Part 8 (1/2)
”Alhty God, we make our earnest prayer that thou wilt keep the United States in thy holy protection; that thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large And, finally, that thou wilt raciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an hus we can never hope to be a happy nation Grant our supplication, we beseech thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Aht to every one of our boys and girls, and be used by them in their daily devotions
The Sunday School should be a nesting-place for patriotision It is occasionally felt by soious, that the Sunday School accoood
Powerful evidence to the contrary, in spite of its negative fore Fawcett of Brooklyn, when he testified that of the twenty-seven hundredthe last five years, not one had ever seen the inside of a Sunday School
The Sunday School has never been developed to its right capacity It can be ious men and woreatly need in this country,--enthusiastic patriots Dr Jowett dwells especially upon the value of enthusiasm
”No virtue is safe,” he says, ”until it becomes enthusiastic It is safe only when it becoh realms of the spirit, it is only the passionate that is secure The seraphim, those pure spirits who are in the i ones,' and it is their noble privilege to carry fire fro fla willflareat heroes,--first, those of sacred writ, the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, of whom the world was not worthy; then the noble are; then John Wesley, John Fox, Roger Willianorant our children are of the thrilling heroisnes Repplier, in one of her brilliant essays, illustrates this disgraceful fact with this anecdote:
”Aht or ten years, and e of their own country and a conorance of all others They say, 'I don't know any history,' as casually as theyfreshman told me recently that she had been conditioned because she knew nothing about the Reforly
”'I mean just what I say,' she interrupted 'I didn't knohat it was or where it was, or who had anything to do with it'
”I said I didn't wonder she had co of an episode When I was a schoolgirl, I was never done studying about the ReformationWe cannot leave John Wesley any h or Pitt out of the canvas
History is philosophy teaching by example, and we are wise to ade Landor devoted one of his reat projects were executed, great advantages gained and great calaenerals and the statesmen who stood foremost that I may honor them Tell me their names that I may repeat them to my children Shohence laere introduced, upon what foundation laid, by what custody guarded, in what inner keep preserved Place History on her rightful throne”
It is true that reat forward steps of civilization have been made by war Our brave soldiers of 1776, of 1812, of 1847, of 1861, and of 1898, are rightly our most revered heroes Our children should know the stories of their lives
But the heroes of duty should be even more emphatically impressed upon their minds It is true that warriors are soldiers of conscience no less than others, but our children will, we hope, need chiefly the herois less showy, requires more of resolution Here is a tale of a soldier who kept his courage in another place than the battlefield:
Colonel Higginson was once asked as the bravest deed that he ever saw done in the Civil War He replied that the bravest deed he ever witnessed was not done in battle It was at a banquet, where several officers had related salacious stories, and the turn ca lieutenant He rose and said, ”I cannot tell a story, but I will give you a toast, to be drunk in water,--Our Mothers”
There was a hush of guilty silence, and soon the party broke up
May our sons never be placed in similar circumstances, but if they are, may they show a similar bravery!
It may be remembered that a story almost identical with this was told of General Grant
The lives of Livingston, of Stanley, of Paton, of Elizabeth Fry, of Florence Nightingale, of Julia Ward Howe, of Alice Freeman Palmer, of Anna H Shaw,--of Wilberforce, of Judson, and of men like the late Joseph H Choate should bepeople and a desire awakened to emulate their example
Unfortunately the ”path of duty” is not often at present ”the way of glory,”--but it is a part of religion that the glory of an approving conscience and of the final s earthly fame The Boy Scouts, in their excellent creed, embody this idea, and so do the Caht ideals, which is the main object of true education
”The Country Contributor” to the _Ladies' Ho-away in this respect, and that our ideals and our strength to follow thereat war
”We shall have heroes to enerates, not financial failures, not self-satisfied good citizens, dying of slow spiritual decay Maybe our men ake up Perhaps new-born men may flash upon our vision as Custer did at the Grand Review
”During that three-days'a wreath of flowers from a , and it dropped upon the beautiful head of General Custer, with his leonineon his shoulders His horse was frightened and ran; so Custer rode, a wild, beautiful figure of young Victory, down the length of Pennsylvania Avenue Or like Phil Kearney at Seven Pines, with his one arm still left and the reins in his teeth”
Alfred Noyes, in the _Book man who has belittled our heroes and our history, and says, ”There are no ghosts in America,” the fact that we have abundant romance and heroism within our annals, and na: