150 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



costly churches that the world ever knew. Upon their walls he saw 

 beautiful pictures of the infant child Jesus. A little farther along he saw 

 another picture, the picture of Mary the Madonna, and still farther along 

 a pisture of the crucified Christ who came to teach men and women how 

 to live and how to die. Into these churches he saw men and women coming 

 not to worship this Christ, not to Bow in adoration before the Father of 

 them all, but they came in to worship just the pictures themselves and 

 the costly altar cloths, into which women had worked the best years of 

 their lives; altar cloths worked in threads of gold, and he saw women com- 

 ing in and gathering their costly garments about them for fear they should 

 touch the mendicant child begging for crumbs from the Master's table. 

 He saw the peasantry of the country, that should have stood as a man 

 among men., coming into the markets of the city of Florence with their 

 rude carts bearing the products that they had been able to raise from the 

 soil, the wife frequently pulling in the shafts, while the husband pushed 

 in the rear. This man was no other than the wonderful Savranola that 

 saw the laws set at defiance, and manhood and womanhood, that should 

 have stood for all that is noble an d beautiful and true, degraded. Moth- 

 erhood that ought to have been the guiding star and light and love of the 

 home, passing the whole night at the gaming table; and thisi good man, 

 with his heart full of the love of humanity, and for humanity went out 

 upon the mountainside and lifted up his face and prayed and asked that 

 the time might come when men, th e farmers, might stand as men among 

 men; when the laws of the country should be sacred; when womanhood 

 should stand for all that is beautiful and true and noble ; and! he asked that 

 the time might come when, instead of costly churches and altar cloths 

 worship, the adoration of human hearts might bow before the Supreme 

 Father in worship and adoration of Him. 



Friends, in this little bit of ancient history that is familiar to you, I 

 fear that in many instances we are resembling the people of Florence 

 more than we differ from them. Now I am not one of those people who 

 are always looking at the dark side of life. On the contrary, I have tried 

 to see only that which is beautiful and that which is uplifting, and yet, 



