The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-02-23
DIR. PHILLIPS SERMON.
WASHINGTON HAD GENIUS AND
DISCIPLINE.

He Was she First Great American, the
First TO Riss Above the Colonial Spirit
Americans Ever Loyal TO His Ideas
The Lesson ofthe Day.
At the Church of the Redeemer, a
fine musical programme suitable to the
occasion was rendered at the morning
service. The pastor, Rev. Watson l.
Phillips, d. D., preached a patriotic
sermon from the text James 8: is, And
the fruit OF Righteousness is sown in
peace by them that make peace" He
opened the historical page and pre-
scented the character of Washington as
one OF its most brilliant and effulgent
gems. An abstract of DR.. Phillips SER
mon is here given:
Great men. taken in any way"
says Carlyle, ''are profitable company.
We cannot look. however imperfectly,
upon a great man, without gaining
something by him." If This is true.
then it is also true that we do not see
enough of them. We read a few popu-
lar biographies, we observe a few
birthdays-mostly with NOISY ceremo-
mics or idle pleasure-seeking- We
do not come into such close ard rever-
emit fellowship with great souls that we,
receiving of their spirit, are ourselves
made great.
There is no safer rule of life for a
young man-for any man for that mat
ter-than to cultivate the acquaintance
of those who are above him i'll charac-
ter, culture and pnwer. Nothing more
surely and sensiblv determines the
quality Of life Cor any man than the
character of his associations; he is lift
ed or lowered both intellectually and
morally by their ideals and tastes, by
what they are and what they do. For
the same reason no study is more praC-
tically profitable than the study of
great mems lives; to learn what their
equipment was. how they developed
and used it, and what their principles,
ideals and methods were gives one
new estimate of human nature and of
the possibilities of patient toll.
The celebration OF the births of
Washington and Lincoln, within ten
days of each other furnishes an object
lesson of the greatest value to our citi-
zens,' especially, to those of foreign
birth who are drawn here by the at
fractions rather than by what they
hoped to make out Of them, and to the
\ young of all nationalities; these ami
versaries should be observed, and these
lessons yearly enforced, by both church
and school. The influence of heroes on
the lives Of the people is something
which cannot easily be computed. In
the popular estimation the hero stands
for epochs and movements, he embod-
les principles. gives watchwords, re- !
veals possibilities, makes history; he is
historyi
If you leave out of American history
such names as Washington, Jefferson,
Hamilton, Lincoln. Grant, what have
You left? You have cut out everything
that makes these records worth read
ing, everything that moves men, every
thing that has teaching or reproductive
power All progress, whether material
or spiritual, is a movement toward
ideals; these men furnish the ideals
that are ever reviving the dropping ar
dor of the world, saving it from sell
fishness, reckoning it forward, opening
the heavens above its head.
1t has been asserted that Washing
ton was the first great American, and
that his clear-eyed Americanism was
his distinguishing characteristic. He
was the first to rise above the colonial
spirit and to reach the broad concep-
ton of a grand nationality. He not on
ly adjured his countryman to avoid
foreign alliances and entanglements,
but In 17a5 he wrote to Patrick Henry
II want an American character, that
the powers of Europe may be con-
WINGED that we act for ourselves and
not for Others" But what did he mean
by an American character? Two or
threef of his other utterances will help |
us to understand him. In view Of the |
dissolution of the army in 1888, he |
wrote a letter to the governors of the !
states in which he set forth and en-
larged upon four things as necessary |
to the well being if not to the exist |
ence of the United States as an indie |
pendent power: First an indissolubla |
union of the states under one federal !
head; second, a sacred regard to pub |
lie justice; third, the adoption Of a. |
proper peace establishment; and, |
fourth the prevalence of that pacific |
and friendly disposition among the |
people of the United States which will |