[296] lecturer prepares but one address in a year, he selects the most engrossing topic; and then, with great study, condenses into one hour all the philosophy, wit, and pathos he can command. The pyrotechnic batteries of thought are loaded with surpassing skill. The consequence is, that the assembly is kept at the highest point of intellectual excitement during the time of the address. Thus an extraordinary standard of public speaking is erected, which the Sunday congregation applies with fatal injustice to the one hundred and six sermons which the stated preacher is annually compelled to bring before the same audience. Instrumentalities for further education are needed in Medford. A town-library would be of exceeding value to thousands, who cannot buy, and will not borrow the standard works they wish to read. Wherever such libraries have been established, they have created a taste for study, have brought the rich and poor together, have worn away sectional and sectarian asperities, and united a town in the noblest aims. What can be wiser than to bring the best results of the maturest minds within the reach of the inquisitive youth the Christian philanthropist, of the ambitious mechanic or the pious mother? A deepening moral responsibility rests on Christian republics. We are addressed on every side by emphatic voices. Our Pilgrim ancestors, from the Rock of Plymouth, call to us from the invisible past, and command us to follow up the two great principles of the church. and schoolhouse which they have bequeathed to us in trust. So, too, from the invisible future, do coming generations call to us, ere they arrive, beseeching us to provide for them that instruction which shall make them equal to all the demands of an advanced civilization. Shall we be deaf to the commands of our fathers, or the prayers of our children?
This text is part of:
[296] lecturer prepares but one address in a year, he selects the most engrossing topic; and then, with great study, condenses into one hour all the philosophy, wit, and pathos he can command. The pyrotechnic batteries of thought are loaded with surpassing skill. The consequence is, that the assembly is kept at the highest point of intellectual excitement during the time of the address. Thus an extraordinary standard of public speaking is erected, which the Sunday congregation applies with fatal injustice to the one hundred and six sermons which the stated preacher is annually compelled to bring before the same audience. Instrumentalities for further education are needed in Medford. A town-library would be of exceeding value to thousands, who cannot buy, and will not borrow the standard works they wish to read. Wherever such libraries have been established, they have created a taste for study, have brought the rich and poor together, have worn away sectional and sectarian asperities, and united a town in the noblest aims. What can be wiser than to bring the best results of the maturest minds within the reach of the inquisitive youth the Christian philanthropist, of the ambitious mechanic or the pious mother? A deepening moral responsibility rests on Christian republics. We are addressed on every side by emphatic voices. Our Pilgrim ancestors, from the Rock of Plymouth, call to us from the invisible past, and command us to follow up the two great principles of the church. and schoolhouse which they have bequeathed to us in trust. So, too, from the invisible future, do coming generations call to us, ere they arrive, beseeching us to provide for them that instruction which shall make them equal to all the demands of an advanced civilization. Shall we be deaf to the commands of our fathers, or the prayers of our children?
John Wilson and son. 22 School Street. Boston. 1855.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.