While his work has been carried on by other devoted and able men, and its sphere of usefulness will go on broadening like the waves rippling from a stone cast into placid waters, yet the impetus given to it all by the man himself who laid broad and deep foundations, will continue as an abiding example for all who follow.
Jason Lee undoubtedly felt the responsibility of being an instrument in God's hands in working out the higher destiny of the race. The oncoming civilization of which he was a forerunner swept across the continent, subduing the savage races and changing conditions and overcoming all obstacles, and now at the dawn of the new century it has passed all former boundaries and is crossing the ocean to repeople the Philippines, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and other "Islands of the Sea," and the new order of things has become a part of the world's history. He would doubtless feel that the unfurling of the Stars and Stripes and the playing of "The Star Spangled Banner" and "America" on these new shores, accompanied by the roar and rattle of our artillery, were but incidents in the onward march of our Christian civilization; and that when we say:
"Forever float that standard sheet,
Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet
And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?"
We should do so in a spirit of humility born of the responsibility placed upon us by the all-wise arbiter of destiny who holds the fate of Nations as in the hollow of his hand, and who desires to use us as instruments in working out the uplift of the human race. He was one of our nobility. His life would say to succeeding generations:
"Look up, my young American! Stand firm on earth;
Where noble deeds and mental power give places over birth."
