CB 55 G4 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES I By COL. G. A. G" 7 ,H4°T IB ■■ ■ H II Glass CB 15 5" Book , ( t4- Copyright^! . COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES COL. G. A. GEARHART Footprints of the Centuries By COL. G. A. GEARHART Published by THE LYCEUMITE PRESS CHICAGO, ILL. C"EnS5- Copyrighted 1909 by COL. G. A. GEARHART Buffalo. N. Y. All rights reserved. CLA 244764 AUa 18 1909 jforetoorb I have often been asked, "Why don't you put your lectures in print?" I have decided to do so. My five lectures will be in book form during the coming two years. If they meet with the same commendation which has everywhere been shown when I have given them from the platform, I can ask no higher from anyone. Of "Footprints of the Centuries" I have hun- dreds of testimonials as strong as the two presented below. Last evening Col. G. A. Geaihart gave us his lecture, "The Footprints of the Centuries." It was the greatest masterpiece of rhetoric, history, poetry, oratory and argument I eyer heard, and I have heard the giants of the lecture platform from Beecher down. This is the unanimous verdict of the immense audience that crowded our lecture hall to the very doors. We sold thirty-five hundred tickets at one dollar per ticket for this one lecture, which is the greatest triumph in the history of lectures in our city." — Elmer E. Helms, D. D„ Pastor Litvwood Avenue M. E. Church, Buffalo, N. Y. I have never heard as complete, earnest and instructive por- trayal of the marvelous progress of Christian civilization. A fearless embodiment of truth, it is more— an unanswerable argu- ment for God in history and the Christ in human achievements— a powerful message from the lecture platform. It has a might}' mission; let it be heard by every patriot, whether he be Chris- tian or not.— /. T. Pritchett, Pastor M. E. Church, South Higginswille, Mo. Footprints of the Centuries Browning has said : "Progress is man's distinctive mark alone. Not God's, and not the beasts'. God is, they are; man partly is, and wholly hopes to be." History is the brilliant searchlight revealing to us the Past; and by the light of the "Lamp of the Past" we read the future. We are following the trail of centuries passed into history, enjoying the goodly heritage bequeathed by our fathers. America's fair possessions, her broad realms of beauty, still undimmed by lapse of years, the fathers and mothers- won through blood, toil and tears. They cleared highways for the millions then unborn, From the midnight of oppression to the dawn of Freedom's morn. Inspired by grateful memories we seek to pene- trate the veil of the past, that we may catch new inspiration from the story of the struggles and achievements of heroic days. 10 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES As a people we do well to remember the rugged patriotism of the fathers; the heroic and unexam- pled devotion of mothers, and the intellectual de- velopment of their children. As a people we do well to remember the songs and legends of pioneer days ; and the many sentimental things that have been woven into imperishable prose or deathless song from the days of the old "Continentals" down to that naval achievement in Santiago Harbor; where the yellow flag of Spain, lit with the sunset splendor of a "World Empire/' faded from the sky of the Western Hemisphere. Our inspiring past is the prophecy of our glorious future. The hands on the dial plate of Time never stand still; the steps of Progress never turn back- ward. AH that we glory in today was once a dream ; The world-will marches onward gleam by gleam; New voices speak, dead paths begin to stir, Man's just emerging from the sepulchre. Let no man write, let no man ever dare To write on Time's great way "No thoroughfare." For the sun of the present century warms a better world, shines upon better conditions and illumines a nobler humanity than did its predecessors. The glad song that's to live through the age, That's to flow down the world as the lines down the page, Is — Think if you can of a mission more grand Than a mission to live in this time and this land! And it's the songs we sing, and the smiles we wear That's makin' the sun shine everywhere. FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 11 Nearly one hundred years ago a wise man wrote : "We are living, we are dwelling In a grand and awful time ; In an age on ages telling, To be living is sublime." But in the age in which the celebrated author wrote nothing was known of the telegraph, the cable, the telephone or the electric car. There were few schools, few churches, and not a public library in the United States. All the travel between New York and Boston was borne by two stage coaches. Twenty days were required for a letter to go over- land from New York to Charleston. Imprisonment for debt was a common practice. The whipping post and pillory were still standing in New York and Boston. It is said that when a Virginian an- ticipated a journey to New York, he made his will, bade farewell to all his friends, never expecting to see them again. The Mississippi Valley was not as well known as is the heart of Africa today. New England girls were not allowed to marry until they could bake a loaf of bread, and while it was yet warm, cut it in smooth, even slices. Persons who criticised the minister or his sermon were fined. Church collections were taken in a bag at the end of a pole, with a bell attachment to rouse sleepy con- tributors. Gentlemen who wore hair powdered it. Our national childhood toyed with the "Thirteen States." We rejoiced in the little possibilities of immigration and naturalization. Manhattan was our 12 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES empire, and Castle Garden the prophecy of our greatness. Magnificent ideas and humanitarian pos- sibilities slept in the cradle on whose rocker was the foot of a goddess. From a few, feeble colonies scattered along the Atlantic seaboard, and welded into the United States under the heat of the Revolutionary strife, and rec- ognized as the "Infantile Republic," the march through the century has been a succession of signal triumphs. "Behold a change that proves e'en fiction true, More springing wonders than Aladdin knew. Proud domes are reared above the gray wolf's den, And forest beasts have fled their homes for men. Glittering spires and busy mart's confess That man hath quelled a wilderness." The howl of the wolf has given place to the whis- tle of the engine; and the warwhoop of the Indian has been drowned by the music of machinery. The cotton fields of our beautiful Southland wave their white banners of peace toward the setting sun ; and yonder in the Westland, where the wild horse and buffalo grazed, limitless fields of ripening grain wave back their banners of gold. From the Atlan- tic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf cities and towns have sprung up like magic ; we hear the. hum of industry by day, while the skies of night are red with the glare from the fires in our mills and furnaces. So, the world of our fathers is not our world. Out of the ashes of the dead past a new present is FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 13 continually born. Each generation is peculiar in its phases and conditions of life. Every age has its crises to meet, its problems to solve. Standing on the threshold of all that is yet to be, we are faced by new conditions. Steam and elec- tricity have compressed the earth ; the elbows of the nations touch. Time and space are practically de- stroyed. New York is nearer to Europe than Bos- ton was to Philadelphia in the days of our fathers. The "Golden Gate" is nearer to Manila than Maine was to the Carolinas. The sea is a highway and a whispering gallery; we talk with our English cous- ins before breakfast; we visit them between Sun- days. The whistle of the locomotive is the herald of social and industrial revolution in the life and purposes of all peoples and nations of the world. Railroad tracks and telegraph wires are the veins of business blood, thrift and energy; and every rail- road tie and telegraph pole a milestone on the mar- velous onward march of the most progressive na- tion in the world. Today we face the future, multitudinous with dis- coveries, inventions, opportunities and possibilities. The thoughtful man, he who loves his race, and especially those who are to live after him, is con- tinually asking, "What will it be? What measure of influence is it to exert upon coming centuries? What part is it to play in the great drama of Time ? The problem raised by the questions is so vast, and the elements involved in them are so numerous, that 14 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES it seems we can do little more than ask them; and yet we can hardly content ourselves until we have made an attempt to look into the future that means to humanity wretchedness or joy. At first it seems an almost impenetrable maze; but even a maze may be threaded if the traveler have a line to guide his way. The proposition which I propose to bring to your thought is this: The Twentieth Century will take its character from that of the men and women who are to live in it. More and more we are coming to see that the purpose of the material universe is to furnish an arena in which the race may win those victories which are to be crowned with Eternal Life. God never fails in an experiment, nor tries experiment upon a race but to educe its highest style of life and sublimate its issues. We turn to the past to find that — "Through all the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns." Progress has its deepest root in history. Great forces pour into the present, receiving their first im- pulse from times and conditions more remote. Our civilization, its breadth of culture and wealth of in- vention, is heir to the genius of the past. Our insti- tutions have been rocked in the cradle of immemorial history, and are grown gray with the lapse of ages. They bear the impress of the struggles and triumphs of the thousand generations gone before us. The FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 15 greatest achievement of science, the ripest product of our thinking have been the silent growth of cen- turies. Out of the past does thought drink its deep- est inspiration, and action gather its noblest motive. The great Fulton taught us how to defy the hurri- cane, and to reduce the ocean to a ferry. Franklin discovered the archimedean lever in the electric