premonition that her
work would be ended when the king was
crowned, and that some sad fate awaited
her.
The speaker explained that he did not
want mis- young lady hearers to have any
such mission calling for such terrible
self-sacrifice or such stern, unsmiling
fxedness Of resolve, although a stern
mission might come to some of them.
Some might have to give up all selfish
ness. But all of us, when we feel a
duty laid upon us, must try to fulfill that
duty in the same unselfsh spirit. not
for any honor or fame. Duty must be
performed because it is a duty.
The Governor said he rejoiced that
North Carolina did not need the sacrifice
of any of her daughters, but a new day
was dawning, and great obligations We're
being laid upon the young men and young
women to hear the call of the State in
the educational awakening. If these
| young men and young women heard their
| calls and nswered them, in twenty years
North Carolina would be at the fore
front of all the States.