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THE PILGRIM AND PURITAN IN HISTORY.

grims landed at Plymouth Rock, and after they had begun their beneficent career of toleration and spiritual worship. And if it had not been for Oliver Cromwell and his independent Ironsides, godly men, who had got far enough along in thought to see that if every man must give account of himself to God, every man ought to be allowed to make up his account according to his own conscience, this horrible tyranny over conscience might have continued in England half a century longer. But Marston Moor, Naseby, Preston, Drogheda, Dunbar and Worcester, battles all won by men who were fighting for something, and knew what it wasfighting for something better than Puritanism had dreamed of, secured for England, not indeed immediate liberty of conscience, not at any time the religious liberty which we enjoy, but a liberty compared with which the Presbyterian legislation of 1647 is as a breath from heaven compared with a whiff from the other place.

There is no question but that the Puritan could fight, and he did. Macaulay said, "People who saw nothing of the godly but their uncouth visages, and heard nothing from them but their groans and their whining hymns, might laugh at them; but those had little reason to laugh who encountered them in the hall of debate or on the field of battle."

These Puritans builded a great deal better than they knew. At the restoration of Charles II., Puritanism laid down the sword. It ceased from the long attempt to build up a kingdom of God by force and violence, and fell back on its truer work of building up a kingdom of righteousness in the hearts and consciences of

men.

It was from the moment of its seeming fall that its real victory began. The revels and orgies of Whitehall left the mass of Englishmen what

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Puritanism had made them, serious, earnest, sober in life and conduct, firm in their love of Protestanism and of freedom. In the revolution of 1688 Puritanism did the work of civil liberty which it had failed to do in 1642. The history of English progress since the Restoration, on its moral and spiritual sides, has been the history of Puritanism."

When Charles II., after the death of Cromwell, came back to England, welcomed by the acclamations of what appeared to be the entire people, it seemed as if Puritanism had struggled and fought in vain. But it was not so. Elliott and Pym and Hampden and Cromwell had not lived and died for nought. Little as the Stuarts who succeeded Cromwell knew it, the power had passed forever from the hands of kings, and had been lodged forever in the hands of the representatives of the people in parliament assembled. This was really what Puritans had fought for, to which church reform had been a constant stimulus as something very essential which could be obtained only through the recognition of the rights of the people. And so in the great Puritan Revolution, liberty, political and religious, was secured, bringing with it purity of worship, instead of, as the Puritans expected, purity of worship being first secured, bringing with it liberty.

And what, meanwhile, of the Pilgrims? It is pleasant to turn from the strife and bloodshed, the bigotry and narrowness, the bitterness and hatred, the selfishness and fickleness everywhere so prominent in the Puritan struggle, to the peace and love and Christian simplicity of that first church in Plymouth, and that system of democratic government established by the charter adopted in the Mayflower. It is pleasant to note how the simplicity of their church gov

ernment won the approval and acceptance of the churches organized in other parts of New England by Puritans who when they came to New England had no church sympathy with the Pilgrims; and how that one church became the model for all New England.

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND THE NATION.

BY REV. R. T. JONES, PHILADELPHIA.

(A sermon delivered at the Susquehanna Ave., Presbyterian Church, Phila.)

Mr. Jones chose Isaiah 60:22 as his text, and said:

“The text is a prophecy coneerning the mighty increase of the Christian Church. While realizing this, yet without violating the laws of exegesis, I may be allowed to apply the words to the marvellous growth of our nation. The ancients had their seven wonders, but American progress is a wonder that casts an eternal shadow on all the wonders of antiquity. Our growth has not been of a mushroomlike character, but stable and solid.

"To the material progress of the nation we recognize as a contributing element the vast natural resources. Four million square miles of surface! That immense area, decked with majestic rivers, fair lakes, hills, valleys, prairies, arable land enough when cultivated to feed more than fifteen times as many souls as there are now in the country, sufficient land surface to yield supply for 1,000,000,000 people What a stupendous fact! Add to that the wonderful wealth under the soil, coal beds simply inexhaustible, iron ore, silver [and gold, and other precious metals-considering all these things, the gigantic Gladstone only spoke what every American knows when he said, 'We have a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever established by man.'

YET FORGET NOT THIS.

