MEMORIAL HOUR. 449 



MEMORIAL HOUR ADDRESS. 



U. C. GREGG, LYXD. 



]\Ir. President and Members of the Horticultural Society : I do 

 not know how you were impressed with that organ solo, but I want 

 to premise m}' remarks by telling you how it affected me. I am 

 not a musician, but I think, I know, in fact, that I was born with 

 a love of harmony, and as I listened to those sweet strains from the 

 organ they were interpreted to me. First, there were those strains 

 which always betoken sadness and mournfulness that is always oc- 

 casioned by death — and when we consider it from the standpoint 

 of nature there is nothing but gloom and sadness associated with 

 it. One of the brightest men of the centurv said when looking into 

 a tomb that it was "a windowless tomb." But every human being 

 has another element in him aside from that of mind, which is com- 

 monly called the soul, and as I listened to that solo I found there 

 were strains in it that were suggestive of triumph, and I said to 

 myself, as I now say to you, they were exceedingly appropriate, 

 because you with me believe when we speak of death we do not think 

 of it alone from the standpoint of nature, which speaks to us only 

 of sadness and sorrow and mourning- as those that have no hope, 

 but we think of it in another light, that betokens and makes us have 

 firm faith in a higher and better existence. And I do not speak in 

 fulsome praise, nor do I multiply words when I say that when we 

 assemble here this afternoon to pay respect to those three men that 

 we shall think of them as still living. I have no scientific proof of 

 the fact, but I cultivate the faith that although they do pass into a 

 higher plane of existence they still see us. I think so very fre- 

 quently of my old father whose portrait hangs over my desk at 

 home, and ever since I was a little boy I have cherished the belief 

 that my mother, who passed away when I was a child six years old, 

 nevertheless has watched over me and cared' for me. John Wesley 

 said of his people, "It can be well said of them, they die well," 

 and the proof of the strength of that statement lies in the fact that 

 it has been received and handed down to us for over one hundred 

 years. That phrase carried the idea that the dying hour was the 

 merit and measure of life. I think there is a better measure and 

 which I would rather have said of me, and that is that "he lived 

 well." 



I have a few words to say concerning Prof. Pendergast, be- 

 cause with him I was well acquainted, and you know, friends, if 

 you knew him at all, it is a truthful statement when I say that Pro- 

 fessor Pendergast lived well. I wish to call to your attention what 

 I believe to be a great fact in human life, that the best things, the 

 best in us. is the last to appear. Look over the history of the world, 

 and we have testimony abounding giving proof of a strong physical 

 organization. Athletics have abounded almost from the beginning 

 of history. And they have multiplied until we have rare examples 

 many times multiplied of men who have excelled in mental strength 

 and power to grasp things. After the mental comes the moral. 

 And today it is safe to say that we have a measure of soul life of a 

 man developed with the physical life, and when we speak of Prof. 



