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sword that hung over the head of the Sicilian Monarch. No wonder then there was hesitation.
Heaven gave every man time and talent for some useful purpose, and a man's life must have been badly spent if there is no green spot in the past, to which he can look back with consolation and pleasure. For four thousand years darkness covered the land, and gross darkness encircled the people. The history of each generation serves to confirm the truth that the world by wisdom knew not God. The elements of religous knowledge lay concealed beneath a veil that no human sagacity could penetrate; nothing but a revelation from God would dissipate the darkness of moral death, which hung over our race, such a revelation, God in his mercy did give. One single promise was given to the representatives of our race, as they looked upon Eden's entrance closed, which revealed to the eye of faith a ray of hope, beaming from the throne of God. The angelic messengers announced upon the plains of Bethlehem to the shepherds "behold I bring you glad tidings."
Such was and is the person that the Order of Galileans is predicated on. He selected and organized an army for the conquest of a revolted world.
In Gethsemane's garden he recognized in that little band the elements of that kingdom which is destined to extend from sea to sea, and from land to land.
The theme chosen as the foundation of the remarks I shall have the honor to make on this occasion, "why we are Galileans," is one so closely allied to our beloved Order, that I, as its chief officer, by the voice of the people, felt it my duty as well as pleasure to investigate and study it as profoundly as I was able. And the more I studied it the grander and more intensely interesting it grew, and more and more beautiful collateral facts showed themselves embalmed within it.