"But we must not forget the relig ious element which permeates, and the christian influence which throbs in the very veins of the nation. Without the Christian influence there would be no America, and we venture to remark that the existince of our Republic is due to forces set in motion by the reformation, at the head of which were the mighty men, Luther and Calvin. Failing to find liberty in the atmosphere of European conntries, their followers crossed the sea to that land which was to hold the destiny of the future. Among those grand old Puritans were people of gigantic hearts and souls, and on their arrival they planted the seed of liberty, righteousness, and gospel principles. America was founded by Christian men, and no body of people did more toward the moulding of the nation than those in whose hearts was instilled the Presbyterian doctriue. We bow with reverence to the Puritans. We crown Roger Williams and the early Baptists with the wreath of imperishable honor, we laud the memory of the early Dutch settlers, the Quakers and the brave Huguenots, but even they drew their inspiration from the Geneva reformer, Jonn Calvin.

A FACTOR IN THE NATION'S HISTORY.

"We find a more direct following of the Geneva reformer in Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales. Driven by persecutions, many found shelter in fair Columbia. Thus, one of the chief factors in the formation of the American nation is the Presbyterian element.

"One significant proof of the influence our Church exerted is the wonderful analogy between the form of the National Government and the polity of our church.

"It is an undeniable fact that our

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND THE NATION.

republican form of government is Presbyterian. The courts of the church and the courts of the nation correspond in their respective authority. Prominent among the framers of our Constitution were Presbyterians and they wielded as great influence as the immortal Witherspoon did at Independence Hall. When others were beginning to falter it was his courage and trumpet voice that inspired them to sign the mighty document. Chief Justice Tilgham says 'the framers of the Constitution borrowed very much of the form of our republican form of government from the Presbyterian Church.'

"The early Presbyterians of our country were the first to move against tyrranny and bondage.

"I shall confirm the statement by quoting from Bancroft, "The first public voice in America for dissolving

connections with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, nor the Dutch of New York, but from the Presbyterians." The first declaration of independence was framed by the Presbyterians of Mecklenburg, N. C. The past achievements of the Presbyterian Church for the right of man should forever explode the groundless charge of bigotry and narrowmindedness. The scoffers who sneer at Presbyterians owe to them an everlasting gratitude for their liberty, for Presbyterian brain, heart, and blood have helped

to make the nation what it is.

AS AN EDUCATOR.

"The Presbyterian Church has taken a most prominent part in advancing the educational standard of the nation. Bancroft says that 'Calvin was the father of popular education, the inventor of the system of free schools. Adherents to the Calvinistic teaching in this country have nherited that sublime trait, for in

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history Presbyterianism and intelligence have gone side by side, hand in hand. Presbyterian is not, as some suppose, a cold formula and a lifeless dogma. We have a dogma and are not ashamed of, because religion without dogma would suit idiots only. But Presbyterianism is something more than dogma, it is a living Christianity. A church that has played such a prominent part in the framing, molding and building of the Republic, is born of God to do good. The culture and learning champion the cause of education, and a leading editorial in one of the daily papers calls us the brainiest and most intelligent in the land.

"A church with such a history should be bold in her demands. The Presbyterian and other Protestant churches which have done so much for the nation assume too much modesty. Instead of loudly demanding what is right, they too readily yield to the domineering influence of political demagogues.

If all Christian people should unite, they would be an irresistible power in the nation, and would be the leavening power of the country, purging politics of all corrupt influence.

"Moreover, our church should continue aggressive. Aggressiveness in the salvation of man has been her characteristic. From every tribe ard nation people trail to this land. Some

of them have been rocked in the cradle of heathenism, others nursed in barbarian principles, others taught in socialism and anarchy. No sooner do some of them put their foot on our soil than they wave their red flag and cry down the American Sabbath, The duty of our church is to use the breastplate of courage, the weapon of truth and the sword of the Gospel and have these people educat- . ed and christianized, for christianity

is the safeguard and protector of our homes and individual rights.

"Our heroic ancestors were true to To principles and the laws of God. honor their memory let us walk in their footprints. Let us bear in mind that loyal Christians make loyal citizens. Those who serve God the most can serve the country best."

THE ANGLO-SAXON HOBBY. BY HON. ELLIS H. ROBERTS, NEW YORK.

[St. David's Banquet, New York,
March, 1892.]

History and political science have their slang, as common speech has, and it is carried to the uttermost extreme in the Anglo-Saxon fad. The term Anglo-Saxon has its proper use, to refer to the invasions of Britain by the Angles and Saxons, and their union in the old Englishry, with influences undoubtedly widespread on people, language and events. But the phrase has been made a beast of burden, to bear assumptions and claims generally misleading and often radically false. It has not the merit of Balaam's ass, for it uses speech, not for warning and protest, but simply to brag.

