The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1908-06-05

coddle and a CRATER he had better 20
elsewhere than the ministry. His
time and services will be more often
grated upon than grating. The.
country clergy especially, poor and
%underpaid, are the bulwarks Of right
eousness and the foes OF grafters. The
Saturday Evening Post thinks the
country preacher Is principally re-
sponsible for the temperance wave
which is sweeping over the country.
He is responsible for a good many
things which have contributed to our
welfare. He is fearless, faithful, pa
t%riotic. the foe Of liquor and every
graft.
The Americanizing and evangeliz-
ing OF the hordes OF immigrants now
pouring into our land Is a matter of
vital Importance to this nation. The
school teacher and country preacher
are dealing with this vital matter at
first hand, and are therefore charged
with responsibilities to the nation
second to none. Their work is funda-
mental to the welfare Of the nation,
and in carrying 1t forward they are
public men in a truer and deeper
sense than the great majority OF those
who fill our legislative halls or sit III.
the places of executive power.
In the Hall Of Fame in New York
are three preachers, Edwards, Chan
ming and Beecher. These men were
not "f~udge-eating molly Goddess" but
as grand men as this continent has
produced. Gov. Hughes Of New York
Is the son of a preacher, so is ex-
President Cleveland. They were not
bred In homes Of "stiffs and salary
quacks," but in homes where they
were taught the highest types of man
hood and integrity.
American history holds no grander
or more heroic figure than that Of DR..
Marcus Whitman, the missionary OF
Oregon. riding across this continent
in the dead of winter from Walla
Walla to Washington, to plead the
cause OF the great northwest before
President Tyler and Secretary Of
State Daniel Webster. This preacher
saved Oregon, Washington, Idaho and
a part OF Wyoming and Montana to
the American flag.
a few years ago there was IN.
yelled in the state house in Des
Moines, Iowa, the picture Of one Of
the builders OF that commonwealth. It
was the picture Of a preacher, and
when Gov. Cummins made the
speech he declared that preachers
more than politicians had helped to
make Iowa. "A preacher, John Ward,
wrote a large part Of the present con-
%stitution of South Dakota, and is one
of its most honored pioneers. When
the politicians and grafters we're
about to saddle the Infamous Louis
lana lottery IN the new state Of North
Dakota some 30 years ago it was the
uprising Of the country preachers
which drove that band Of stiffs and
swindlers from Dakota and forever
from American soil. DR.. George H.
Atkinson, the missionary preacher Of
Oregon, brought the first ship load Of
school books around Cape Horn and
organized the first public school sys-
tenn Of Oregon. DR.. Gushing Eells and
his wife, Missionaries, reduced their
personal expenses to so cents a week
that they might found Whitman Col
lege at Walla Walla, now one Of the
great educational institutions of the
Pacific coast. These names are writ
ten for Immortality in the pioneer his
tory Of great commonwealth. Give
the poor preacher sometimes his due.
5# H. ". ROMINGER,
Pastor Congregational Church, Laurel,
Montana.