switch and turned on a power that is lifting the world. Morse made electricity our mercury, anni- hilating time and space in the transmission of intelli- gence, and Alexander Graham Bell has brought the world's ear to our desk and makes it listen. The conquest of the air is an achievement we are beginning to realize. We shall soon be able to leave earth's crowded highways and go coursing through the unobstructed skyway. We shall invent a motor that will utilize efficiently the heat of the solar rays. Every human want finds its expression in terms of light, heat and power; and when these are made cheap enough, the earth will be a playground, and every land and sea will pulse and vibrate under the touch of the human finger and the guidance of the human brain. Now may we not logically take a little time to re- mind ourselves how the retrospect shows us that the world was made for man, and has been waiting for him to discover its secrets, master its forces and enjoy its rewards ? The work of creation occupied six full periods called days. At the close of the fifth the observer 16 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES would have said the work was complete. There were the heavens and the earth ; the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. There were the wide sweeping oceans swarming with water life from whale to minnow. There were vast continents covered with forest and fruit-bearing trees, among which roamed countless herds of beasts both great and small. All this life, both animal and vegetal, was endowed with the power of reproduc- tion each after its kind. And now an air of expect- ancy rests over the great work as creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God. The house is erected and equipped from garret to cellar. There is money in the safe, and provision in the pantry. Servants are ready to serve, and beasts to bear, but everything is waiting for the master of the home. Out of the council of Heaven comes this decree: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." So God created man in His own image. Male and female created He them. And God saw all the work He had made and it was good. The master and mistress have come; the house is transformed into a home; the expectation of creation is satisfied; and on the seventh day God rested from all the work He had made. The artist has told the same story in his peculiar way. You may have seen the picture. There is a FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 17 magnificent landscape. The grass is green and the flowers are tinted by the sunshine of God's earliest springtime. A stream of pure, limpid water flows through a verdure-clad valley and is lost in the dis- tance. Birds of brightest plumage fly from leafy bower to blossom-covered fruit trees. Beasts of perfect form, to whom fear is a stranger, graze upon the hillside. The central figure of the picture is a human form of faultless proportions reclining on a moss bed near the bank of the stream. The figure is that of a man ; but the listless attitude, the aimless, dreamy eye, is that of a noble but purposeless beast. The scene, while one of matchless beauty, is sug- gestive of waiting. Just above the reclining form appears a white cloud of softened brilliancy. Out of the cloud is extended a hand throbbing and puls- ing with indescribable power. As if drawn by di- vine magnetism the right hand of the languid form is lifted. As the hand of the divine approaches the one not yet human, there leaps the spark of man- hood, and the handsome beast becomes a living soul. Now the expectation of creation is satisfied. There has appeared upon this magnificent scene one to whom all this life and beauty have a meaning, and to whose welfare they may minister. The thought of story and picture is, that man is the crowning work of creation. That in him all the problems of earth and sea and sky are somehow to be solved. That the world is a kingdom whose 18 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES throne is vacant until man is seated thereon to direct the energies of the empire. Apparently this proposition has twice been dis- proven in the progress of human thought. Among the earliest hypothesis of creation was the Ptolemaic. According to its terms the earth was set at the center of the universe and was stationary. The sun, moon, planets and stars were glistening beauties set in magnificent glass spheres which re- volved about the Eome of man solely for his pleasure and profit as the panorama passes before the eyes of the audience. Dante wrote, "The sun was created expressly to give man light and heat. The stars in their courses to preside over his strangely checkered destinies; the winds to blow, the floods to rise, and the fiend of pestilence to stalk abroad over the land, all for the blessing or warning or chiding of the chief among God's creatures, Man." This hypothesis harmonizes perfectly with the thought before us, that man is prince of creation. But Copernicus with one blow shattered all this dec- orated glassware. His theory tore the earth from its fixed central position of chief glory and hurled it an obscure and tiny speck out into the blackness of space, wholly invisible amid the throng of flaming suns that make up our galaxy. His proposition took man from the throne and made him a mere in- cident to a mighty plan that was being wrought out without the slightest regard to his existence. This was to overturn the very foundation of the current FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 19 belief. We are not surprised that a mistaken Church, in its efforts to defend the proposition of the kingship of man, persecuted such heroes as Galileo and Bruno, by whom they believed it to be assailed. But the after-thought was the better thought. It by and by dawned upon the fathers that man's king- ship does not depend upon his place in the universe. When they learned the true condition of things they saw that the vast fiery suns are still the titan-like servants of the little planets which they bear with them through the distant abysses of space, and which, like thoughtful servants, they keep at a safe distance from their own consuming flame. But the past century has witnessed what many consider a more serious assault upon man's kingship. The anthropologist tells us that man is not a sep- arate order as we had supposed. He not only classes him as a vertebrate, a mammal, a primate, but insists that he is of the genus of the catarrhine family of apes. That just as lions, leopards and lynxes, vari- ous genera of the cat family, are descended from a common stock of carnivora back to which we may trace the pedigree of dogs, hyenas, bears and seals, so the various genera of apes, including man, are doubtless descended from a common stock of pri- mates, back to which we may trace the converging pedigrees of lemurs and monkeys until their ancestry becomes indistinguishable from that of rabbits and squirrels. 20 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES This proposition does seem to assail man's king- ship. No wonder that the believer in Genesis at first thought rejects the doctrine as unscriptural ! For if man is physically akin to baboons as pigs are to horses and cows are to deer, he cannot be the prince of the world. He is only an incident to an endless series of changes. Ages ago, according to this theory, some bird-like reptile was supreme. Ages hence man will yield the scepter to some higher creation, and so on forever. But the man of science asks us to hear him to the end before we reject his teaching. While he insists that man was evolved from lower forms, in accord- ance with the principle of natural selection and the "survival of the fittest" when the physical man was fully developed, the direction of the evolution was squarely changed. Its energies were turned into intellectual channels. Thence each generation dif- fered from the preceding not in bodily form as be- fore, but in larger and more enfolded brain. This process continued until the difference intellectually between a Shakespeare and an Australian was fifty times greater than that between an Australian and an orang-outang; until it was many times greater than that between the ape and the halibut, which though of equal weight has a forebrain smaller than a melon seed. In mathematical power the Aus- tralian who cannot tell the number of fingers on his FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 21 two hands is much nearer a lion or a wolf than to Sir Rowan Hamilton, who invented the method of quaternions. But later on the course of develop- ment was changed again. When the human intel- lect had reached a stage of completeness correspond- ing to that of the body it was left to be trained by the various circumstances and conditions which should surround it. Then its energies were directed to the moral nature. During the lengthened infancy of their offspring, demanding more care on the part of the human parent, parental love was developed. With their growing ability to cultivate the soil and so provide their own food, there came a cessation of that dog-like strife for bread which has been char- acteristic of the race. Thus there was laid a foun- dation upon which society could build the cities of peace. We are told that we are now in this third stage of evolution. At this point the man of sci- ence, who has been accounted an enemy of the faith, becomes a prophet. Because he believes so firmly in the progress of the past, he looks forward with larger faith to glorious triumphs in the future. His face shines like that of Stephen as he foretells. And as the centuries roll on war will cease, not by the edict of international statutes, but through a fully developed regard for human life. Person and prop- erty and virtue will be safe, not out of fear of the courts,, but by the force of the broader law of love. 22 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES Thus science does not, after all, take man from the humble throne upon which a mythical theology had placed him, but sets him on a throne hard by the throne of God. Thus story and picture and science harmonize. They declare together that creation has waited, yea, is waiting for the revealing of man. That this is "the one far off divine event toward which all creation moves." But it is in no theory of creation that we see God's purpose to develop the highest manhood on this planet, but the unfolding of His purposes since crea- tion shows how patiently He has waited for man to become able to appreciate His gifts. Long before the foot of man touched the surface of the earth, rich deposits of precious metals were laid in the creek bottoms and mingled with the sands of California and Alaska. How many ages those grand old mountains waited with sublime patience for man to thrust his hand deep into their eternal pockets and draw forth the gold! Ever since hydrogen and oxygen were first joined in marriage, and fell in dense showers on the white-hot rocks of the Archean age, and were shot upward in vast clouds of steam, a power des- tined to give birth to a world-wide commerce waited a call to service. How long it waited! How it wooed man! How it played about his cook-room all through the centuries, waiting for Watt to give it hands and fingers and feet with which it might bear the burdens of the world ! FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 23 "Its first tones were heard by an old-fashioned hearth ; 'Twas an anthem's faint cry on the brink of its birth; 'Twas the teakettle's drowsy and droning refrain, As it sang through its nose as it swung on the crane. 