The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1911-06-09

came the greatest reform movement
in modern times. It made England
free, it made possible the American
Union, it. helped to make France q re-
public it has made constitutional
government possible throughout Eu-
rope. and in its far reaching inf1u-
ence has awakened the people of ia
pan. Turkey. and even China. 1t need
hardly be said that I refer.to English
Puritanism, the movemnt led by
Hampden. Milton and Cromwell In
our modern life of sensuous pleasure
and needless rush, in our fast living
and faster dying, it is too frequently
the fashion to ridicule the so called
affected piety of Barebones and the
simpering meekness of Pym. But
when ali the sophistry of ridicule has
been spent in the vain attempt to be-
little the Puritan's earnest purpose
and all the stings OF sarcasm have lost
their venom, there remains this fact.
1.-THE Puritan reformation has accom-
plished more for civilization and hu-
man freedom than any other move
ment in recent times.
That the result is due to the Puri-
tan's ideals let the testimony Of one
of England's most learned historians
and her most brilliant essayist be Of
fered.
'FThey ascribed every event to the
will Of the Great Being, for whose
power nothing was too vast, for whose
inspection nothing was too minute.
. The difference between the
greatest and the meanest Of mankind
seemed to vanish, when compared to
the boundless interval which separat-
ed the whole race from Hin on whom
their own eyes we're constantly fixed.
. If they were unacquainted
with the works of philosophers and
poets, they we're deeply read in the
oracles of God. If their names were
not found in the register of heralds,
they felt assured that they were re-
corded in the Book of Life. If their
steps were not accompanied by a.
splendid train of menials, legions Of
angels had charge over
them. Their palaces were homes not
made with hands: their diadems
crowns Of glory, which should never
fade away! On the rich and the elo-
quent, on mobiles and priests, they
looked down with contempt: for they
esteemed themselves rich in more
precious legacy and eloquent in a
more sublime language, mobiles by the
right Of an earlier creation, and
priests by the imposition Of mightier
hand. For his sake empires
had risen and fourished and decayed.
\ He prostrated himself in the
dust before his Maker; but he set his
foot on the neck of his king. In his
devotional retirement he prayed with
and groans and tears.
. But when he took his seat. in
the council, or girt on his sword for
war, these tempestuous workings of
the soul had left no perceptible trace
behind them. People who saw nothing
of the godly, but their uncouth Wis
ages and heard nothing from them
out tne1r groans might laugh
at them. But those had little reason
to laugh who encountered them in
the hall Of debate or in the field of
battle. They had their smiles
and their tears, their raptures and
their sorrows. ,. Enthusiasm had
made them stoics and (had)
raised them above the influence of
danger and Of corruption. =.
They went through the world :.
mingling with human beings, but hay
ing neither part nor lot in human in
f1rmities; insensible to fatigue, to
pleasure and to pain; not to be pierre
ed by any weapon, not to be withstood
by any barrier"
Little wonder is it that men with
such ideals have so directed the
course of human events that their in
f1uence will be felt to the remotest
generations.
Were we fired with the same ideals
and enamored Of the same purpose,
would the scandals of political life,
the lapses in moral conduct, the ini-
quities of divorce, the shameless prac-
tice of high finance, and the general
decadence of the spirit of worship be
so patent and so rampant?