Even a broader boast is put forth in the same spirit. Our freedom is branded as a purely Anglo-Saxon creation. The germ of the town-meeting is ancient in India; it exists in Russia; Eastern poets sing the cypress and the lily as the emblem of liberty, as in the Western nations evergreen, pine and sturdy oak typify it. In the little republic of San Marino, the Latin race for fifteen centuries has exemplified the duration and stability of institutions. Switzerland, half German and half French, between extending monarchies, also proclaims that freedom is not the exclusive possession of the Anglo-Saxon, nor even

of those who speak the English tongue, (Applause.)

How can modern Western civilization be Anglo-Saxon? Its dawn was in the East; its morning brightened the shores of the Mediteranean; its Hebrew noonday glories bless us. prophets breathed upon it; Greek poets sing its cradle song; Roman law-makers led its toddling steps; German reformers marked paths for it; French vivacity and French science gave tone to its youth; Norse and Italian and Spanish navigators invited it over all the seas. Our civilization and our progress are the resultant of all races, of all ages, of all the elements of nature and of Providence. (Applause.)

You can conceive the contributors asserting their title to a share in the marvellous product. Solomon and Confucius gaze upon the world's progress, and say: Here is the fruition of the wisdom which we sought and a part of which we knew. The Phoenician who invented thealphabet stands before the printing-press and declares: my letters, swifter than the wind and more dazzling than the lightning, are leaders and masters. Solon and Lycurgus, with constitutions and codes in hand, are at home in the Supreme Court, in Parliament and Congress. Aeschylus and Raphael in theatre and art-gallery recognize the work of their own disciples. Columbus rejoices in the greater Indies which he gave to mankind.

These and such as these grasp modern civilization, the civilization of England, of Europe, of America, and call it their own product, the sum of the joint labors of all true thinkers, true doers, true men. Yet the air is black with the ink of writers who insist that much as these and such as these acheived, not they, but Swithin, the Angle, and Gurth the Saxon, are the real architects of the civilization

THE PAUPER'S GRAVE.

which blesses us-the teachers, the masters of the culture, the progress, the achievements of Britain and the United States.

Tubal-Cain could, perhaps, repair one of the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge. Plato could discuss the latest phase of socialism. St. Augustine could adorn any theological assembly. Peter the Great could tread the decks of the great steamship the City of New York and the White Squadron of our Navy, every inch a sailor. The Medici would not belong to an awkward squad among the Four Hundred or the Hundred and Fifty in New York society. (Laughter.) Lucullus could give points to the chief of the Metropolitan or Delmonico's. Perhaps the oratory of Demosthenes would be too ponderous for an audience accustomed to the sprightliness and wisdom of Depew ; but how Cicero would grace with his genial eloquence such a festive board as this at which

we sit.

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that tongue which is fast conquering the world.

When lexicographers shall agree with the new Century Dictionary, and explain away the term AngloSaxon as meaning "all English-speaking or English-appearing people," the ghost will have disappeared. Even the historian Freeman, the chief jockey of the Anglo-Saxon hobby, in his late lectures at Oxford, repeats and emphasizes the statement that "no man now living can be certain that he springs in the male line, and that no man not the descendant of a king can be certain that he springs in the female line from any of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who landed in Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries." Surely, then, my contention ought to offend no one, for no one, not even the historian Freeman, can be certain that he has a drop of original AngloSaxon blood in his veins. bury this vox et preterea nihil. (Applause.)

Let us

While we can do full justice to all

Summon now the men who fought beside Harold at Hastings, and apply the migrations into Britain, and make to them the tests of our mechanism, the most of all that is best in the our culture, our art, our statecraft. people who, in Britain and the UuitThey were the Anglo-Saxon flower and ed States, march in the forefront of glory. They would be dazed, crush- freedom and of progress, let us not ed and paralyzed in the civilization of give to a race what belongs to manto-day, and confess they have no exclusive title-only a minor share of it cendants of ancient Britons and as -even in the land in which their loyal Americans. Instead of riding standard went down before William the Anglo-Saxon hobby, let me be

the Norman. (Applause.)

kind. So much is our duty as des.

borne on the mighty chariot of a uni

red dragan of Wales on this creature races, the heir to all the ages, the My purpose is not to let loose the ted humanity, which is the sum of all of a school of writers.

Something

builder of all that is to be. (Loud and

will be achieved if this hobby shall be continued applause.)

driven to stall.

in the past and in the present and the hopes for the future of the composite people who bear the English name, and even more of the millions

more highly than I do the part played THE PAUPER'S GRAVE—BEDD Y DYN

who speak the English language

TYLAWD.

(Free Translation.) Under yon dark-spreading yew-tree, Lifts a hillock green its head, As if waiting for the crow aing Beauties of the dew o'erspread;

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