'Twas a being begun and waiting its brains, To be saddled and bridled and given the reins ; Today its lungs are of steel, its breathings of fire, It crunches the miles with an iron desire ; With its white cloud of mane like a banner unfurled, It howls through the hills, it pants 'round the world." Away back in God's fifth day, when fishes were first born in the sea, He set in the heart of the west Alleghenies, and in the lake plains of Ohio, and where else we do not know, His gigantic gas plant. We cannot count the ages during which that gaseous mass swirled to and fro in its prison house, waiting for man to unlock its prison doors and set it free to leap forth in gladness, bringing light and heat to the hearths of homes. Somewhere in the clash and con- flict of a borning world another mysterious agency had its origin. During intervening cycles electricity had been waiting — restlessly, impatiently waiting. It went flashing and dancing across the sky, vainly trying to teach man the lesson of its power. How long it waited for one skillful enough to lasso the winged steed and make it the courier of commerce ! Today electricity lights our homes, draws our cars, stands guard over our lives, bears our messages of business and words of love. But the door of the temple of electrical marvels is just opening, and we are at the threshold dimly 24 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES comprehending. Standing in the dazzling light of the world's greatest progress let no man say there remains nothing in electricity yet to be discovered. We have seen but the dawning of the "Electric Age." We are at the threshold of the temple of wonders. We have been permitted but a glimpse at the dazzling marvels that are within. Into every thoughtful mind must be borne some comprehension of the industrial revolution that is coming. Al- ready the flash of instantaneous intelligence girdles the earth. Long distance telephone wires have leaped from city to city, and the human voice is heard almost across the continent. Night is all but turned into day. The oratory of statesmen and the music of great composers are stored away as treas- ures to be heard long after the voices are dumb. What is there yet to come? What is there yet for us in the depths of the undiscovered ? Many of the brightest minds of the world are today working on the problems of electricity. It is in the air about us; without it, probably we could not live. It is generated by the waves of the sea, by the flight of birds, by the rubbing of our palms, and yet, what is it? Ask electricians. The wisest of them shake their heads. It is life. It is God-like. Terrible in its power to destroy, stupendous in its helpful- ness to mankind, yet invisible. Thousands gaze upon God's magnificent handiwork at Niagara, that crowning gem of the world's scenery, where today are joined nature's most splendid contribution to FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 25 man, and man's most brilliant achievement. Where the mighty overflow of Superior, Huron, Michigan and Erie leaps one hundred and seventy feet, mag- nificent in volume, stupendous in breadth, and awe- inspiring in its ceaseless thunderings which have haunted that place with the same dread solemnity since darkness brooded on the deep and light came rushing on creation at the word of God, there was set the world's stupendous water power. Man has harnessed the "Thunderer of Waters" to God's in- visible electricity ; mighty Niagara no longer squan- ders all its gigantic energies in leaping, rolling and rumbling under its clouds of spray and mist and shining rainbow, but proclaims to the world its will- ingness and ability to turn the wheels of industry for a continent. "Flow on Niagara! God hath set His rainbow on thy forehead and the cloud-mantles 'round thy feet. He gave thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him eternally; bidding the lip of man keep silence, and forever on thy rocky altar pour incense of awe-struck praise." Who can count the incandescent globes with which Edison has arched the highway of human progress, dotting the industrial firmament with millions of fila- ments of glowing beauty, giving light to the cities and towns of two hemispheres? We are coming into the white light of the world's greatest progress. The youths of today who are being educated in electricity are pointing the way 26 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES through this temple of wonders to inventions and ap- plications of mechanical and electrical science that will astound the world. Look back again! Away yonder, when God said "Let there be light," and there was light, there was hidden in the heart of that first sunbeam a ray that knows no hindrance, but passes through wood and skin and flesh. All the ages that mysterious ray has been falling upon the human eye, pleading for an opportunity to reveal se- crets for the ignorance of which skill has been baf- fled, and life sacrificed. Had it been a human thing it would have lost its patience waiting for Roentgen to give it the equipment with which it might lay bare the secrets of science and life. Long before the sun became the sun there was formed an illimitable, invisible, intangible ocean in which all future worlds should swim as fishes in the sea. All the cycles since creation this ether has sur- rounded and permeated man, waiting to yield to him mysteries of power of which we are today ignorant. Its long waiting has brought its fruition, for it has shown itself able to carry our messages without any visible means of transportation, "Wondering science stands herself perplexed At each day's miracles, and asks "What next ?" We are considering as to when the telegraph wire will wholly give place to ether waves, as the human messenger gave place to the wire, and thought will fly across the continent to distant friends as prayer FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 27 flies upward to the living God. And we are to re- member that these are God's powers; and of his placing before man. Yet in great wisdom He waits until man is able to give the power its needed equip- ment. Electricity is not the wonder of the age. Wireless telegraphy is not the modern miracle. More marvelous than either is the development of the mind of man. The wind that wafts the fleet across the sea is God's ; the sail and helm are man's. Whether the wind shall dash the fleet upon the rocks or bear it safely to the harbor, depends upon the set of sail and helm. The electricity that flashes light to the darkest corner of the great city is God's ; the wire is man's. The greater the surface of the wire the stronger the current that can be sent through it. The steam that draws family and furniture from the old home in the east to the new home in the west, is God's steam ; the engine is man's. Without the en- gine the steam would be powerless save to burn and destroy. We stand in awe as we consider how many forces may be hidden about us only waiting for man to become wise enough to discover and equip, that he may safely use them. If we ask the origin of these forces, Genesis with a million voices of nature answers, "In the beginning, God." It is frequently declared that this is a materialistic age. But almost before the reproach is heard sci- ence declares that there is no such thing as inert mat- ter. That every atom is alive. That our mortal bodies are conglomerations of living organisms upon 28 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES whose pitched battles in our veins depends our health or disease. Take one instance! Consider all that we today understand by the word "microbe," and remember that the microbe was practically unknown sixty years ago. In this sense, science has revealed a "New Heaven" and a "New Earth." Infinitely marvelous ! Testifying to an understanding so vast that the mind of man by searching cannot find it out. Today we weigh the stars, analyze their composi- tion in the spectroscope; we photograph the moon, we make maps of the canals of Mars. We imprison the sunbeam, we harness the lightning, we know the chemistry of systems, we read the earth's history in the rocks, we photograph the interior of solid bodies; in short, we have become the masters of every known force. And yet, far more stupendous are the discoveries that have been made, not in the infinitely distant abysses of space, but in the world of the infinitely little, all about us. "In wonder-workings or some bush aflame Men look for God and fancy Him concealed; But in earth's common things He stands revealed, And Grass and Flowers and Stars spell out His name. ,, "Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God." Not only in science, but in the nearer and more im- portant field of social life, may we discover the prog- ress that has been making for the century just before FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 29 us. During the past one hundred years much has been done to enlarge the liberty and promote the welfare of the race. The regard shown for chil- dren is an excellent gauge of the civilization of the age. In the early centuries the child was as dirt beneath the feet of brute strength or greedy wealth. Children could be worked to death in mills and fac- tories before they were eight years of age. No one cared for them. No one educated them. No one shielded them from torture or avenged them when they