The daily sentinel., 1908-06-02
local PASTORS
SPLENDID ADDRESS
Rev. Davis Of the Baptist Church. Delivered Beautiful
Memorial Discourse Before the Local Aerie
Of Eagles on Sunday Afternoon

bondage to the laws governing sue
cess. Men cannot be scholars and
give their minds over to aimless wan
derings. Neither can man succeed in
business and spend what he wishes
and work only when inclined. Should
tree be weary of the confinement
of its roots in the earth and be grant
ed the privilege of constant motion
from place to place, the very sun
that had warmed it into life and
growth and fruit bearing would
scorch it root and branch.
Liberty means freedom to give
our allegiance to what and where
due. Our liberty should be secured
and enjoyed then with reference,
should say, to the following demands
made upon us:
1. The obligation to live manly
personal lives. To maintain ones
integrity. To practice truth and up
rightness, and to feel and act
the man, is no small task and is i'm
perative in the very highest degree.
Should we fail in this primary obli-
cation, we receive due retribution in
disordered and Impoverished lives,
justly despised by ourselves and con-
demned by our fellows. While true
liberty and personal integrity are by
no means incompatible. license and
the abuse of liberty are excluded. In
insisting upon his own liberty the
man of integrity must be true, just,
and fraternal.
2. The obligation to respect and
labor for the welfare of society, be-
lieve the worst criminals we have to-
day are the men who, clamoring for
personal liberty conduct their bust
OaSc affairs and thair whola livac in,
defiance of the claims of their fellow
man. The man who with mask and
jimmie forces his way into our
vaults and takes away our gold and
treasure is, of course, a great enemy
to the social fabric. But his career
is short. The minions of the law are
on his trail and soon place him be-
yond the power of doing us hurt.
While he is free, he strikes mainly at
the material wealth or men who sell
dom miss very much the money he
pliers. Infinitely more criminal
and dangerous is the man whose
business is to corner and exploit the
necessities of life and who, in order
to perpetuate his business, corrupts
the whole machinery of government
and debauches the conscience of ev-
cry one who is associated with him.
In a smaller way but way just as
vile, other men turn to their advant-
age the weaknesses of their fellows
Here is a poor fellow. whose will is
powerless, or whose Judgment is un-
developed or whose passions are
abnormally developed. or whose
habits control his actions. These
abnormal traits are played upon, are
encouraged that other men may
spend their lives in ease and COM
petence, while the poor victim is
made a pauper and a criminal,
constant burden and menace TO So
ciety. To say nothing of the bread
and raiment and roof taken from his
wife and helpless Children to say
nothing of the manner in which the
degradation of the father and its
legitimate consequences persist ever
after he is laid in his tomb. Are men
at liberty to thus use their social in
fluence? Many men by their lives
answer yes Many say so in words.
1t may conform to their conception
of liberty, but | dare say it doesn't
conform to your conception of truth;
of justice, of the equality of all men.
3. The obligation we owe to the
great God, without any knowledge of
your ideas about the dogmas of re-
lgion, make bold to assert that you
have a faith in one in whom all
things have their being. A mighty
one who is at the same time kind
and just. To whom we attribute all
holiness and to whose nature it is
the duty of all to conform as nearly
as possible, to whose laws written in
mems hearts and in the forms of hui
man society we are to yield complete
obediance.
This view of the limits placed
upon liberty is just as true of all the
other words in your great motto.
Thus We are TO 1--we lives of truth and
sincerity, unaffected and without
pretence. If we would raise lofty
and enduring monument to our dead
we must also live to receive justice
for all of the oppressed and mistreat-
ed of our fellows. And crowning the
monument and lifting it still higher
into the blue of heaven, is the great
doctrine of equality of the solidity
of the race, of the brotherhood of
man."