Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/105

Rh westward over other states and gave impulse and character to American civilization for all time. And it was John Robinson, the minister who had more influence than any other in launching the Mayflower and in molding the life and policy of the Pilgrims, and, therefore, was more influential than any other, either Standish, the Captain, or Winthrop, the Governor, in molding the life of America. The Baptists, under Roger Williams, founded Rhode Island, as did the Quakers, Pennsylvania; and what America owes to those two states is largely attributable to two remarkable ministers. When Oglethorpe, the philanthropist, got his charter for Georgia, he brought with him a minister, John Wesley, and depended upon him for the shaping of his incipient state. It was the French Protestants who settled the Carolinas, the Dutch Protestants who built New York, and the Roman Catholics who founded Maryland.

I have spoken of the Circuit Rider and implied that he fitted the conditions of primitive society. He was a plain, natural preacher, who laid the sills of the church and state on the frontiers of civilization. But the minister is not always such. Emerson in "The American Scholar," says: "They are always, more universally than any other class, the scholars of the day." John G. Holland declares that though his association had for many years been with the leaders in the literary world, he had received intellectual life and stimulation from no class in such degree as from ministers.

It may seem that the speaker is arrogating much to his own profession, but the occasion permits it, and requires it. The minister's training and experience imply all that is claimed. Usually he has come in contact with many phases of life. The nature of his work compels him to be a reader of the best literature; and he gives currency to all the most significant facts and the careful thought and the beautiful fancy of all the ages culled by his extensive reading. He is compelled to emphasize culture, intelligence, morality and patriotism. He is