were done to death. Today they are emanci- pated from labor until they are 12 to 14 years of age. They are protected by stringent regulations and constant inspection. Their schools stand like palaces in the midst of dingy streets. Playgrounds are provided; a whole literature has been supplied for them ; while behind all the machinery of the law stands the avenging angel of tortured childhood, "The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chil- dren." And as with the child, so with woman. In the early centuries she was little more than an append- age to man ; a nought placed at his side to give him a higher place. A creature to be petted if she were handsome, to be made a servant if she were homely. Having no legal existence she had few privileges except such as man chose to grant her. Now I would not cast one reproach upon the woman of the past. Rather, I would pause and pay her tribute. Words are inadequate to the theme. Woman has 30 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES always been the joy of the Age. Whatever her condition, she bore it with complacency, accepted inferiority as a badge of glory, suffered injustice without complaint, and never murmured through a thousand years. She believed that she was predestined to keep man from being lonesome. She believed what men taught her; that there in Genesis God placed the lines of life and destiny about the sexes, mapped out for each its work, the one to labor, the other to love. She made home sweet, shared every sorrow, doubled every joy, and blessed the lives of the children ; for in the last and holiest of all relationships — mother- hood — she held her noblest kingdom in the home, and ruled it like a queen. Then let us more and more glorify the vocation of motherhood; for the only queen that shall endure is the mother, on her rocking-chair throne, with the little ones kneeling at her side, and baby-voices prattling, "Now I lay me down to sleep." This was the old-fashioned woman. The woman of our dreams. And may our right hand wither when we forget the mothers. Let us lift our heads and hearts in homage to that golden memory, while history breathes the sweetest benediction on that honored name. But there has been a change ; and on the whole a change for the better. I know that every change in social life has its wrecks. That there are always some weak ones who are only waiting an opportu- FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 31 nity to let their weaknesses reveal themselves. And so today there is a woman who defies the soft con- ceptions of her sex and shocks the world. She is bold and unwomanly, insolent and aggressive. She abuses man and then indulges in the rankest imita- tion of his garb. She scorns home, and calls chil- dren brats. There is no joy in innocence for her; no glimpse of heaven in a babe's blue eye; no song in rippling laughter, no grace in pattering feet. In social customs and fashionable garments she out- runs decency in the baldest exposure of bodily charms. She rebels against the conventional re- strictions of her sex, and apes man in his freedom, pursuits, clothing, manners, amusements, and some- times, morals. This is the woman to whom a cele- brated preacher said, "If one of you women ever come to me to talk religion, the first thing I do will be to pull off my coat and put it on you, so that I can be pious while I talk." This is the woman who holds her body not as a shrine of virtue, but as a temple of lust, and a snare for the baser passions of mankind. She represents nothing but folly, or "Original Sin," but a great deal of that. I say there is such a woman ; and because she is so brazen, and makes such a show of herself, many are saying that she is "The New Woman" — the natural prod- uct of the social evolution through which we are now passing. And so, these people, thinking that pure, sweet, modest womanhood ts imperiled, would lock every door at which woman is knocking for admis- 32 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES sion. Women are better than men ; but when they forget it, they forget it so hard that it is discour- aging. But there is a new woman who, having lost none of the sweetness has gained much of the strength of the newer age. While she still stands ready to crown man victor in the lists of physical endeavor, she has herself entered the lists for the crown and the laurels of strife. She does not look down upon home ! She acknowledges that only when woman is led in love and honor to the altar, does she become a queen. But she believes that a useful princess is more honored than a disappointed queen. Then — she has seen that young men as a rule are more reck- less in their living than young women, and she can reason well enough to know that so long as this continues there always will be more worthy young women than there are young men fit to become their husbands. And so there must be, for a long time, at least, a goodly company of women who must do their work outside the sacred precincts of home. And when she looks about her she finds there are wide fields in which noble women whose heart- yearnings for a home can never be satisfied, may do blessed service. So, in the last half of the 19th cen- tury she began a work that is only a prophecy of what she is to do for the 20th century. She has de- fied the prejudice which had heretofore shut her out from the benefits of higher education. For a thou- sand years men said that "Woman had no brain for FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 33 a higher development. That her limited capacity- would make her unsafe beyond the confines of the home unless she was carefully escorted by her liege lord." The old philosophers taught that a woman ought not to leave home but three times in her life ; namely, to be baptized, to be married and to be buried. The women were looking for most pleas- ure in the last trip. Men glorified her intuition, but refused to credit it to brains. They said, "She sees without eyes, thinks without reason, and is infallible within her sphere without logical processes." But she has demonstrated her capacity for higher education, as we see when we recall the fact that today in the east alone are ten colleges exclusively for women, whose standards are as high as any on the continent, and they are thronged with eager, earnest, studious, brilliant young women. Today, as with more unclouded vision we look away toward Mt. Holyoke, Wellesley, Smith, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Oxford, Oberlin, Painesville, Elmira and the host of co-educational institutions, including our western colleges and universities, we feel that we have indeed made mighty strides from the day when the hard rule was that "woman should know her place and keep it;" when a Connecticut town voted "not to expend any money for schooling girls;" when the question was asked, "What can education ever do for women?" The majority failed to see that it might be immeasurably fruitful in reproducing mil- lions of noble women who would know what they 34 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES were living for, who would uplift and ennoble the race. Today we are proud of that magnificent army of educated women in our country who are not afraid to stand alone if necessary, and are grandly moving in all uplifting services. Educate women and you educate the teachers of men. If "the child is father to the man," woman forms the man in educating the child. The teach- ings of the nursery are wrought out in all subsequent relationships in life. Its voice sounds from the pul- pit and the public forum. Its principles guide con- duct in all private and public affairs. No page of human history is so instructive and significant as the record of those early influences that develop the character and direct the lives of eminent men. "Educate a man and you educate an individual. Educate a woman and you educate a family." Of the 500,000 public school teachers in this coun- try today, 400,000 are women. It is said "What woman wills, God wills." And — "Disguise our bondage as we will, Woman rules us still." Today in the wide fields of co-education side by side in lessons with men, woman is sharing high honors in the mightiest institutions of the world. The last barrier to her mental kingdom has been won. The gates have been opened everywhere ; and with cour- age, energy and splendid purpose her brains are put- ting in peril the once so-called "Intellectual Superi- FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 35 ority" of the other sex. Many of us have seen an- cient prejudices fade in the light of her grand achievements until we have come to feel that as there has been no limit to her triumphs in the past, there should be no possible barrier to her future suc- cesses. For woman has won a right to make a liv- ing for herself. Won it against prejudice and re- sistance. At first the world received her proposi- tion with derision and scornful laughter. Every prophecy of unsexment was thrown in her way. It was said, "If this be done there'll be no place like home; for home will be the only place where you cannot find a woman." But she persevered. She demanded admission to the honorable pursuits of the day. How won- derfully she has succeeded! When Harriet Martineau came to this country in 1840 she found but seven paying occupations open to women. They were allowed to teach, sew, keep boarding-house, work in factories, set type, and become bookbinders by trade. The last census shows a list of more than 250 employments in which women are successfully and honorably engaged. From the census of 1900 we learn that there were at that time in this country 3,500 women preaching the Gospel; 1,010 practicing law; 7,500 practicing medicine; 20,000 managing postoffices, and more than 5,000,000 earning inde- pendent incomes. A farmer in the West who had married one of the most efficient school teachers in the East, and through whose education, economy 36 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES and good management he had accumulated a reason- ably large fortune, was visiting with her at her girl- hood home recently, when one of her friends, know- ing something of the conditions in the western home, asked him if he regarded marriage as a fail- ure. "Well," he replied, "it's mighty expensive to keep a wife; they're awfully extravagant; and then you can't git any of 'em to work mor 'n 'bout eight- een hours a day ! But now there's my wife Lucindy, gits up in the mornin', builds