The daily sentinel., 1908-05-16

preachers, whose movement west
ward kept pace with the movement
of the frontier, who shared all the
hardships in the life of the frontiers
man. while at the same time minister
ing TO that frontiersman's spiritual
needs, and seeing that his pressing
material cares and the hard and
grinding poverty of his life did moi
wholly extinguish the divine fire
within his soul. Such was your
work in the past; and your work in
the present is as great; for the need
and opportunity for service wideas
as the field of national interest
widens. 1t is not true in this coun-
try that the poor have grown poorer;
| but it is true that in many sections
| and particularly in our large cities
! the rich have grown so very much
richer as to widen the gulf between
the man of very large means and the
man who makes each days livelihood
| by that days work; and those who
with sincerity, and efficiency, and
deep conviction, band together for
mutual help, are those who can do
most to keep the gulf from becom-
ing too wide. True religion. through
church organizations, through phil
anthropic organizations in all the
lltlu VI hiIdltu tlihtaNOIs tdn
fest itself as effectively in the
crowded and complex life of today as
in the pioneer yesterdays and the
souls of men need the light now, and
strive blindly toward 1t, as they need
ed 1t, and strove toward 1t in the
vanished past. 1t is your task to do
the work of the Lord on the farm
and in the mine, in the counting
room and the factory, in the car
shops and beside the blasting fur
naces, just as it was the task OF your
spiritual forebears to wrestle for the
souls of the men and women who
dwelt on the stump-dotted clearings
in the wilderness.
No nation in the world has more
right than ours to look with proud
confidence toward the future. No
where else has the experiment of
democratic government. of govern
ment by the people and for the peo-
pie, government based on the princi
pie of treating each man on his innate
worth as man, been tried on so
vast scale as with us; and on the
whole the experiment has been more
successful than anywhere else.
Moreover, on the whole, | think it
can be said that we have grown bet
ter and not worse for if there is much
evil, good also greatly abounds, and
If wrong grows so in even greater
measure grows the stern sense of
right before which wrong must
eventually yield. 1t would be both
unmanly and unwarranted to be-
come faint-hearted or despairing
about the nations future. Clear
eyed and far-sighted men who are
both brave of heart and cool of head,
yu1 lilo n M rafnCipp n
see and acknowledge the many evils
around us, must yet also feel a con-
fident assurance that in the struggle
We shall win and not lose, that the
century that has just opened will see
great triumph for our people.
But the surest way to achieve this
triumph is, while never losing hope
and belief in our progress, yet at the
same time to refuse to blind our
selves to what is evil in the complex
play of the many forces, working
through, and with, and against one
another, in the upbuilding OF our
social structure. There is much that
tends toward evil as well as much
that tends toward good; and the
true patriot is that man who, without
losing faith in the good, does his best
to combat the evil. to stamp it out
where that is possible, and at least
to minimize its results. Prosperity
such as ours, necessary though it be
as the material basis of national
greatness. inevitably tends TO undue
eXaltation of the merely material
side of the national character and
we must largely rely on the efforts
of such men and women as those
am addressing to build up the spirit
ual life without which the material
life amounts to nothing. AS genera
ton succeeds generation the prob
lens change in their external shape;
old needs vanish. and new needs
arise but it remains as true as ever
that in the last analysis national
greatness, national happiness, ma
tlonal success. depend upon the char
acter of the individual man and in
dividual woman. We need good
laws; we need to have these laws
honestly and fearlessly administered;
we need wealth; we need science and
art and all the kindred activities
that spring from the clever brain and
the deft hand. But most of all we
need the essential qualities that in
their sum make up the good man
and the good woman: most of all we
need that fine healthy family life
the lack of which makes any seeming
material prosperity but a glittering
sham.
''If the average man is brave and
hard-working and clean-living, If the
average woman has the qualities
which make a good wife and good
mother. if each has self-respect. and
ii each realizes that the creates st
thing in life is the chance to do SER
vice-why, then the future of the
nation is sscure. We can not stand
up for what is good in manhood and
womanhood without condemning
what Is evil. We must condemn the
man who is either brutal and vicious.
Or weak aud cowardly; the man who
fails to do his duty by the public.
who is a bad neighbor. an idler. an