Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-17

they had failings, and many. They
were dogmatic and intolerant. They
tried to legislate men into godliness,
and failed, as all such efforts had
failed. They were men of their own
times, with all the limitations which
those times imposed. But, neverthe-
less, they were brave, God-fearing and
true, and therefore by the irresistible
might of their weakness shook the
world. In all their doings they thought
on God and on the things of God.
They loved the church as a necessary
OF life, as the bulwark of human So
ciety, and as of supreme Importance
in fashioning the character of the peo-
pie. They were succeeded by men of
whom Gladstone said: 1T is probable
that history has never seen their
equals
"But what went to the making of
these men? They were not the prod
ucts of the hour. Mol Back of them
and inspiring them were the deathless
influences of jamestown. They were
the heirs of the character and spirit of
their fathers. They were largely what
they were because they and their sires
had been nurtured in the church Of the
living God. And this nations honor,
glory, progress and power are bound
up with their religion, that gives 1t
distinguished precedence of interest
and significance.
THUS we see how the spiritual and
the moral were, from the beginnings of
this land of ours, made to blend with
the political and material.
"Thus we see what went to the maxi
ing Of the foundation-stone layers of
our republic and civilization. They
went to school to English Christianity.
They were trained by it's institutions
in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord The English Bible was their
text book, the book of common prayer
was their treasury of devotions, the
church catechism was their code of
Christian faith and conduct. 1t needs
no vivid Imagination to picture what
our land would be today if the Latin
races had peopled that jamestown set
tlement, nor If the sour, saturnine,
logical, disputatious temper Of
the Puritans had inspired our civil be-
ginnings
Debt to jamestown
"It needs only casual glance at hui
man history to know what our politi-
cal institutions would be If the fine
italian hand of the papacy had been
instrumental in their making and not
the honest heart, the virile brain, the
rugged, robust nature, the calm, judi
cial spirit, the courage, courtesy, ,relig-
ious reverence and faith of the Anglo
Saxon race. We are what we are be-
cause they were what they were. To
jamestown and the people of James,
town we owe what we are religiously
as people and politically as nation.
Truly, the prophecy which Shakespeare,
when alluding to King James and the
foundation of Jamestown, put into the
mouth of Cranmer, has been most glo-
riously fulfilled:
ellis honor and the greatness of his
name
Shall make new nations
'It is grand thing. brother men, for
q nation to have grand men for an
cestors. and to have a history whose
first pages are crowded with interest,
and whose opening chapters are filed
with God and with human heroism, the
product of union with God. But it is
of little use unless our own lives and
faith keep us in living touch with those
men and that history of the past. We
may boast of our descent, our heritage,
our development; we may glory in the
that surge over us and are |
burnt into our very Souls; we may
boast of the immortal deeds of our IA |
theirs as they rise up before us, and of |
the ties of sonship that are bred into |
our very blood and bone.
"But all of this is of no actual value |
unless actually translated into the liv-
ing thoughts and personal service of
today. This, in it's last analysis, is the
meaning of this comrnemoration. 1t
teaches us that we must not only stand |
in our fathers faith, but exert our
selves to make that faith known to all |
men everywhere"
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