the fire, milks six cows, gits breakfast, washes the dishes, gits six children ready for school an' looks after the other five ; feeds the hens and the hogs and the calves and some motherless lambs, skims twenty pans of milk, does the churnin', gets dinner, toots the dinner-horn, waits on the men at table, clears away the dishes, does a little ironin', hoes a little in the garden, gits supper, takes care of the milkin', gits the young ones to bed, mends their clothes, does a little readin' and gits to bed long 'bout 12 o'clock! Now, I couldn't hire anybody out there in Kansas to do all that the year 'round for board and seven dollars wuth o' clothes." Well, I want to say to the young men, that the bright, intelligent young women of today won't marry for board and clothes. They've got better jobs. Since 1880 the patent office has grant- ed more than 7,500 patents to women; and there are today in the city of New York alone ten thousand women who by their own hand and brain labor are supporting their husbands. One of these useless FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 37 fellows, weighing about 250 pounds, was brought before one of our police justices on the charge of vagrancy. He immediately asked permission to send for his wife. In a few minutes a little, thin and thinly-clad woman was given a seat by the of- fender's side. The justice, a very kindly man, said, "Sir, the charge against you is vagrancy. It will now be necessary for you to show to the satisfaction of the Court that you have some visible means of support." Turning to the little woman the big fellow said, "Margaret, git up on yer feet so the koort kin take a look at yez." I think the best thing I ever heard said for "Mormonism" was that it did not put the entire burden and responsibility of sup- porting a husband upon one woman. But her right to labor and her right to learn have proven themselves to be God-given rights, for she is seeking to use them in blessing mankind. Out of her larger love has been born that mighty "cru- sade" against the saloon and liquor traffic that is putting to shame the fawning, cringing servility of men toward an iniquitous business that debauches manhood, degrades womanhood and beggars child- hood. We only wait now the time when the brother will stand manfully by the side of the sister, and the "saloon will go." Then she is deeply in earnest in another crusade. With Meredith she feels that "No life can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife, and all life not be purer and stronger thereby." 38 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES Experience has taught her that man may lay hold of every power that God has crowded into the secret chambers of nature, and yet remain a blotch upon the social landscape. Today the "Social Sin" is the gloomiest shadow on the "Social Sun." It's open and flagrant, it's shameful and defiant. Woman has grown tired of that suffering and waiting policy which for 1,800 years has ruled the world governed by man. But men, the age of tears is over ; the age of action has come. "The clock of Time has struck the woman's hour." It's time to adopt a stronger, even if a sterner, policy. It's time to draw near the Christly model. It's time to build a code of morals not for one sex, but for both. So that man shall no longer live two lives while woman must stand or fall by one. To this mighty work woman has girded herself ; to its accomplishment the great heart and working will of the sex is striving. May God crown her efforts with success. "Don't talk about a woman's sphere As if it had a limit. There's not a place on earth or in heaven, There's not a task to mankind given ; There's not a whisper, "yes" or "no," There's not a blessing or a woe ; There's not a life or birth That has a feather's weight of worth, Without a woman in it." She can't vote today in all the states, but the time is not far distant when the intelligence of this FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 39 country will be given a "square deal" at the ballot- box. One of the greatest advances of the past century is the progress made upon the farm. The old-style farmer with but little education, wholly dependent upon the caprices of nature, is rarely to be found. While in his place has come the practical, intelli- gent business men, who makes farming an indus- try, who applies both science and brains to its devel- opment. The farmer of today knows how to make the most of what he has. How to turn the gifts of nature to their best uses. How to control them so they will yield the best results. It is not an exag- geration to say that the modern, up-to-date farmer is the most independent man in all the industrial system. He has made farming a legitimate busi- ness; not a mere means of eking out a livelihood; and if he is a good business man, other things being equal, he can always make farming successful. In close touch with the social and intellectual world, yet not so dependent upon it's whims as his brother in the city, the problem of "How to keep the boy on the farm" is being rapidly solved. Today the farmer reads and thinks and studies. He's no longer deceived by the demagogues, but understands that his best interests lie along the lines of nationa! progress and prosperity. The farmer is the world's producer. He feeds himself, he feeds the world ; his influence as a social and political factor is steadily increasing. The 40 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES country boy may not arrive at maturity as early as the city boy, but in many cases he's vastly greater when he reaches it. Comparatively few great men have sprung from the exhausted soil of the metropo- lis. Not from among fortune's favorites reveling in luxury, but from among the sons of toil cradled in poverty, have come the world's benefactors. Coun- try boys have stamped their influence upon their own and future generations. One of the crying evils of today is the great com- binations of wealth, the inequality of its distribu- tion; and the poor have come to look with envy upon the rich, while some would resort to violence for an even distribution of God's goods. Yet it is well to bear in mind that Reformation will not come through Deformation and that better days will not come to Labor through pillage and fire and blood. The past century has done much in preparing the laboring man for the triumphs that await him in the century just before us. The very discontent of these days is a sign of his progress. He is now clamoring for things which an hundred years ago men never dreamed they could possess. Then wages, according to high authority, were less than half what they are today, while everything he used cost nearly twice as much. Outside of America he practically had no voice in the state, no stake in the country. He had no parks; the streets, his only gathering places, were foul with garbage and fecu- FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 41 lent with sewage. The water he drank might come from the graveyard so far as the state cared. He had few books, few newspapers, no baths, no clubs; no schools for his children, no holidays for himself. Today in the cities he has the museums, the li- braries, the art galleries as free as air. He is as free in the parks as if they were his own domains. He has his clubs, his trades unions, his benefit asso- ciations. Today his vote is his scepter; and al- though he often misuses it and fails to get the best out of it, yet it is his scepter, waiting only the time when he'll be wise enough and true enough to make him the real ruler of the world. A better education is within his reach today than the middle classes could have secured for love or money an hundred years ago. He has shortened hours of labor, "bank holidays" and half-a-day Saturday. Hospitals serve him free of charge when in need; the streets are cleaned; pure water is piped to his home, while a magnificent and costly system of drainage carries away all the sewage from his door. A one-cent postal card will carry his message across the conti- nent; a newspaper costing the same brings the world's news to his door. For a nickel he can buy some of the best books, and without the nickel the libraries throw open to him the books and papers and magazines from all parts of the known world. We still have too many convicts and paupers ; but in the morning of the Nineteenth Century the per- 42 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES centage of convicts was twenty times as high, while that of the paupers was thirty-six where it is sixteen today. In the higher realm of religion the Nineteenth Century did noble, preparatory work. In the morn- ing of that century the larger part of the Church was secularized. This was especially true of the Es- tablished Church of England and the Roman Church. An eminent writer says that one of his earliest memories is that of hearing a discussion as to whether a neighboring preacher, familiarly known as "Drunken Jack," was or was not too much intoxicated to properly perform the burial service. Even among the clergy of our country who had advanced so far as to call themselves "Puritans" the use of whisky and wine was very general. But in England the "Oxford movement" evangelized the State Church, while the revival in which Bishop Newman was so closely identified did the same for the Roman Church. A spirit of genu- ine religious enthusiasm lit anew the flame of piety in many a parish, and the good works that followed were too excellent to lose their savor because the Vicar held some peculiar notions about his church being the only one upon which the blessing of God could fall. In Scotland and in Wales there spread the spirit of piety until the government was awak- ened in its very conscience, and the life of the people was largely purified. FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 43 In our own country there was the "Finney re- vival" of the "Forties," while in these later years innumerable men, upon whom the spirit of God had descended in mighty power, are moving the world of men to deeper thinking, and are leading them to see as they have not before the secret of a spiritual life with its consequent privileges and power. It is a common charge which the world brings against the Church, that as soon as any sect becomes strong it leaves behind the degraded and the out- cast and lives among the intelligent and well-to-do. This is only another way of saying that when you get religion in the hearts of men they rise in the scale of social and financial living, as the balloon rises when it is filled with gas. The Church grows respectable as it grows older because those who have the spirit of the Master, rise to respectability. So it becomes necessary that every now and then a new movement should start in the alleys, that it may lead the people out into the broad avenues. The Methodist Church did this service for the world in the Eighteenth Century, and in the Nineteenth, Mrs. Booth, with her husband's assistance, founded the "Salvation Army," and her children, dedicated from their birth to the service of God in the finding and reclaiming of His prodigal sons and daughters, are carrying it on and bringing untold hope and hap- piness into homes where only the curse and cry were heard before. 