Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-27

prominent part in the pioneer growth Of
our country, and has in consequence as
sumed a position of immense Importance
throughout the vast region west of the AL
leghenies which has been added to our ma
ton since the days when the Continental
Congress first met.
For century after the Declaration Of
Independence the greatest work of our peo-
pie, with the exception only of the work of
self-preservation under Lincoln, was the
work of the pioneers as they took posses
sion Of this continent. During that CEN
fury We pushed westward from the Allie
ghenies to the Pacific, southwark to the
gulf and the Rio Grande, and also took
possession Of Alaska. The work of adj
vancing our boundary, of pushing the FROM
tier across forest and desert and mountain
chain, was the great typical work OF our
nation; and the men who did 1.-THE from
tiersmen, the pioneers the backwoodsmen.
plainsmen, mountain men-formed a class
by themselves 1t was an iron task, which
none but men Of iron soul and iron body
could do. The men who carried it to a sue
cessful conclusion had characters strong
alike for good and for evil. Their rugged
natures made them powers who served
light or darkness with fierce intensity; and
together with heroic traits they had those
evil and dreadful tendencies which are but
too apt to be found In characters Of heroic
possibilities. Such men make the most eff
ficient servants of the Lord If their abound
ing vitality and energy are directed Alright;
and If misdirected their influence is equally
potent against the cause of Christianity
and true civilization. In the hard and cruel
life Of the border, with its grim struggle
against the forbidding forces of Wild ma
ture and wilder men, there was much to
pull the frontiersman down. If left to him
self without moral teaching and moral
guidance. without any of the influences
that tend toward the uplifting of man and
the subduing of the brute within him, sad
would have been his. and therefore our,
fate. From this fate we have been largely
ht-t ha f1r hot = =
rest of the pioneers went the pioneer
preachers and all honor be given to the
Methodfsts for the great proportion of
these pioneer preachers whom they fur
niShed.
The Heroic Spirit.
These preachers were of the stamp of old
Peter Cartwright-men who suffered and
overcame every hardship in common with
their flock, and who in addition tanned the
wild and fierce spirits of their fellow
pioneers. 1t was not a task that could
have been accomplished by men DESTROYS
to live in the soft places Of the earth and to
walk easily on life's journey. They had to
possess the spirit of the martyrs; but not of
martyrs who could merely suffer, not of
martyrs who could oppose only passive en-
durance to wrong. The pioneer preachers
warred against the forces of spiritual evil
with the same fiery zeal and energy that
they and their fellows showed in the con-
quest of the rugged continent They had
in them the heroic spirit, the spirit that
scorns ease If it must be purchased by fail
ure to do duty, the spirit that courts risk
and life of hard endeavor if the goal to
be reached is really worth attaining. Great
is our debt to these men and scart the pa
thence We need show toward their critics.
At times they seemed hard and narrow to
those whose training and surroundings had
saved them from similar temptations; and
they have been criticised, as all men,
whether missionaries soldiers, explorers or
frontier settlers, are criticised when they
go forth to do the rough work that must
inevitably be done by those who act as the
first harbingerS, the first heralds of CIV
ilization in the worlds dark places. 1t is
easy for those who stay at home in COM
fort, who never have to see humanity in
the raw, or to strive against the dreadful
naked forces which appear clothed hidden
and subdued in civilized life-it is easy for
such to criticise the men who. in rough
fashion, and amid grim surroundings, make
ready the way for the higher life that is to
come afterward: but let us all remember
that the Uninterrupted and the effortless
should be cautious in passing too heavy
Judgment upon their brethren who may
show hardness. who may be guilty of
shortcomings, but who nevertheless do the
great deeds by which mankind advances
These pioneers of Methodism had the
strong, militant virtues which go to the &C
complishment Of such great deeds. Now
and then they betrayed the shortcomings
natural to men of their type; but their
shortcomings seem small indeed when we
place beside them the magnitude Of the
work they achieved.
Present Duties.
And now, friends, in celebrating the won
derful growth of Methodisn, in rejoicing
at the good it has done to the country and
to mankind, need hardly ask a body like
this to remember that the greatness of the
fathers becomes to the children a shameful
thing If they use 1t only as an excuse for
inaction instead of as a spur to effort for
noble aims. l speak to you not only as
Methodists-l speak to you as American
citizens. The pioneer days are over. We
now all of us form parts of a great civil
lied nation, with a complex Industrial and
social life and infinite possibilities both for
good and for evil. The instruments with
which, and the surroundings in which, we
work have changed immeasurably from
what they were in the days when the rough
backwoods preachers ministered to the
moral and spiritual needs of their rough
backwoods congregations. But if we are
to succeed, the spirit in which We do our
work must be the same as the spirit In