of a church; and it is a happy thing that we should have repeated them
this morning. This church is consecrated to the service of the Lord;
and we can serve Him by the way we serve our fellow-men. This church
is consecrated to service and duty. It was written of old that “by
their fruits ye shall know them”; and we can show the faith that is in
us, we can show the sincerity of our devotion, by the fruits we bring
forth. The man who is not a tender and considerate husband, a loving
and wise father, is not serving the Lord when he goes to church; so
with the woman; so with all who come here. Our being in this church,
our communion here with one another, our sitting under the pastor and
hearing from him the word of God, must, if we are sincere, show their
effects in our lives outside.
We of the Dutch and German Reformed Churches, like our brethren of
the Lutheran Church, have a peculiar duty to perform in this great
country of ours, a country still in the making, for we have the duty
peculiarly incumbent upon us to take care of our brethren who come
each year from over seas to our shores. The man going to a new country
is torn by the roots from all his old associations, and there is
great danger to him in the time before he gets his roots down into
the new country, before he brings himself into touch with his fellows
in the new land. For that reason I always take a peculiar interest in
the attitude of our churches toward the immigrants who come to these
shores. I feel that we should be peculiarly watchful over them,
because of our own history, because we or our fathers came here under
like conditions. Now that we have established ourselves let us see
to it that we stretch out the hand of help, the hand of brotherhood,
toward the new-comers, and help them as speedily as possible to get
into such relations that it will be easy for them to walk well in the
new life. We are not to be excused if we selfishly sit down and enjoy
gifts that have been given to us and do not try to share them with our
poorer fellows coming from every part of the world, who many of them
stand in such need of the helping hand; who often not only meet too
many people anxious to associate with them for their detriment, but
often too few anxious to associate with them for their good.
I trust that with the consecration of each new church of the Reformed
creed in this our country there will be established a fresh centre of
effort to get at and to help for their good the people that yearly
come from over seas to us. No more important work can be done by our
people; important to the cause of Christianity, important to the cause
of true national life and greatness here in our own land.
Another thing: let us so far as strength is given us make it evident
to those who look on and who are not of us that our faith is not one
of words merely; that it finds expression in deeds. One sad, one
lamentable phase of human history is that the very loftiest words,
implying the loftiest ideas, have often been used as cloaks for the
commission of dreadful deeds of iniquity. No more hideous crimes have
ever been committed by men than those that have been committed in
the name of liberty, of order, of brotherhood, of religion. People
have butchered one another under circumstances of dreadful atrocity,
claiming all the time to be serving the object of the brotherhood of
man or of the fatherhood of God. We must in our lives, in our efforts,
endeavor to further the cause of brotherhood in the human family;
and we must do it in such a way that the men anxious to find subject
for complaint or derision in the churches of the United States, in
our church, may not be able to find it by pointing out any contrast
between our professions and our lives.
This church is consecrated to-day to duty and to service, to the
worship of the Creator, and to an earnest effort on our part so to
shape our lives among ourselves and in relation to the outside world
that we may feel that we have done our part in bringing a little
nearer the day when there shall be on this earth a genuine brotherhood
of man.
AT THE SAENGERFEST, BALTIMORE, MD., JUNE 15, 1903
_My Fellow-Citizens_:
Let me in the first place congratulate the city of Baltimore upon what
she has done and upon the way she has done it; and then let me welcome
the members of the Saengerfest Association and all the guests of
Baltimore this evening. Since the beginning of our country’s history
many different race strains have entered to make up the composite
American. Out of and from each we have gained something for our
national character; to each we owe something special for what it has
contributed to us as a people.
It is almost exactly two hundred and twenty years ago that the first
marked immigration from Germany to what were then the colonies in this
Western Hemisphere began. As is inevitable with any pioneers those
pioneers of the German race on this side of the ocean had to encounter
bitter privation, had to struggle against want in many forms; had
to meet and overcome hardship; for the people that go forth to seek
their well-being in strange lands must inevitably be ready to pay as
the price of success the expenditure of all that there is in them to
overcome the obstacles in their way. It was some fifty years later
that the great tide of German immigration in colonial times began to
flow hither; one of the leaders in it being Muhlenburg, the founder
of a family which has contributed to military and civil life some of
the worthiest figures in American history. The first of the famous
speakers of the House of Representatives was Muhlenburg, of German
ancestry.
Baltimore is a centre in that region of our land where from the
earliest days there was that intermingling of ethnic strains which
finally went to the making of the Americans who in ’76 made this
country a nation. Within the boundaries of this State was founded that
colony which first of all on this western continent saw a government
modeled upon these principles of religious freedom and toleration
which we now regard as the birthrights of American citizens.
