The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-07-31
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A DISCOURSE FOR GIRLS DELIVERED
BY REV. Or, W. r. HUNTINGTON.

lam X. huntington, rector OF Grace
Church, preached recently q sermon 20
fashionable school for girls which has
attracted much attention, and by request
II Is here given. The text was chosen from
isaiah XVII: Z: Thou saidst / shall be
a lady forever" Dr. Huntington said:
l quote our prophet in this fragmentary
way for the sake of vivdHess. The briefer
the text the more likely it is TO be re-
mombc.cd. But if. under present circum-
stances, ne would do justice TO the Nan
and to his thought some heed must be
given to what has gone before and TO what
| follows. Taken by themselves the words
sound as it they must have been, in the
first instance, addressed to 4 NoLan, but
they were not. The aspirant after an
everlasting ladyship was no woman at all,
| but city-an ancient city, a city Cpuent,
| and superb, Babylon the great.
Emboldened like ancient Rome by its
| military con9uests intoxicated like medi-
eyal Yeplce by It's commercial prosperity,
confident like modern London in the pos
| session Of resources which seemed measure
| less. this queen city of Chaldea had come
to think OF itself as invincible and hides
tructble. House Of Eternity. was the
name it gave to one of its temples. "Foun-
dation stone Of heaven and earth" ran the
vain-glorlOus appellatiOn of another. Car
A mighty bridge which crossed and tun-
mel which underrau the river Euphrates
were among its engineering tridmphs. The
circuit OF the walls, lofty and broad al
most beyond belief, was between fifty and
sixty miles.
But there was a man in Jerusalem whom
none of these things greatly moved in the
sense OF Supplying or alarming him The
mans name was Isaiah and his fathers
M aanvlh ~
| him with their panic talk about the big
ness of Babylon and the littleness of Jerus-
| allen, he betrayed no apprehensions on the
| contrary, he spoke up and harangued
| Babylon with much painness of speech.
! "Sit thou silent" he cried, "and get thee
into darkness, daughter of the Chal-
| deans, for thou shalt no more be called
| the lady Of kingdoms. Thou saidst i
shall be a lady forever-therefore hear
! thou, thou that art given to pleasures,
| that dwelest carelessly-these two things
/ shall come to thee in a moment, in one
! day, the loss Of children and wdowhood.
! They shall come upon. thee in their perfec-
| ton for the multitude of thy sorceries
and for the great abundance of thine en-
! chantments."
Thus sternly, almost fercely, Isaiah, son
| of Amor, addresses mighty Babylon. He
! speaks of her as to a woman of rank whose
her overthrow and to transform her pleas
ant palaces into ruiuous heaps. She leans
| upon her advantage of high station all UNI
aware that the staff isNtoo brittle for the
weight. ForgetfHI Of the duties which con-
! dition privilege. she fancies that old time
! prerogative and the accumulated prestige
! of many generations will be her safety.
! Gods prophet determines to shake her
! out of this illusion, to compel her to open
her eyes to the hard fact and ne does it,
as we have seen.
With the text thus well in hand. we
! proceed. Under what conditions is it pos
! sible, either for a city or for a woman, to
| become, In very deed and truth, a lady
! forever?
Thi@is the question to which I shall ask
you to bend your thought tonight, and
whether we have respect to the week
which ended yesterday or to the week
which has been entered upon to-day l
cannot but account the topic a timely one.
! 1t may seem to be comparing small things
! with great to name tine commencement
week of a scnool for girls in the same
| breath with the commemorative week of a
| city which has lived through the fourth
| part of a thousand years, but, perhaps,
| before we are done, my boldness in ven
turing thus to couple the two may be for
| given me.
OF the sorts of ladyship of which have
! made mention, that to which communities
and that to which individuals may attain,
we will lock at civic ladyship first. With
| civic ladyship we associate those qualities
which win for cities an admiring love.
| Physical strength, riches, commercial en-
terprise will give city lordship. That is
one thing; but ladyship is quite another.
For the compelling of respect lordship
may suffice a city, for the winning of at
lection something of lat ship is essential.
! How about the Lady of the Hudson? Has
she any better ground for counting upon
the perpetuity of her ladyship than had
| the Lady Of the Euphrates2 Can we trust
her any more implicitly than Isaiah trust
| ed Babylon when she says confidently Il
shall be a lady forever" That depends
upon the relative measure of Importance
which the city, in the long run, shall as
sign to the treasures of the market as
compared with the treasures of the soul
am using the word soul" IN large
and comprehensive. sense. Religion and
religious interests are, Of course foremost
in my thought, SINCE, without a due re-
gard to these no city can permanently
live; but when / speak of the treasures OF
the soul as essential to, the city that would
adventure ladyshipj [ have in mind all OF
those precious, things 5tlat GO TO make W
the idealistic as contrasted with the ma
terialistic side Of human life-Righteous
ness? Yes. Worship Yes; but beside
these, poetry, letters and whatever else
there may be that ministers beauty to the
eye of harmony and melody to the ear
These last are what make the treasures O
the soul These. mingled in due proper
ton, give to a municipality what silver
and gold and negotiable securities of them
selves can never give-that indescribablt
quality which have Ventured to call civil,
ladyship.
The prevailing note during the pas
week has been the note of self-congratula
ton. Whatever flags and flowers could d
to convince people through the eye, o
speech and song to persuade them through
; the ear has been attempted 1t has beer