Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1903-03-04

militant virtues which go to the aC
 complishment of such great deeds
 Now and then they betrayed tn
 shortcomings natural to men of thei
 type; but their shortcomings seer
 small indeed when we place besid
 them the magnitude of the work the
 achieved.
 And now friends, Tn celebrating tn,
 wonderful growth of Methodism, il
 rejoicing at the good it has done tn
 country and to mankind, 1 need hardl,
 ask body like this to remember tha
 the greatness of the fathers become
 to the children a shameful thing i
 they use it only as an excuse for inac
 tion instead of as spur to effort fOl
 noble aims. l speak to you not only
 as Methodists-I speak to you a!
 American citizens. The pioneer day! are over. We now all of us form parts of a great civilized nation, with g 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 minis tered to the moral and spiritual needs of their rough backwoods cOngrega- tions. But if we are to succeed, the spirit in which we do our work must be the same as the spirit in which they did theirs. These men drove forward. and fought their way upward, to sue cess, because their sense of duty was in their hearts, in the very marrow of their bones. It was not with them something to be considered as a mere adjunct to their theology, standing separate and apart from their daily life. They had it with them week days as we'll as Sndays. They did not divorce the spiritual from the secular. They did not have one kind of con- science for one side of their lives and another for another.
 We'll, if we are to succeed as na- tion We must have the same spirit in us. We must be absolutely practical. of course, and must face facts as they are. The pioneer preachers of Metho- dism could not have held their own for fortnight if they had not shown an intense practicality of spirit, if they had not possessed the broadest and deepest sympathy for, and under standing of, their fellow men. But in addition to the hard. practical com mon sense needed by each or us in life, We must have a lift toward lofty things or we shall be lost, individu- ally, and collectively as a nation. Life is not easy, and least of all is it easy for either the man or the nation that aspires to do great deeds. In the century opening the play of the infin itely far reaching forces and tenden- cies which go 60 make up our social system bids fair to be even fiercer in its activity than in the century which has just closed. If during this cen tury the men of high and fine moral sense show themselves weddings; if they possess only that cloistered vir- tue which shrinks shuddering from contact with the raw facts of actual life; if they dare not go down into the hurly- burly where the men of might contend for the mastery; if they stand aside from the pressure and conflict; then as surely as the sun rises and sets all of our great material progress, all the multiplication of the physical agencies which tend for our comfort and enjoyment, will go for naught and our civilization will welcome a brutal sham and mockery. If we are to do as l believe we shall and will do, if we are to advance in broad hu- manity, in kindliness, in the spirit of brotherhood, exactly as we advance in our conquest over the hidden forces of nature, it must be by developing strength in virtue and virtue in strength, by breeding and training men who shall be both good and strong, both gentle and valiant-men who scorn wrongdoing. and who at the same time have both the courage and the strength to strive nightly for the right. Wesley said he did not intend to leave all the good tunes to the ser vice of the devil. He accomplished so much for mankind because he also refused to leave the stronger, manlier qualities to be availed of only in the interest of evil. The church he founded has throughout its career been a church for the poor as we'll as for the rich and has known no distinc- tiOn of persons. It has been a church whose members, if true to the teach ings of its founder, have sought for no greater privilege than to spend and be spent in the interest of the higher life, who have prided themselves, not on shirking rough duty, but on under taking it and carrying it to a success ful conclusion.
 l come here tonight to greet you and to pay my tribute to your past because you have deserved we'll of mankind, because you have striven with strength and courage to bring nearer the day when peace and justice shall obtain among the peoples of the earth.