Throughout our career of development the German immigration to this
country went steadily onward, and they who came here, and their sons
and grandsons, played an ever-increasing part in the history of our
people—a part that culminated in the Civil War; for every lover of
the Union must ever bear in mind what was done in this commonwealth
as in the commonwealth of Missouri, by the folk of German birth or
origin who served so loyally the flag that was theirs by inheritance
or adoption.
And here in this city I would be unwilling to let an occasion like
this pass without recalling the part of incalculable importance
played by the members of the Turn Verein of Baltimore in saving
Baltimore to the Union. In congratulating every man here to whom it
was given to fight in the great Civil War, in congratulating the men
of Baltimore who in these dark days followed the lead of Sigel, Rapp,
and Blumenberg in playing well and nobly their part in upholding the
hands of Abraham Lincoln, I congratulate them thrice over because it
was given to them to fight in a contest where the victors and the
vanquished alike have bequeathed to us as a heritage the memory of
the valor and the loyalty to the right as to each it was given to see
the right, shown alike by the men who wore the blue and the men who
wore the gray, in the great days of the Civil War. Terrible though
that contest was, in which with blood and tears and sweat, with the
suffering of men and the sorrow of women, the generation of Lincoln
and Grant purchased for us peace and union, it paid for itself over
and over again by what it left to us—not merely a reunited land, not
merely a land in which freedom was a fact instead of only a boast, but
above all the right as Americans to feel within us the lift toward
lofty things which must come to those who know that their fathers and
forefathers have in the supreme crisis entirely shown themselves fit
to rank among the men of all time.
I want to say just one thing more. I feel that the men of this
Association and of kindred associations are not only adding to the
common fund of pleasure, but are doing genuine missionary work
of a needed kind when they hold such a festival as this. I wish
that everywhere in our country we could see clubs and associations
including all our citizens, similar in character to that Society
which has furnished the reason for the assembling of this great
audience to-night. No greater contribution to American social life
could possibly be made than by instilling into it the capacity for
Gemüthlichkeit. No greater good can come to our people than to
encourage in them a capacity for enjoyment which shall discriminate
sharply between what is vicious and what is pleasant. Nothing can
add more to our capacity for healthy social enjoyment than, by force
of example no less than by precept, to encourage the formation of
societies which by their cultivation of music, vocal and instrumental,
give great lift to the artistic side, the æsthetic side of our nature;
and especially is that true when we remember that no man is going to
go very far wrong if he belongs to a society where he can take his
wife with him to enjoy it.
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA., JUNE 16, 1903
_Mr. Chairman; my Fellow-Americans_:
It is to me to-day a double pleasure to be with you; in the first
place, because the University of Virginia is one among that limited
number of institutions of learning to which because of its historic
association every American proud of his country and his country’s
history must turn; and in the next place, because I have just finished
a trip to and fro across this continent, which at almost every
step has reminded me of some great deed done by a Virginian or a
descendant of a Virginian, in that wonderful formative period which
has occupied more than half of this Republic’s life; going across
the Alleghanies in the path over the mountains which men of Virginia
first crossed to found the commonwealth of Kentucky; beyond the Ohio,
which was crossed by a military force carrying the American flag for
the first time when a son of Virginia, George Rogers Clark, led his
little band of backwoods riflemen to conquer what is now the heart
of this Republic, and that in the middle of the Revolutionary War.
Then I crossed the Mississippi and went through that great region of
prairie, plain, and mountain, now dotted with cities, each filled with
the fruits of our material civilization, cities placed upon spots
which were unknown to any map maker but a century ago; thence to the
Pacific Ocean, I went through the regions which mark the two greatest
territorial expansions of this Nation; the greatest of which, by the
fact of its acquisition, is in itself a tribute most to that man who
founded this University—President Thomas Jefferson—and which was
explored by two Virginians born not far from this neighborhood—Lewis
and Clark. When I got south of the limits of the old Louisiana
Purchase I came into that region acquired as the result of the Mexican
War—the region in territorial extent next to the Louisiana Purchase;
and in that war the two foremost figures were men likewise born in
Virginia—Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott.
Virginia has always rightly prided herself upon the character of the
men whom she has sent into public life. No more wonderful example of
governmental ability, ability in statecraft and public administration,
has ever been given than by the history of Virginia’s sons in public
life. I feel that this University, which so peculiarly embodies the
ideal of Virginia, is in no small degree accountable for the happy
keeping up of the spirit which sends into public life men of whom
their constituents exact that they shall possess both courage and
courtesy; and that is the reason why—as I am glad to say here in the
presence of the two United States Senators from Virginia, both of them
graduates of this University—whether one agrees or differs with them
it is so genuine a pleasure to be brought into contact with them in
handling public affairs.
