The Gavelyte, December 1908

CEDAH. VILLE COLLEGE. 175 the man of the hour, but the benefactor of posterity. Liberty was his inspiration, the universal equality of human rights, his acknowledgement, and an unchanging faith in self-government, his possession. Perhaps yielding in minor affairs, he was inflexibly firm in a principle or position deliberately and conscientiously taken . He said, "LPt us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.' 1 His benevolence and forgivene s are proverbial. His world-wide humanity is shown in a phrase of his second inaugural. "With malirt- towanJs none, with charity for all." He had a deep and trusting faith in Providi:'nte, and the golden rule of Christ was his practical creed. He was a s hining example of purity and honesty. As a statesman, a ruler, and a liberator, civilization will hold hi::: name in perpetual honor. It is a practical truism that, "No man liveth unto himself.'' If, in the byegone centuries, the Monk of Erfurt was compelled by the voice of God, to abandon his· quiet retreat and to hurl at the corrupt Catholicism of his day, the mighty Lenets of the Reformation; if, in the time of a nation's sorrow, the wonderful Ruler uf Destiny was moulding the master life and the sturdy character uf a Lincoln, for the grand µurpose of leading a captive people out into the bonds of a highe·r service and a more extended opportunity; if, when our beloved land verged on the desolation anrl decay, wrought by widespread debauch, Deity saw fit to call, from among her St'"X, Frances Willard, can we, of present day America, with its golden opportunities and our increasir:g enlightenment, no less prepared of God, and having these stirring examples, refuse to fulfil evident destiny? No time like the present· has ever sought the most consecrated and continuing service of a mighty pt-ople. Think of the tremendous problems -awaiting our solution, consider the great heights to which we may yet attain, glance about you and obaerve the many evils still rampant in our villages and in our cities, then how can we be such weaklings as to turn our backs to the plow, rest satisfied in aq imperfect security, unfitting our- _selves for the Jawning of that beLter day? Well dues the poet exclaim, "'A time like this demands great haarts, great souls." How nobly said: the great heart of a JJUblic-sµirited citizen, the keen insight and th8 broad gauge of the man, who has caught the vision, laid .bare to hi':l willing eyes by the revealing power of heavenly light, - these are men whom our time requires. Can the American eitizen reach this idt al? o, not in his own Rtrength, but recall the part the mighty Creator km, pla_yf'cl in tlrn unfolding