The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-15

and his family enough to secure GER
tain amount of material well being.
That must be the foundation. But on
that foundation he must build as a
super-structure the spiritual life.
lone of the best things done by this
society, and by kindred religious and
benevolent societies, is supplying in
our American life today the proper
ideals. 1t is a good thing to have
had the extraordinary material pros
perity which has followed so largely
on the extraordinary scientific discov-
cries alluded to by Justice Brewer if
we use this material prosperity Alright.
1t is not a good thing, it is a bad
thing, if we treat it as the be-all and
end-all of our life. If we make it the
only ideal before this nation, if we
permit the people of this republic to
get before their minds the view that
material we'll being carried to an ever
higher degree is the one and only
thing to be striven for we are laying
up for ourselves not merely trouble
but ruin.
II, too, feel the faith and hope that
have been expressed here today by the
vice. president and the SECRETARY of the
society, but / so feel because / believe
that we shall not permit mere ma
terial well being to become the only
ideal in this nation, because / believe
tom ourselves to looking at the great
fortunes accumulated by certain men
as being nothing in themselves either
TO admire, to envy or to deplore, save
as they are used well or i'll. If the
great fortune is used we'll, if the man
who has accumulated it has the
strength necessary to resist the temp
tations either to use it wrongfully, or,
what is nearly as bad, not to use it
.fcrl0f
harmful as positive wrongdoing-onl
he is entitled to the praise due to who
ever employs great powers for the
common good. If the man who accum-
ulates that great fortune uses it i'll, or
does not use it We'll, then SO far from
being an object of envy, still less an
object of admiration, he should take
his place among those whom we con-
denim and pity-for usually, If we have
the root of the matter in us, we will
pity those we condemn. If he uses it
Alright. then he is entitled to our ad-
miration, our respect, exactly as every
man is entitled to it if he has special
talents and uses those special talents
for the welfare of the people as q
whole, for the uplifting of mankind.
Wonderful changes have come in
the last half century. 1t may well be.
as Mr.. Justice Brewer has said, that
we tremble on the verge of still
greater changes in the future The
railway, the telegraph. the telephone,
steam, electricity. all the marvellous
mechanical inventions of these last
i've decades have changed much the
superficial aspect of the world and
have therefore, produced certain great
changes in the world itself But after
ALL in glorying over and wondering
at this extraordinary development |
think that we sometimes forget that
compared to the deeper thing it is in
deed only superficial in its effect. The
qualities that count most in man and
in woman now are the qualities that
counted most two thousand years ago.
and as nation we shall achieve sue
cess or merit failure accordingly as we
do or do not display those qualities.
Among the members of this cong
regation is q man who, in his prime
served as the fleet engineer of Far
ragut when Farragut went into Mo-
bile Bay. That was forty-one wears
ago. The ships and the guns with
which Farragut old that mighty feat
are now almost as obsolete as galleys
that fought for the mastery of the
Aegean Sea when Athens waged war
on Sparta. They could no more stand
against modern ship than could the
ships that fought against the invincible
Armada in 1888. But if the need
its sons to face a foreign foe the call
will or will not be made in vain just
exactly according to whether we do
or do not still retain the spirit which
drove Farragut and the men under
him onward to victory. The gun
changes, the ship changes: but the
qualities needed in the man behind the
gun, in the man who handles the ship
are just the same as they ever We're
so it is in our whole material civil
lization of today. The railroad. the
telegraph, all these wonderful inven-
tons, produce new problems. confer
new benefits and bring about new
dangers Cities are built up TO enor-
nous size and of course with the up
building of the cities comes the growth
of the terrible problems which con-
front all of us who have to do with
city life. Outward circumstances
change. New dangers spring up and
old dangers vanish. But the spirit
necessary to meet the new dangers,
the spirit necessary to insure the tri-
umph that we must and shall win, is
the same now that it has always been
This is the spirit which lies behind this
society and all kindred societies: and
we owe to this society all the help we
can afford to give. for it is itself Civ
ing TO our people service beyond
price. service of love. service which
no money could buy.
The Rev. Judson Swift, of New
York, field secretary of the Tract So
ciety, made a report in which it was
said that the Tract Society's colopor-
tours among the immigrants are con-
verted foreigners and meet the immi-
grants on arrival and follow them to
their homes and places of employ
ment. distributing Christian literature
in the language or dialect which they
speak. The colporteur at Ellis Island
distributes Christian literature In
twenty-four languages or dialects.