In the very able address to which we have had the honor of listening
it is pointed out that in mere years the history of this University is
not long. Years count differently at different places and at different
times. Fifty years of Europe are very much longer than a cycle of
Cathay; and the period grows longer still when you take it across into
the Western Hemisphere. To us of this Nation there must always be the
charm of old historic associations inseparably connected with this
institution, the birth of which will always recall the names of three
of our greatest Presidents, and from which one can wellnigh see the
former abodes of all three of those Presidents—Jefferson, Madison, and
Monroe.
Let me acknowledge a piece of personal indebtedness to this
institution. When last year we sought at Washington to restore the
White House, which ought to be always kept as the historic building
of the Nation, to what it was planned to be by the founders of the
Republic, we came here to study the building which represented in its
existence the realization of the ideas of certain of those founders
of the Republic, and gained from our study of a portion of this
University an idea of the plan along which the restoration of the
White House was to proceed.
The University is not old in years as years are counted in an older
world, but there are very few institutions of learning in Europe
which, however old, have such an honor roll of service to the State,
in the council chambers of the State, and of service on the tented
field, which have such an honor roll of statesmen and soldiers, as the
roll that can be furnished by reading the list of the graduates of
this University of Virginia. The University has been prolific of men
who have gone into public life; but it is not only in public life that
the record made by the University is imperishable. The strangest, in
some ways the most brilliant name to be found in American letters, the
name of the man who contributed something purely individual in poetry
and in prose, not merely to the literature of this country, not merely
to the literature of our tongue, but to the literature of mankind—the
name of Edgar Allan Poe, is to be found upon your rolls. It is a
pleasure to one who earnestly hopes to see the literary habit in
American life kept up and who hopes to see a keeping up of productive
scholarship and literature, to be able to number among his friends one
of those younger literary men of whom it can be safely asserted that
they have added something permanent to letters, in the person of one
of your graduates—my friend, Mr. Thomas Nelson Page.
I owe you for other things. When I wished to choose the Surgeon-General
of the Navy I had to go to Virginia and to the University of Virginia
to find the man whom I esteem, not only because of his ability as a
public servant, but because of those qualities which will render him
ever one for whom I and mine feel the warmest and liveliest personal
affection. Finally, when I had to choose an Ambassador to represent
us at the court of Russia, I had to take another graduate of your
University—Mr. McCormick. You will pardon me one personal allusion;
I shall never forget as long as I live certain of your graduates who
served in my regiment during the Cuban War.
The University of Virginia has stood for much in our national life.
It is something to stand merely for such beauty as your buildings and
campus represent here. It is a good thing for any nation to have as
beautiful an institution of learning as is this University. It is a
good thing for the taste of a nation to have such an example of good
taste ever before it. You stand for the production of scholarship;
for the production of men who are to do well for the State if ever
the need of calling upon them for their services may arise; but above
all, as has been so well said in the address to which we have listened
to-day, the University of Virginia stands for the production of men;
of men who are to do each a man’s duty in the world. A good American
never owes anything that he does not seek to repay. The man who is
content to go through life owing his alma mater for an education for
which he has made no adequate return is not true to the ideals of
American citizenship. He is in honor bound to make such return. He
can make it in but one way; he can return what he owes to his alma
mater only by making his alma mater proud of what he does in service
rendered to his fellow-men. That is the type of return we have the
right to expect of the University men in this country.
