Show I 1 N fl 0 N OF A 7 val R REV r v CARVER SPEAKS OF LIFE LIND POET tercentenary of great author being celebrated all over the world today in anticipation of the tercentenary of the info of john milton which occurs today rev carver used the leading events ot of miltona Mil tons life to illustrate sunday mornings cormon and s said old in part not many lives of way today will bo be remembered with gratitude and respect three hundred years yeara hence for most mos of us immortality of fame Is only an idle dream which serves to make the immortality ot of the soul to be moro more highly priced but wednesday of this week brings to us the tercentenary of the birth of one no of the worlds truly great who by the rich bequest with which they have made tho the world richer have conquered the oblivion of the centuries it was on december 9 1608 that john milton was born in london in the humble home of a or writer of deeds and contracts the homo home was marked tor for two distinct trends the mother was passionately fond of flowers and the father was one who he fauna his chief joy in the realm of music and indeed was nias something of a composer of light melodies Mil tons life was shaped io in a decided way by the ago in which he lived lie he lived in the storm and of tho the religious and political cai revolution and tor for twelve years was latin secretary of state to oliver cromwell quebec was founded iu 1608 and with that act came the initiative of glands En colonial policy eleven years later the mayflower r landed at plymouth rock the K ams james version of the bible was co completed in in his third year the mental life ilfe of the people was quickened in tho time of his youth by kepler founding modern astronomy through thu the discovery of his famous law by harvey discovering the circulation of the blood and newton solving tho the riddle of gravitation the great leaders of elizabethan literature shakespeare spencer bacon sidney and raleigh had just made the rich possibilities ot of tile the english tongue to be fully realized milton was the heir of all these intellectual intellect ivil riches and from them lie hs drew in jilch measure after a complete course at oxford he traveled in europe intending to prepare himself for a life of poetic literature but tile the troublesome times of 0 the ie eglish egdish revolution drew him home to enter not into the life of poetic feeling but to write tho the most trenchant prose we know him popularly as a poet but he wrote uve volumes of prose to one of poetry he was a most urgent advocate of freedom in every line of life and thought strange to say lie ho was about the first to advocate the rightness of divorce under proper conditions and three books wore written upon this theme the rights of the people as against tho the divine right of kings called forth several volumes the f freedom of spiritual despotism was the theme of many of hinbest his best works then when tile the temporal powers took look measures to thwart freedom of speech and ordered that all books should bo be judged by a censor and those not in line with the rulers will should be burned milton arose to the occasion and wrote roto eloquently for the freedom or oe english speech and all history is his debtor liston listen to this fragment of work from one of these treaties for books are not absolutely dead things but do contain a potency or of life in them to be as active as that foul was whose progeny they are nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extract extraction lon of that thai living intellect that bred them I 1 know they are as lively and as vigorously productive as thoo fabulous dragons teeth and being sown up an and clown may chance to spring up around men and so as good almost kill a good man as a good book who kills a man kills a reasonable creature gods image but ho he who destroys a good food book kills reason itself kills tho the image of god as it were in the eye many a man lives a burden to tho earth but a good book is tile the precious lifeblood life blood of a master spirit embalmer embalmed ed and treasured upon purpose to a life leyona life it is true no ago can restore a life and revolutions of age to do not recover the loss of rejeCt rejected eki truth for the want of which whole nations fare the worse wo we should I 1 wary therefore what persecution we raise against tho the living labors ot or public men anti and how we split spill that seasoned reasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books since wo we see a kind of homicide may bo be thus corn com bitted sometimes a martyrdom and if it extend to a whole edition a mas acro whereof the execution ends not iii the slaying of an elemental life but strikes at the etli ethereal ereal the breath of reason itself and slays an immortality rather than a life it wasby volume after volume of such h prose as this that milton aided greatly in im the securing of that freedom in fit church state and letters which has been england s greatest glory but milton was riot content with tills this kind of MO life duties ot of secretary of estate and the prose volumes did not call forth all his p powers ow ile he tells us that during these years of toll wearied with great gre at re and saddened with the gradual loss of eyesight that lie he found his chief joy in flowers nature and music he would not live in a bouso that did not havo a good sized pardon garden anti and lie ho quieted ills his nerves ach each c night with an hour or two ot or music playing upon tho the organ or viol when hi his s public life was over and parliament no longer demanded hla his strength and called no more in command for his defense ho he turned again to his lifes first dream poetry blind now lie he was compelled to depend upon his daughters pupils and friends to write as he dictated so it was war that ills hip great poetical masterpieces paradise lost paradise regained sampson Ago were gradually composed his domestic life was a most unhappy one and ills his great services were never adequately rewarded ife he was always dependent upon a few pupils tor for his chief income these he taught the ancient and european lan an grages in which he was proficient clent ho hf is known to the world as the author of our one great epic paradise lost though his minor poems and prose are alike worthy of great fame the ordinary reader does docs not read hta his works often today but his productions in literature are arc one of our i laces aces chief glories and wo we still ire aro recipients of his labors for all that today is our truest freedom As his blog biographers raphers says wo we are still depre d in the worlds internal international t tonal gathering of poets by shakespeare first and then milton the influence of this man is not however limited to the political and literary spheres for he has ever been a potent factor tor for deeper spiritual things ile he drew daily strength from gods word and was in private life a strict puritan in the midst of oe blind ress and toll it was this bible that thai greatly strengthened him ills his life speaks today in no uncertain moaning tor for purity of character faith in god end loyalty to high ideals what he in spite of poverty and blindness should bo be an inspiration to tir ua all to dare for larger and higher things cheapest cheap est accident insurance dr thomas oil stops the pain and heals the wound all druggists sell it |