The Gavelyte, December 1908

I 'i(i history of our nation; does not this amply assure us of his continual abiding? Oh, men and women of my country, hear the Macedonian cry of a world, in the depths of vice, of intemperanc€', and of human folly. Buckle on the armor of a life of power and influence, and go out, in obedience to that call, to ever larger conquests, and to lives of increasing worth and useful– ness. Heed the stirring uf the bloorl Jf the pioneer in your veins, fear neither the depths nor the heights which may yet be .before you. ,.. Ultimate victory will be ours. A life of peace and a consciousness of duty, "well ,lone" our continuing posse::,sion. In 1776 the colonial legislators burnt asunder the bonds which united them to the mother country, and, in the years which followed_, men of spirit from other climes joined in the colonial attempt at freedom. Crowned in their effort these men, who had helped greatly to light the torch of Freedom in America, returned to their European homts, Lafayette to Prance, Kosciosko to Poland; change of country might vary conditions, bu.t; neither the despotic fillPd air of France, nor the cruel atmosphere of Poland, could do aught to quench the wonderful beams of light which were so d_ivine sent. And so, within a few years, we read of the great French Revolution, of the uprising in Poland, and (lf tremendous upheaval\: all over the old continent. But, if, in the first century of existence, these United , tates held aloft, to Europe the remarkably attractive slogan of freedom and equality, much more, in these opening days of the twentieth century, in the great crisis of A~ia and Africa, and, truly speaking, of transition from the set path' of superstition and of ignonwc1--, the dark ages of ~ backward people, shoul<l the American cohort , with their wonderful commercial enterpri e, their world-wide , cheme of benPficent Christian organization. and their well understood attitude of friendship for the oppressed, hold anew the torch, which has vivified so many people , and fling out the watch– word of byegone day's. l o country . o possesses the esteem and confidence of the worlcl powers; n,) country ha stood so much for humanity and its release frorr. political ancl social thraldorn; no country is better fitted to cope with the problems ari ing in the~e benighted spot of civilization. The op-portunity i ours. Heaven is in the opportunity. Of its fulfilment, who can see the gloriou. L'om,eqnences'? Truly, the American citizen is the · citizen of thP- worl<I.