44 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES Ella Wheeler Wilcox says: "So many gods, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind; When just the art of being kind Is what this old world needs." Charles Ames says : "There are deep things of God, Push out from the shore! Hast thou found much? Give thanks and ask for more. Fear not, in asking, to offend, God's store and bounty hath no end. He needeth not to be implored nor teased, The more we take, the better He is pleased. God's best of gifts is wit, to keep the cup Wherein He poureth blessings, right side up." I have traced the progress of the past centuries briefly, for in this way we may get the trend God has given by which we may better prophesy what He is waiting to work out for us in the Twentieth Cen- tury. As we stand looking so eagerly toward the future we recognize three principles that will have a part in determining the character of the age in which the young life of today will act its part. The new astronomy makes much of three cosmic laws. Our earth by a form of self-love caJled "molecular attraction" ceases to be scattered dust, and takes on the form of a rich and beautiful planet. But self -loved our earth is also sun-loved; and drawn by invisible bands is swept forward out of winter into summer. Then enters in a third prin- FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 45 ciple by which Neptune and Uranus, lying- on the edge of space, seek fellowship with our planet and hold it at a fixed distance from the sun's fierce heat. Thus, self-love has given our earth individuality, the love of other planets secures stability, while the sun's love gives movement and health. Working to- gether these three principles secure the harmony and stability of the planetary system. Similarly each individual is a part of a great social system. Each moves forward under the embrace of three laws called "Love to Self, Love to Neighbor, Love to God." Upon obedience to these laws rests all the hope of future centuries. Now as we plan for the future we are driven back to the proposition set forth in the early part of this lecture, viz: "The Twentieth Century will take its character from that of the men and women who are to live in it." How important, then, that with the destiny of a generation or generations resting upon them the men and women who are to take up the work of the present century should recognize their opportunities and responsibilities. For in the fu- ture more than in the past society will recognize the debt of strength to weakness; of success to failure. The man who has skill in speech will be the voice for the dumb. Those who have skill in gathering wealth will be almoners of bounty in art, education and morals. In those days men who selfishly get much and give little; who become dead seas of ac- cumulated treasure, will lose their standing in so- 46 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES ciety. More and more the world will come to honor and esteem those who serve their fellows. Men will be magazines, sending out their kindness every- where. Men will be gardens, filling the world with fragrance. Men will be castles in which the poor will find protection. The floods of iniquity have long covered the earth, but Love is the dove bring- ing the olive-branch of peace. Love sings the dawn of a new Dispensation, and heralds the regen- eration of our national life, when cannon shall be rolled into their resting places, swords beaten into plowshares and bayonets into pruning hooks. "When the war drum throbs no longer And the battle flags are furled In the parliament of man, The federation of the world." And nations learn war no more. For we, who scarcely yet can see wisely to rule ourselves, are set where ways are met, to lead the waiting nations on. "Not for our own land now is Freedom's flag unfurled, but for the world. Under its folds shall brothers be knit in closer bands, From the mountain crest to the gray sea sands." "When Freedom from her mountain height Unfurled her standard on the air, She had no narrow bounds in sight, Intending just to float it there! She named no rivers and no seas, No longitudinal degrees, Past which her flag was not to go ! She chose no creed, she picked no race, She singled out no favored place For Freedom here below. FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 47 But shaking out the flashing stars, And flinging forth the glorious bars, Gave to the islanders of the sea The right to share with you and me The blessings of the flag, if they But care to step from night to day, And bathe and ballot and obey." Prudence and statesmanship are today required to decide whether distant territory shall come perma- nently under our control or be left a rapidly spread- ing domain of hostile despotism. Whether the civ- ilization of the Twentieth Century will bless or curse the peoples who have come under our political control will depend upon its character and quality. If we are to carry beneficent civilization to the ends of the earth through our political, commercial and social contact, there is urgent need that we evangel- ize our own country, and make thoroughly efficient every agency of Christian training and education. Liberty must be ennobled and sanctified by moral obligation. Statues of "Liberty Enlightening the World" must illuminate those "Islands of the Sea." The oceans that surround them must yield their mythological "Neptune" to the genius of the Ameri- can sailor ; and as our mighty commerce bearers of the deep majestically move toward the "Rising Sun of Gibraltar" and the Mediterranean, as their huge hulks course the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Bay of Bengal, or, westward across the Isthmus, with their shadows painting momentary grandeur upon the gleaming islands of the Western ocean; 48 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES from the stars that shine upon our nation's emblem at their masthead, all peoples and nations of the world must catch the spirit of that "Angel Chorus" first heard by Judea's shepherds on Bethlehem's plains, and yet to rise from every human lip, "Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men." The American Republic in the coming centuries must rest upon the sure foundations of Righteousness ; failing which no nation can long exist or be permanently exalted. A government such as ours can find a solid foundation only on the intelligence and virtue of its people, and in the knowledge and word of Him who is the God and Ruler of Nations. These are our true and only safeguards. Educa- tion and virtue are as essential to the life of a nation as are brain and heart to the life of man. The "Ten Commandments" should be as binding upon nations as upon individuals. Away yonder in the gray morning of the Seven- teenth Century we see the "Mayflower" rolling on the mighty storm swells of the Atlantic, her rotten sides gaping to the sea, her tattered sails fluttering in the gale, with hope of reaching land almost aban- doned. But the hand of Almighty God is upon her staggering form ; His breath upon her canvas ; every nail in her timbers as sacred as the "Ark of the Covenant." Her prow scrapes the shores of Mas- sachusetts Bay, a company of tired mariners kneel upon "Plymouth Rock" and this mighty nation of FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 49 today was born in prayer. If it does not fulfill its high destiny God will remove His favor from us, and America among the nations of the world will become a "byword and a hissing." We will not be- lieve that our civilization will perish. We of this generation and nation occupy the gibraltar of the ages, on which the world's future rests. "America, 'gainst wrong thy might be hurled ; America, our country for the world." But you with Whittier say, "Ye are whispering truth — Whisper no longer; Speak as the tempest does, Sterner and stronger." Then I trust I may not be considered pessimistic if I call to your attention some reforms that need to be inaugurated as we enter upon the second decade of the Twentieth Century. A pessimist is one who has an ingrowing grudge against humanity in general, and himself in particu- lar. He sees failures hopelessly. The true opti- mist sees the failures, but never loses faith in the manhood and womanhood of America. The man for the future must possess three qualities in a greater degree than his ancestors. One of these is genuineness. He will start out to be frank with himself. We may not have thought much about it, but it is with one's self that all deception begins. Men do not undertake to deceive others until they 50 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES have first succeeded in deceiving themselves. It's a rare thing for a man to sit down and talk over every creed, every political tenet, every business proposition, every love, fairly and frankly and fully with his conscience, and then to go out and do and say just what he and his conscience have agreed is right. The man who does this will never be fooled into thinking that wealth without character is worth having ; or that place without inherent power is to be desired ; or that pleasure without peace of conscience is worth what it costs. He will live face to face with himself and he will repel every proffer of pro- motion that would tend to bring estrangement be- tween himself and his conscience. The man who lives in this way will never be the enemy of his fellow. He who can do no wrong to his own con- science will be slow to put out his hand against another man ; for notwithstanding all the pious talk about loving your neighbor, Christ made no mistake when He told us to love others as we love ourselves. The religion which fancies