36 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Other hand, work is not life ; no, nor its equal. No work, however great, 

 but sinks in comparison with the workman. He is above his work. The 

 workman is greater than his greatest work. Man's noblest productions 

 are unworthy of him, and shadow but "hints of his power." 



Work has its place in the economy of life as a ministry. It is in its 

 discipline and achievements that work throws off all its repulsive features 

 and assumes "the form and functions" of an angel of light. Yes, the 

 workman may rest from his labors, but his works follow on. 



We marvel when a good man dies. Why is this? We ask, in 

 despairing tones, "who now will stand in his place?" forgetting that 

 influence and work never enter the tomb. Good deeds live even more 

 ffhcaciously now than when the actors walked the earth. I read in the 

 ])apers of a devoted mother who reared a large family of six sons. They 

 all became eminent for their Christian virtues and marked ability, and all 

 are now filling offices of great trust. One is an eminent jurist, one is a 

 congressman, one is a noted preacher, one is a general in the army, one 

 is a United States ambassador to a foreign power, and one is the honored 

 .president of a college. 



That mother died years ago, but her influence and work live in these 

 noble sons. Can they ever forget her? Do not her teachings hang in 

 their memories like "clouds in the sky?" Can they ever forget her lov- 

 ing patience, her gentleness, her self-sacrifice? Never. You throw a 

 pebble in the ocean and a wave is started, that goes on widening and 

 extending to the thither shore. The invisible influence that attends 

 noble working can never die, and the results can never be told in this 

 world. Every beneficent act, every benevolent enterprise, every Chris- 

 tian institution in the land, once lived only as a thought in some one 

 mind. The outcome is the widening influence of that man's noble 

 thinking, and the end is not yet. 



No workman, in all the ages past, ever manfully wrought a good 

 work but lives. Bunyon lives in his " Pilgrim's Progress;" Milton lives 

 in his "Paradise Lost;" Jesus Christ lives in the Evangelical Histories, 

 and in the life of believers. Grand results come of noble working. 



I may be permitted to abbreviate and paraphrase the eloquent words of 

 another, and say : Before work, like a dissolving scene, the forest fades 

 away, with its wild beasts and its wild men. At the bidding of work, smil- 

 ing villages spring up among the hills, great cities are buildt on the plain, 

 and fields of golden harvest spread everywhere. Work explores the 

 secrets of the universe ; it counts the ribs of the mountains ; it feels the 

 pulses of the sea ; it traces the footpaths of the stars. 



Work ! It assembles the animals of the forests, the birds of the air, 

 the fishes of the waters, and calls them all by name. 



Work ! It summons horses of fire and chariots of fire and makes 

 them the bearers of its thought. 



Work ! It plunders the tombs of dead nationalities, and weaves liv- 

 ing histories from the shreds it finds. Work seeks out and sets in order 

 the secrets of the soil, and divides to every plant its food. Work builds 

 and binds into unity great philosophies, along which runs the thought 



