Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/247

 SKETCH OF A SPEECH.

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��SKETCH OF A SPEECH

DELIVERED AT THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SE \MEN'S

FRIEND SOCIETY. OF CONCORD. X. H.. DEC. 13. 1882.

��BY REV. W. V. GARNER.

��Mr. President, Ladies of the Seamen's Friend Society, and Gentlemen :

I esteem it a very great privilege to be here, and to participate with you in some humble measure in the exercises of this semi-centennial anniversary.

My deepest sympathies are with you in the work of the beneficent organiza- tion under whose auspices we are met.

When I recall how my early associa- tions brought me largely in contact with the very class of men whom you seek to benefit, I should think it strange if my voice and influence were not enlist- ed in behalf of such a cause.

I was born by the sea. Its shores were the play-ground, and its wave- washed pebbles and shells the play things of my childhood.

I have frequently listened to its sum- mer wavelets as they whispered of sun- ny climes beyond, and to the thunder of its wintry billows as they uttered their story of storm and disaster.

Frequently upon it ; twice ship- wrecked ; an eye-witness of its hard- ships upon the poor sailor, and con- versant in some measure with the greater perils of the sailor ashore, — with this experience and knowledge, it would be strange indeed if my heart did not respond most cheerfully and with alacrity to any call from any quar- ter to ameliorate, if possible, the hard condition of the " toilers of the sea."

There surely can be no work more pleasing to the Divine Master, whose most intimate associates were the fish- ermen of Tiberias, than that in which you are engaged.

It is eminently unselfish and Chris- tian ; and it is a partial answer at least to the scornful question, " What is the Christian Church doing for the world?" No man whose eyes are open to see

��what is going on in the world under the fostering careand influence of Chris- tianity, will ever ask that question. It comes from the cynic and the scoffer who close their eyes, as their hearts are closed, to all that is good.

True Christianity, wherever found, is active for the world's good, — not clois- tered, not standing in sublime abstrac- tion away from the multitude, but like its blessed author, mingling with the poor, and oppressed, and sinful, and lost, in order to lift them to a heav- enly plane of life.

And do you know, friends, that the Christianity of our times is being meas- ured more and more by our practical life, than by our mental conceptions of what may, or may not, constitute chris- tian dogma. Our relations to Jesus Christ are being determined by our re- lations to humanity. The sublime teachings of the sermon on the mount are becoming more and more the regal standard of our real worth, and the criteria of our fellowship with God. If, on the human side, we are hard, selfish, unjust, unlovely, given to no charities, and excusing ourselves from plans of fraternal helpfulness, is it not evident, notwithstanding our profes- sions and our creeds, our sabbath de- voutness and our prayers, that the chords of our being have never been attuned to the sweet harmony which filled the life of the Son of God ?

Only the man or the church whose life is fragrant with divine charity, and whose aim is to lift and save the race, is entitled to the distinctive name — Christian.

And I gladly hail every man, of whatever church, whose soul is thrilled with love to his fellows, and whose

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