TO THE HOLY NAME SOCIETY AT OYSTER BAY, N. Y., AUGUST 16, 1903
_Very Reverend Dean, Reverend Clergy, and you of the Holy Name
Society_:
I count myself fortunate in having the chance to say a word to you
to-day; and at the outset let me, Father Power, on behalf of my
neighbors, your congregation, welcome all your guests here to Oyster
Bay. I have a partial right to join in that welcome myself, for it
was my good fortune in the days of Father Power’s predecessor, Father
Belford, to be the first man to put down a small contribution for the
erection of your church here. I am particularly glad to see such a
society as this flourishing as your society has flourished, because
the future welfare of our Nation depends upon the way in which we can
combine in our men—in our young men—decency and strength. Just this
morning when attending service on the great battleship _Kearsarge_
I listened to a sermon addressed to the officers and enlisted men of
the navy, in which the central thought was that each American must be
a good man or he could not be a good citizen. And one of the things
dwelt upon in that sermon was the fact that a man must be clean of
mouth as well as clean of life—must show by his words as well as
by his actions his fealty to the Almighty if he was to be what we
have a right to expect from men wearing the national uniform. We
have good Scriptural authority for the statement that it is not what
comes into a man’s mouth but what goes out of it that counts. I am
not addressing weaklings, or I should not take the trouble to come
here. I am addressing strong, vigorous men, who are engaged in the
active hard work of life; and life to be worth living must be a life
of activity and hard work. I am speaking to men engaged in the hard,
active work of life, and therefore to men who will count for good or
for evil. It is peculiarly incumbent upon you who have strength to
set a right example to others. I ask you to remember that you can not
retain your self-respect if you are loose and foul of tongue, that a
man who is to lead a clean and honorable life must inevitably suffer
if his speech likewise is not clean and honorable. Every man here
knows the temptations that beset all of us in this world. At times any
man will slip. I do not expect perfection, but I do expect genuine
and sincere effort toward being decent and cleanly in thought, in
word, and in deed. As I said at the outset, I hail the work of this
society as typifying one of those forces which tend to the betterment
and uplifting of our social system. Our whole effort should be toward
securing a combination of the strong qualities with those qualities
which we term virtues. I expect you to be strong. I would not respect
you if you were not. I do not want to see Christianity professed only
by weaklings; I want to see it a moving spirit among men of strength.
I do not expect you to lose one particle of your strength or courage
by being decent. On the contrary, I should hope to see each man who
is a member of this society, from his membership in it become all the
fitter to do the rough work of the world; all the fitter to work in
time of peace; and if, which may Heaven forfend, war should come, all
the fitter to fight in time of war. I desire to see in this country
the decent men strong and the strong men decent, and until we get
that combination in pretty good shape we are not going to be by any
means as successful as we should be. There is always a tendency among
very young men and among boys who are not quite young men as yet to
think that to be wicked is rather smart; to think it shows that they
are men. Oh, how often you see some young fellow who boasts that he
is going to “see life,” meaning by that that he is going to see that
part of life which it is a thousandfold better should remain unseen!
I ask that every man here constitute himself his brother’s keeper by
setting an example to that younger brother which will prevent him from
getting such a false estimate of life. Example is the most potent of
all things. If any one of you in the presence of younger boys, and
especially the younger people of your own family, misbehave yourself,
if you use coarse and blasphemous language before them, you can be
sure that these younger people will follow your example and not your
precept. It is no use to preach to them if you do not act decently
yourself. You must feel that the most effective way in which you can
preach is by your practice.
As I was driving up here a friend who was with us said that in his
experience the boy who went out into life with a foul tongue was apt
so to go because his kinsfolk, at least his intimate associates,
themselves had foul tongues. The father, the elder brothers, the
friends, can do much toward seeing that the boys as they become men
become clean and honorable men.
I have told you that I wanted you not only to be decent, but to be
strong. These boys will not admire virtue of a merely anæmic type.
They believe in courage, in manliness. They admire those who have the
quality of being brave, the quality of facing life as life should be
faced, the quality that must stand at the root of good citizenship in
peace or in war. If you are to be effective as good Christians you
must possess strength and courage, or your example will count for
little with the young, who admire strength and courage. I want to see
you, the men of the Holy Name Society, you who embody the qualities
which the younger people admire, by your example give those young
people the tendency, the trend, in the right direction; and remember
that this example counts in many other ways besides cleanliness of
speech. I want to see every man able to hold his own with the strong,
and also ashamed to oppress the weak. I want to see each young fellow
able to do a man’s work in the world, and of a type which will not
permit imposition to be practiced upon him. I want to see him too
strong of spirit to submit to wrong, and, on the other hand, ashamed
to do wrong to others. I want to see each man able to hold his own in
the rough work of actual life outside, and also, when he is at home,
a good man, unselfish in dealing with wife, or mother, or children.
Remember that the preaching does not count if it is not backed up by
practice. There is no good in your preaching to your boys to be brave,
if you run away. There is no good in your preaching to them to tell
the truth if you do not. There is no good in your preaching to them
to be unselfish if they see you selfish with your wife, disregardful
of others. We have a right to expect that you will come together in
meetings like this; that you will march in processions; that you will
join in building up such a great and useful association as this; and,
even more, we have a right to expect that in your own homes and among
your own associates you will prove by your deeds that yours is not a
lip loyalty merely; that you show in actual practice the faith that is
in you.
ON BOARD THE _KEARSARGE_, DURING THE REVIEW OF THE FLEET, AUGUST 17,
1903
_Officers and Enlisted Men_:
I wish to say a word of thanks to you on behalf of the people of the
United States. There are many public servants whom I hold in high
esteem, but there are no others whom as a class I hold in quite the
esteem I do the officers and enlisted men of the navy and the army of
the United States.