The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-06-25
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A DISCOURSE FOR GIRLS DELIVERED
BY REV. Or. w. R. HUNTINGTON.

Become, In Very Deed and Truth, q
Lady Forever-Be Gentle and Dignified
New York CITY-The Rev. DR.. Will
lam Il. Huntington, rector of Grace
Church, preached recently sermon to a
fashionable school for girls which has
attracted much attention. and by request
it is here given. The text was chosen from
lady forever" DR.. Huntington said:
| quote our prophet in this fragmentary
way for the sake Of vividness. The brefer
the text, the more likely it is to be re-
membered. But if. under present circum-
stances, we would do justice to the man
and to his thought. some heed must be
given to what has gone beforehand to what
follows. Taken by themselves the words
sound as it they must have been, in the
first instance, addressed to woman. but
they were not The aspirant after an
everlasting ladyship was no woman at all,
but c1ty-an ancient city, city opulent,
and superb, Babylon the great.
Emboldened like ancient Rome by it's
military conquests, intoxicated like medi-
eval Venice by its 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 invincibe and hides
tructible. "House of Eternity" was the
name 1t gave to one of it's temples. "Foun-
dation stone of heaven and earth" ran the
valn-elorious appeIation CT another. Gar
dens and parks, the city had in abundance.
A mighty bridge which crossed and tun-
mel which underran the river Euphrates
were among. it's engineering triumphs The
circuit of the walls, lofty and broad al
most beyond behef, was between fifty and
| sixty miles.
But there was 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
name was Amor. When people came to
him with their panic talk about the big
ness of Babylon and the littIeness of Jerus-
contrary, he spoke up and harangued
Babylon with much plainness of speech.
"Sit thou silent" he cried, land get thee
into darkness, 0 daughter of the Chal-
deans, for thou shalt no more be called
the lady of Kingdoms. Thou saidst /
shall be lady forever-therefore hear
thou, thou that art given to pleasures,
that dwellest carelessly-these two things
shall come to thee in moment. in one
day, the loss of children and widowhood.
| They shall come upon thee In their perfeS-
ton for the multitude of thy sorceries
and tor the great abundance of thine en-
| chan tmeDtS."
Thus sternIy. almost fercely, Isaiah, son
of Amor, addresses mighty Babylon. He
| speaks Of her as to a woman of rank whose
| pride and lndocility are presently to prove
| her overthrow and to transform her pleas
ant palaces into ruinous heaps. She leans
upon her advantage of high station all un-
aware that the staff is too brittle for the
weight. Forgetful of the duties which CON
| 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 he does it,
| as we have seen.
With the text thus we'll in hand. we
| proceed. Under what conditions is it pos
sible, either for city or for a woman, to
become, in very deed and truth, lady
| forever?
This 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
| cannot but account the topic timely one
1t may seem to be comparing small things
| with great to name the commencement
week of a scnool for girls in the same
breath with the commemorative week of
city which has lived through the fourth
| part of 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 look at civic ladyship first. With
civic ladyship we associate those qualities
which win for cities an admfrlng love.
Physical strength, riches, commercial en-
one thing; but ladyship is quite another
For the compelling of respect lordship
may suffice a city, for the winning of af-
lection something of la1~shlp is essential
How about the Lady of the Hudson! Has
| she any better ground for counting upon
tie perpetuity Of her ladyship than had
the Lady of the Euphrates? Can we trust
her any more implicitly than Isaiah trust
ed Babylon when she says confidently Il
| shall be 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.
| I am using the word soul" In a large
| and comprehensive sense. Religion and
| religious interests are of course foremost
in my thought, since, without due re-
| gard to these no city can permanently
| 1--we; but when / speak of the treasures of
| the soul as essential to the city that would
adventure ladyship | have in mind all of
those precious things that go to make up
the ideaGstic as oontrasted with the ma
terialiskic side of human life-Righteous-
hess? 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 of
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 indescribable
quality which have ventured to call civic
| ladyship.
The prevailing note during the past
week has been the note of self-congratula-
| ton Whatever flags and flowers could do
to convince people through the eye, or
| speech and song to persuade them through
the ear has been attempted. 1t has been
jubilate throughout, as was proper enough
| in connection with birthday festivities,
| and yet there is another side to it all. The
| statistics of the city's trade are marvel
| ous, but what of the inventory of its
| spiritual possessions and the roster of its
| great men? How many, poets and how
many seers,, how many composers and how
| many artists, how many scholars and di-
vines, how many philosophers and states
| men has this community produced in the
course of its two hundred and fifty years
4 Of organized existence? Nay, of those
| whom we recall as having come under one
or another Of these heads, how many have
i heen Of first rank. how many even of sec