The Lesson of the 11th Nov. 1887.
We have assembled here today to honor the memory ___________
But not merely to honor their memory. They are dead and the loving one canot be recalled to life; but the living may profit by the experience of the past.
And this is the great curse of humanity that we seldom, very seldom profit by the experience of the years behind.
And yet, the lesson of the past is very simple; if it teaches us anything it is the persistence of the idea.
Persecution -- the prison and scaffold, and tortures and fire and the cross were used to strangle the idea -- in vain; even persecution but goes to nourishing the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. It gathers strength and becomes more powerful than the combined powers of darkness --- it prevails and blesses humanity.
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