Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-15
WORLD LOSES ITS
GREATEST CITIZEN
UNITY PASTOR QUOTES NOR
LEY ON GLADSTONE
Rev. Burt Estes Howard Says Noted
EnaIIshmans Power Lay In
the Stimulus Of Its
Spirit

mon lecture last evening on Glau-
stone" Rev. Mr.. Howard said In part;
ION the day that Mr. Gladstone
died the world lost its greatest citi-
zen.' These words from the monu-
mental work Of Mr.. Morley may well
serve as a text for this brief and frag-
mentary study Of the man who, re-
fusing the empty honors Of the peer
age, preferred to stand before his
countrynen and before the world in
the dignity of his own manhood-the
great commoner, a son Of England and
citizen of the world,
ut is the misfortune of greatness TO
be misun derstood. All leaders OF men
have that In them which separates
them from their fellow men, differen-
tiates them from the mass and bulk
of humanity. What that something Is
1t is not always easy to define.
"The power Of a great character
does not lie In the analysis Of its at
tributes, but In the stimulus of Its
spirit.
None Escape Criticism
And yet no man who has impressed
himself on his age escapes the scalpel
of criticism. Friends and foes alike
try to account for him. and to ex-
plain, classify him as If he were not a
soul, but only specimen.
And friends and foes alike make
him.
ut is difficult, therefore, to measure
Mr.. Gladstone today with that impair
tial Judgment which a later age can
pass upon his character and his deedsS
"The flames Of political controversy
that ragged about his personality nave
died with him, but the ashes are still
uncooled and now and then the breath
of prejudice both favorable and un--
favorable, blow them into life. And
1t Is at first sight a little confusing to
note the extreme contrasts in the
opinions of his contemporaries con-
cerning him.
o neutral position with respect to the
man. There was that in him which
forced a positive attitude of approval
and disapproval of faith and unfaith
as to his policies and as to his mo-
tives.
"Mr. Bryce, whose word is listened
to with profound attention and re-
spect in this country as we'll as in his
stone with this brief paragraph:
There is a passage in the Odyssey
where the seer Theoclymenus says, in
describing vision of death: The sun
has persisted out of heaven" To
Englishmen Mr.. Gladstone had been
like a sun, which, sinking slowly, had
grown larger as he sank and filled the
sky with radiance even while he trem-
bled on the verge of the horizon. There
were men of ability and renown, but
there was no one comparable to him
In fame and power and honor. Wnen
he departed the light seemed to have
died out of the sky
while, with the exception of re-
lgious dogma, there is nothing in the
world so divisive as political doctrine,
yet these extreme divergences in es-
timating Mr. Gladstone cannot be suf-
ficiently accounted for as the mere re-
suit of party feeling and of differences
Of political view point.
"It is scarcely less difficult to recon-
cile the pronounced disharmonies be-
tween Mr.. Gladstone's own positions on
questions of public policy at various
times during his career. 1t is well nigh
impossible to mortice together theories
advanced by him at one time of his
life with those strenuousy maintained
at another; to bring into even the SEM
blance of a consistent policy the meas
ures not only variant with one an
other, but absolutely antagonistic to
one another, which at different times
in his political leadership he advocated
with all the power of his mighty in
tellect and with all the charm of his
splendid oratory.
'Ine cnarBe OF 1lCOllSlSIelcy 10 Hot
a new one. Judged in the larger way
Mr.. Gladstone was not inconsistent,
nor was he changeable. In the main
habits and fundamental convictions
his life was remarkably tenacious and
cons stant.
They Key to 1t
''If indeed, 1t were necessary to find
an explanation for the altered po-
litical faith of Mr.. Gladstone at diff
ferent stages of his career, we may,
perhaps. go no farther than his own
statement:
"'I think can truly put all change
that has come into my politics into
sentence. / was brought up to dis
trust and dislike liberty. 1 learned to
believe in it. That is the key to all
my changes
Of slave-owner could rightly trace
most of his political conversions to
this radical change of viewpoint
toward human liberty and the alb
stract worth of the common man.
Certain 1t is that in this respect of
belief in the rights of the common
man, Mr.. Gladstone took no equiVocal
position anG the English voter of to-
day owes him a debt of gratitude that
can best be repaid by keeping the pub
lie conscience alive in England, for
which the great commoner stood.
"E1ow much the world owes to Mr..
Gladstone's belief in liberty! 1t was
not in England and English affairs
alone that the faith of Gladstone in
human freedom wrought for the prog
ress of men. Italy stands forth today
among the nations of the world, united
and respected, because Mr.. Gladstone
learned TO believe in liberty
Next to Cavour, Gladstone was the
most potent influence In the formation
of the Italian kingdom.
Belgium has to thank Mr.. Glad
stone that 1t was not swept into the
maelstrom Of war when in 1870 hos
tilities broke out between Germany
and France
I'm 1876, when the Bulgarian massa-
cres aroused the sleeping lion in him,
Mr.. Gladstone made such a vigorous
attack on Turkey that feeling in Eng
land was heated white and the minis
try of the cold and cynical Disraeli
were forced to leave the sultan to his
fate and Bulgaria, Eastern Roumania,
Bosnia and Thessaly were delivered
from Mussulman tyranny.
Twenty years later, after he had
laid aside his armor and retired from
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