FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   >>  
side his beloved friend Crespi; but when, in after years, a new church was built, the remains of both were removed and placed within it. It is not altogether easy to measure such a man as Junipero Serra by our ordinary modern standards of character and conduct. He was essentially a religious enthusiast, and as a religious enthusiast he must be judged. To us who read his story from a distance, who breathe an atmosphere totally different from his, and whose lives are governed by quite other passions and ideals, he may often appear one-sided, extravagant, deficient in tact and forethought, and, in the excess of his zeal, too ready to sacrifice everything to the purposes he never for an instant allowed to drop out of his sight. We may even, with some of his critics, protest that he was not a man of powerful intellect; that his views of people and things were distressingly narrow; that, after his kind, he was extremely superstitious; that he was despotic in his dealings with his converts, and stiffnecked in his relations with the civil and military authorities. For all this is doubtless true. But all this must not prevent us from seeing him as he actually was--charitable, large-hearted, energetic, indomitable; in all respects a remarkable, in many ways, a really wise and great man. At whatever points he may fall short of our criteria, this much must be said of him, that he was fired throughout with the high spirit of his vocation, that he was punctual in the performance of duty as he understood it, that he was obedient to the most rigorous dictates of that Gospel which he had set himself to preach. In absolute, single-hearted, unflinching, and tireless devotion to the task of his life--the salvation of heathen souls--he spent himself freely and cheerfully, a true follower of that noblest and most engaging of the mediaeval saints, whose law he had laid upon himself, and whom he looked up to as his guide and examplar. Let us place him where he belongs--among the transcendent apostolic figures of his own church; for thus alone shall we do justice to his personality, his objects, his career. The memory of such a man will survive all changes in creeds and ideals; and the great state, of which he was the first pioneer, will do honour to herself in honouring him. VIII. After Junipero's death the supervision of the missions devolved for a time upon Palou, under whose management, owing to difficulties with the civil powe
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   >>  



Top keywords:

ideals

 

religious

 
enthusiast
 

church

 

Junipero

 
hearted
 

single

 

tireless

 

points

 

unflinching


devotion
 

freely

 
cheerfully
 

follower

 

absolute

 

salvation

 

heathen

 
obedient
 

vocation

 

spirit


understood

 
noblest
 

punctual

 

performance

 

rigorous

 
criteria
 

preach

 
dictates
 
Gospel
 

transcendent


honour
 

pioneer

 

honouring

 

memory

 

survive

 

creeds

 
management
 

difficulties

 

supervision

 

missions


devolved

 

career

 

objects

 
examplar
 
looked
 

mediaeval

 

saints

 

belongs

 

justice

 

personality