The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-05-29

pealed mos. powerfully 10 nv heart
and my Imagination by reason or Its
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES is the commission
Ia thu Apostles: Go We into all Tho
world and preach the Gospel 10 every
creature The signs of the times in
dictate that the glory Of literally full
filling that COMMAND will be earned II
this century by America and Aneri-
a country and 4 people unknown
TO St. Paul. the prince % preachers
and Of pioneers.
These are a. few things We have &C
complished in the nineteenth century
with some things which We may &C
complish in the twentieth. Action -
progress-is the inevorabie lay or life,
l say with TennYson:
Not in vain the-d distance b%eacons;
Forward, forward, let us range;
Let the great world spin forever
Down the ringing grooves of change!
Through the shadows of the globe
We sweep into the yCunger day;
Better fifty years of Europe
Than a cycle of Cathay."
Had the great poet lived today n
the United States | have no doubt that
he would have declared that a dozen
years Of America is better thar a cen
fury of Europe.
GREAT PRIVILEGE TO LIVE NOW.
1t was a great privilege to live III
the nineteenth century 1t is a great
er TO live in the twent1eth-whlcil,
Notwithstanding the %lugubrious howl
of the pessimdsts, | believe will prove
better than any of its predecessors. |
am an optimist and the gospel
! preach is the gospel Of high hope ana
high endeavor. Better TO look upon
| the bright side of things than upon
! the dark. A juhilate is more pleas
| ant music than a miSerere. In spite
of the lugubriOus prophets OF evil,
believe that the world Is growing bet
ter. Certainly it ought to. II It Is
! not, our Christian civilization and our
much Wanted educational systems are
| fiat and ignOminiOuS failures; and as
| for ne and my household, we refuse
to accept n such absure conclusions
In the few years in which we nave
dwelt in America We have really llv-
ed longer han the ante-deluvlans who
plumed themselves upon their length
of days. It is my solemn conviction
that we are better people for we have
not all been drowned for sins agains-
our Creator. We are older than Me-
! thlselah, for we live in deeds, not
years; in thoughts, not breaths; in
feeling, not in, figures on dial. we
should count time by heart thogs. He
most lives who thinks most. feels the
nobleSt, acts the best
If | could find. il in my heart TO en-
w my children anything. it would be
that they will not be past the1T merl-
dian in the middle of the twentieth
century, when America will dominate
the world.
We have not attained perfection yet.
Utopia is an undiscovered country.
The millennium IS still out OF sight IN
the distant future. Once in Il while
when We. adj get the blues at once l.
appears that the little season Tor
which the devil is to be turned loose
is right upon us. The tT1umpnal car
of human progress jOltS us occasion
ally till our teeth rattle. Sometimes
when unskillsd hands get hold of The
engine. we have horrible head-end AIM
hear-end collisions, the train jumps
the track and plump we 20 into t3
SLOUGH of DespOnd.
But Americans never made Il
STAY in the wretched hoIe. They are
constittrfionally a race OF Mark zap
leys. They o pull themselves 70
I gether; scrape the mire off their clothes
and go On their way rejoicing.
Some observers mistake the sppi
of unrest now and then apparent as q
sign of dire calamities. That is no
necessarily, not even probably, true.
Man never is. but always ID h
blessed~- especially the American
man. Put him in a cal going 60 mites
an hour and re grubles because 1
does not go 90. Ram the rypica
American into a cannon at New York
shoot him 10 San Francisco in tire
seconds, and he Will complain that tn
powder was not good or lhs woul'
asve made the "trip in less time. Blu
this dissatisfaction with the. condition
of things in the opening days or Iii
| twentieth century augers well Tor I'M
provement. Discomfort leads TO &C
? ton and action finds its fruition il
? progress.
: People are prone TO look back 10
2 golden age, but as for NY single sex
{ I prefer the comforts and Injuries 3
today 10 the ~hardships and sc~antinss
G of yesterday.
: ABIDING FAITH IN THE PEOPLE
1t goes without saying that | am no
! enamored of certain theories now PR
pagted in this country. Some l re
: gard as idiotic; others a cr1uofna!
n still others as utterly ruinous. IL eL
: acted into law and adopted as a pei
3 manent policy; bat / have an ab.din
! faith in the ultimate good sense {
9 rho Amor;cau pooDIo in cheir uufai
u ing patriotism, their invfncible eoul
= age, their perfect honesty, their tn
= ditional conservatism and their capai
II ity TO take care Of themselves a. q
u times, In all places, and under a
II circumstances. Consequently I hay