sands to expect our organizations to endure,
or our articles to bind.

In the cities, where so many of us now live, the village community is no
longer available, and the replacing of it is one of the serious tasks
before us. Men who will help to solve this and other like problems are
desperately needed. Without armies and without government as we are,
leaders, whether statesmen diplomats, politicians or orators, we can
well depense with; without national life of any sort, national
organizations to control our political, social, religious, literary or
scientific affairs may easily be spared. But quiet, earnest, trained
workers, who will help to improve our family life, and bring into
communion even small groups of families, are destined to be the pioneers
of our civilization.

To confer any lasting benefit upon our people, however, patient
deliberation and foresight are needed. I appeal to our unselfish men
and women no longer to limit their discussions to the events which this
month or year brings forth. The present is always a bad time for
consideration. What hunter can _aim_ his gun at a bird which rises from
beneath his feet? Will he not rather fire at a bird which is coming or
going? We are gathered here tonight as amateur historians and prophets,
to review the past and lay plans for the future. But let me quickly
relieve myself of the charge of encouraging rash projects or empty
theories. I am proposing no vast schemes; I believe it useless to do so.
We move through life, with our backs toward, to the engine, and see all
that we see after it has passed. The reason, the imagination, with their
creative powers, picture for themselves the world that lies before, but
so swift and so unremitting is our progress, that the new revelations
constantly pouring in alter the premises before a conclusion can be
reached. Only the most gifted geniuses can draw in the vaguest outline a
picture of the future which the flight of time will prove to be true.
For the most part, our spiders' webs of theory are remorselessly cut
down by the scythe of time. It is good to investigate sociological
problems, and devise means for guiding our course safely through perils,
but in our moments of pride, we would do wisely to reflect, that it is
as though we were playing at chess with God as our adversary. All
efforts to improve our state are bountiful, which are made after prayer,
but other plans than those conceived in a spirit of humility and