that it loves God and evinces no love for man, is not piety, but a mildewed theology, a dogma with a worm in its heart. There must be a self-respect, a self-frankness out of which alone can spring the highest and noblest treatment of society. The ideal man of the future will be gen- uine ; then, he will be a Puritan. And in that word there is a charm that will never be lost on a New England ear, for it is closely associated with all that FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 51 is great in New England history. Every spot of New England earth has a story to tell of them. Every cherished institution of New England society bears the imprint of their minds, and the strongest elements of New England character have been trans- mitted with their blood. Perhaps the most ominous fact in the life of today is the defeat of the people. Although the Nine- teenth Century placed in the hands of the common folks the scepter of the State, as yet they have not been able to resist the gold of the men who would make them hirelings. Fighting the battles of their masters instead of those of their country. The fundamental principle of the present civiliza- tion is the right of the people to rule. But at pres- ent the principle has outrun the practice. It may be the simple matter of getting a franchise in a city. Outside monopolists "stand in" with the Council, procure special legislation and drive through their schemes without the slightest regard to the wishes of those whose families have lived there for genera- tions. During the darkest month in our latest financial depression, when business of the country was stag- nant, when capital was idle and labor paralyzed, our national Congress spent weeks discussing frivolous propositions, and went home not having written a line that would tend to start a wheel or feed a single hungry child. 52 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES What Docs This Modern World Need? A revival of Puritanism. Social and industrial conditions will never be permanently better in this country until individuals and society recognize the everlasting truth that all men live daily in the pres- ence of the Almighty, and are forever responsible to Him. What made the "Ironsides" invincible? They could fight all day because they had prayed all night. The lines separating right and wrong, virtue and vice, are growing dim in these modern days. Lux- ury and effeminacy are taking their place. Too much of the literature of today is mere dirt ; a cov- ering of cancers with a cloth of gold. The stage has too largely fotgotten its Greek dignity, and has too largely become a place where vice panders to vice. Let the old Puritans come back, in the spirits of their descendants! We would not have them desecrate cathedrals nor touch that which is beauti- ful in art; but we would have them, with their austere moralities, deal with paganisms, luxuries, fashionable vices, polluted literature and with the brazen effrontery of those who disgrace the modern stage, for they are as "wells without water, clouds carried as with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. ,, We want no distor- tions of puritanism; but we do need its essential spirit. That spirit that will never compromise with evil ; which is impervious to the fascinations of vice, FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 53 and is as loyal to purity in the individual, the family and society as King Arthur was loyal to his knightly vows. The men for the Twentieth Century must get back to that puritanism that recognizes God as Sovereign over all, and declares that before that Sovereign all men have equal rights. And the man for the Twentieth Century must surpass the Nineteenth Century man in reverence. Reverence is the "alphabet of nobleness. ,, An ir- reverent man can no more be a nobleman than one can be a scholar who has not learned his letters. We have no ancient traditions in America to keep reverence alive as they have in Europe! Across the ocean stand cathedrals a thousand years old. There are customs hoary-headed with antiquity. Men live in cities whose walls have witnessed the battles of centuries. These cities and cathedrals and customs tend to keep alive a spirit of reverence for the past. We have no "class distinctions" in America. No ancient families whose ancestors for a thousand years have lived in the same home. It is difficult for a young American to comprehend what it means, to look up to a man, unless that man chance to have a marriageable daughter! A young man asked a father's consent to marry his daughter. "Can you give her as good a home as she now has ?" asked the father. "No, sir," replied the young fellow, "but I can give her as good a home as you gave her mother when you married her." The reaction against 54 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES "Puritanism" is tending against reverence. It is scarcely customary in these days to teach children reverence for parents or teachers. Formerly every boy doffed his cap and bowed reverently to the min- ister. Today some of our preachers get along first- class if the boy does not greet them as familiarly as he does me, with "Hello, Baldy." One of our most sedate and scholarly ministers was going from his "church study" across to his home on the ave- nue when there strode up behind him a half-intoxi- cated young American, who slapped him rudely on the back, saying, "Hello, old tombstone, I'm loaded to the muzzle." The cultured, Christian gentleman said to him: "Sir, forbear, forbear." "Oh, bless you," replied the young ruffian, "not for bear, just for sociability." The spirit of criticism is tending against rever- ence. We will not allow any mysteries; we're de- termined to solve them; and we're not wise enough to know that when they are solved they are as much as before entitled to our reverence. The sectarian spirit that leads us to criticise other denominations is teaching the world to lose its rev- erence for all the faiths. The present century can- not restore the same basis of reverence that has ex- isted in the past. Places will never be holy to us because some great man has stood there; but this century will teach that every place is holy place, that every ground is holy ground because it is a por- tion of the house the Father has made for His chil- FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 55 dren. We cannot re-establish a united ritual by which we all agree to climb to God's throne by steps worn by the knees of the centuries, but we must gain that broader and more Catholic reverence that sees God in every form by which any soul seeks to worship Him. There is more religion in the dev- otee who kneels before the crucifix in the Roman cathedral telling her beads than in the supercilious man who carries his Oxford Bible under his arm and looks at her with contempt for what he is pleased to call her "superstition." We sometimes treat the ignorant foreigner who toils in our mills or mines with contempt. But the Twentieth Century will teach that as God is the Father of all men, all men are brothers. Nothing will more ennoble and fit for living the Twentieth Century man than his reverence for God and all God has made. How the creation that waited so long for the coming of the first man waits for the man who will honor the Twentieth Century. How we need him today in literature ! I believe fully in a destiny of progress ; but when I read after the new school of "Realism" I would lose my faith in the future purity of the race if I did not know that such a movement is but the downward ebb before the rising tide of "Idealism" that shall wash away all the filth laid about by such writers as Zola and his kith. It is foolishly thought to be progress in literature when the writer can paint his hero or heroine in the darkest colors he ever wears. It is a 56 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES false defense for the school to say that this is "Real- ism" and so is true. Many of our present day writers have lost sight of that deeper principle so well understood by writers of a few decades ago, that the Ideal, and not the Real, is in the deepest sense true. That author has a low conception of his mission who thinks it consists in painting men and women at their lowest, or even at their average. He has no business to write who cannot do some- thing for us that we cannot do for ourselves. His mission as he will see it in the Twentieth Century will be to incarnate in his characters the Ideal; so that the reader will rise from the reading with faith in the possibility of himself to become the ideal. Already a surfeited reading public turn from men and women who write for dimes to men and women who will write for manhood and womanhood. Our faith that the Twentieth Century will reveal many such noble men and women is strengthened by the fact that the close of the Nineteenth Century gave us a MacLaren, who found in the humble pea- santry of a Scotch glen virtues which transform rugged features into holy faces, and reveal to us the purest ideals among the most prosaic environment. Each year we are puzzling more and more over the "labor" question. We admit that the army of "capital" and the army of "labor" stand face to face, and we fear the conflict that ever and anon breaks out afresh. We have asked representatives of capi- tal and representatives of labor to tell us how the FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 57 conflict can be suppressed. They have given us many replies. Anarchism, profit-sharing, boycot- ting, nationalism, co-operation and courts are among some of the remedies suggested. Some of these may be helpful, but the problem will be solved in this century, and it will be when the leaders of both armies are men who have sat at the feet of the "Lowly Nazarene" and have learned how to do unto others as they would have others do unto them. Then the command to one army will be "Wheel- right," to the other "Lef t- wheel,' ' and there will be one army marching on to grander victories than the world has ever seen. Then the "dog-like strife for the bone" will cease. Flowers will grow over the jagged walls and debris of present differences and hateful bitterness, and we'll become civilized. "Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay." How we need men today in civil government? With officials in high places, some of whose seats we have reason to think were bought for cash, as if they were seats in the Stock Exchange. Men whose official honor would not restrain them from specu- lating in products, and then tinkering with a "tariff bill" in order to make their speculations profitable; men who if the country today was financially pros- trate would stop to pilfer the pockets of the wounded before giving relief; oh, how the nation waits for men who in high places will be true, We have ob- 58 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES jected to having a polygamist sit in the United States Senate, why should a briber and a seducer of the public conscience be there? If liberty and indi- vidual sovereignty be for sale, make the deal an open one ; give every one a show in the despoilation of the temple; if not, cut political corruptionists off and get back to the virtue of public and private life founded by the fathers. Let our motto be, "Our Country." When wrong, to be put right. When right, to be kept right. For the wrongness of wrong and the rightness of right, are unchangeable, eternal. A spirit of lawlessness is astir in our land today because men whose sworn duty it is to see that laws are executed choose to let some laws go unexecuted. So it was recently in a town of a sister State. The populace, enraged by a heinous crime, sought to take the life of the cowering brute whom the Court had promptly given the highest penalty under the law, the mayor of the town dismissed the soldiers sent to his support, and made it possible for the generally reputable citizens of that town to become cowardly murderers, and to drag the fair name it had hitherto borne down into the "sewer of lawlessness" which is making our boasted "civilization" a byword and a reproach. Our cities are cursed with a business that defies the law of the land and openly barters death on the Lord's Day. Mayors with power enough to inaugu- rate and carry to completion magnificent enterprises FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 59 for the material well-being of a city dare not even see what is patent to the merest child. An ordi- nance for the suppression of vice is introduced into the Common Council, and its passage asked and urged by thousands of intelligent and law abiding citizens. Then a majority of our city's legislators, some because they delight in lawlessness and others because they're cowards, cringe and fawn at the wrong-doer's feet and vote it down. Some man violates the half-way liquor law we now have in New York. He's brought into court, but among the men in the jury box sworn to render a verdict in accordance with the evidence and the law, enough can be found who will sell their souls to let the of- fender go free. Oh, how a humiliated citizenship waits for men who'll be brave enough, and true enough, and honest enough to know that what the law forbids it's treason for them to permit. With Holland we plead for the Twentieth Century — God give us Men ! A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands. Men whom the lust of office will not kill ; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy. Men who have opinions and a will ; Men who have honor, men who will not lie. Men who can face a demagogue and scorn his Treacherous flatteries without winking. Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty and in private thinking. For while the rabble with its thumb-worn creeds, Its loud professions and little deeds, Mingle in selfish strife, lo ! Freedom weeps, And waiting Justice sleeps." 60 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES "But to the front the cry is ringing; To the front, your place is there ; In the conflict men are wanted, Men of faith and hope and prayer." "And as we climb upon the heights, The low horizon widens on cur sight Into a day gilt with perpetual sun. Out of the darkness of night The world will swing into light, And it will be daybreak everywhere." And the promise of all this is in the present. Sci- ence has done enough to show us that in this century every power that God has made to be the servant of man will be harnessed to his chariot, so that he will need to do no work save that which makes him strong. Woman has done enough to show that in the present century she is to be her brother's ally, bringing that keen insight and moral power that will enable him to win. the battles he has fought so long in vain. Good government has won small vic- tories enough to convince us that the first half of the Twentieth Century will see the city and the nation rid of the demagogue, and ruled by men who love God and their fellow-men. The churches have knocked off rails enough from the sectarian fences to give promise that in the coming decades of this century no sect will be maintained simply for the sake of the sect, but for the glory of God and the salvation of men. All this we are to see in the Twentieth Century already billowing with the ripen- ing harvests of golden opportunities and possibili- ties. Survey the field. What resources ? The ma- FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 61 jestic current of progress and prosperity that is sweeping over our land is widening with every swing of Time's pendulum. Every ship that leaves her ports for foreign shores is heavier laden. Every mile of railroad trackage is bearing the burden of greater trains. Her broad acres are intelligently tilled and her harvests tell of abundant riches. Her towns are fast becoming cities. Her millions in- vested in industrial enterprises are rapidly changing into billions. Her people are setting their faces toward the goal of prosperity with a determination born of hope and augmented by the successes already attained. The history of America in the Twentieth Century by every right of material riches should and will be more brilliant than that of any other nation in the world. Her gracious smile awaits the tide of incoming immigration. Her broad prairies, her fer- tile mountains and hillside slopes, her rich valleys and crystal streams, her beds of coal, her fountains of oil, her mines of iron, silver and gold, her grow- ing villages, her populous cities all pulsate with quickened life, and stretch forth the hand of wel- come with bright promises of prosperity. Ours is indeed a goodly heritage. How immense in extent, how limitless in resources? Science, commerce and Christianity are opening the doors of the world to American enterprise. The constant hammering of all the great nations of the world at China's doors is making itself heard. Western thought, enterprise and business development bid 62 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES fair soon to gain a permanent footing in that ancient realm, that with more than 2,500 years of authentic history before the "Christian Era" has stood with its back to the future building across the track of Prog- ress. The warm, new breath of the Twentieth Cen- tury is breathing a "living soul under her ribs of death." "He is sounding forth the trumpet That shall never call retreat ; He is sifting out the hearts of men Before His Judgment Seat." God, with the Anglo Saxon race, is marching on. And under that glorious banner upon which we read "Go ye into all the world," we go, with the plowshare and the pruning hook, with the Bible and the spelling book. In the jungle and on the hilltop the "Emblem of Freedom" will float over countless schoolhouses. We go to open the dark places of the world ; to let out fetid poisons and miasmatic vapors. We go not to pillage temples, but to erect them. Not to stifle Liberty, but to give nobler ideas of lib- erty. Not to forge fetters, but to break them; not to teach the "survival of the fittest" but to make men fit to survive. Dream not that the best is past. Our fathers never had a clearer call to battle, nor greater in- centives to noble action than are ours. I rejoice with you in standing today upon the radiant sum- mit of a present so auspicious. We have passed into the Twentieth Century with the Panama Canal, FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES 63 the hope of the centuries, in the course of construc- tion. The flag of our country floats proudly from the ice-clad regions of golden Alaska to the sunny orange groves of southernmost California ; and from the newly rescued islands of the mid-Atlantic to the Philippine group in the western Pacific. This widening of America's influence will tend to the ush- ering in of that glorious day when the kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. When that glad anthem of "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men" shall be sung from pole to pole and from sea to sea. The "Golden Age" is just before us. The great- est victories of all the Christian ages are at hand; and to live in the Twentieth Century is the highest opportunity which the world affords for participa- tion in human progress. "These new occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth ; He must upward still, and onward, Who would keep abreast of Truth." "Then slumber not in the tents of the Fathers ; the world is advancing, advance with it." "This is the time for living, these are glorious days ; Be up and doing, my brothers, for the manhood of the race. Give what is best within you, labor with labor crown ; Your hands are on the lever, the world goes up or down. Mighty the forces of evil, turn to the guiding-stars, Portents are darkly lowering, devils are breaking their bar: Now is the time if ever to stand on the side of Right, To help roll the world out of the shadow, into the broaden- ing Light." 64 FOOTPRINTS OF THE CENTURIES "Make this the time and this the hour To light new beacons on the hills of hope ; A century's born ; glorious its light, It's ours to shape its horoscope. A new and grander birth lies wrapped Within the Twentieth Century's fold; The Nazarene's glad gospel shall suffice, And teach the better way to win a world Where Peace shall reign, and war's rent flags be furled, Right sit enthroned where once was ribald wrong ; A chain of Love shall reach around the world, And every link within that chain be strong." With no north, no south, no east, no west, But one great land with freedom blest. And may — "Our Father's God, from out whose hand The centuries fall like grains of sand, Keep the American republic thro' centuries long, In peace secure, in justice strong. Around our boasted freedom draw The safeguards of His righteous law, And cast in a diviner mold, May each new century shame the old." Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Jan. 2010 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 024 396 718 1 • ■ 'I f IF um<