a square, and the other buildings were at right angles. The dormitories of the monks and the steward's room, the traveler's room and schoolroom, the workshop and storehouse, all opened upon the court. In this court and in the famous walled gardens at each mission there were beautiful trees and sparkling fountains. As the missions became larger, better and finer buildings were made. In several places massive stone churches were erected, with pillars, arched aisles and domes. These churches have become models for the architects of to-day. From the simple brush shelters which were at first used by the Fathers to these beautiful and stately churches it was a wonderful change indeed. Even to rear such structures was a great accomplishment, but to design a form of architecture so majestic and so symmetrical was an achievement still more wonderful. In this work of building and decorating churches, the Fathers were animated by the same spirit of devotion which inspired the monks of the Middle Ages. Like them they gave their best thought and their finest workmanship in an effort to make a fit dwelling place for the Most High. ous. The Influence of the Missions As years passed, the missions grew more and more prosperImmense tracts of land extending over hill and valley were included in their productive farms. Large herds of cattle and horses and flocks of sheep grazed in the pastures, and grain fields and fruit orchards covered the plains. By incessant toil the wilderness had been converted into a beautiful garden. And a change as truly great and wonderful had been wrought in the condition of the people. They had been brought out of heathen darkness into the light of Christianity and civilization. At the end of sixty years the missions had become large communities. The Spanish government now decided to form them into pueblos or towns which should be under civil authority, for this was a part of their original plan of colonization. But this purpose was executed in such a way that it brought about the ruin of the missions. Much of the rich land belonging to the Fathers was taken away and turned over to the government. During the revolutions in Mexico they were plundered and defrauded by dishonest officials until they were much impoverished. Only a small fraction of their valuable property remained, and some of their finest churches were in ruins. But though stones may crumble and buildings decay, the influence of these men will never die. The memory of their heroism, self-sacrifice and religious zeal will be forever cherished by the American people, and they will be honored as the first Apostles of Christianity, and as the founders of a great civilization in this beautiful western land. ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG FOURSCORE and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN |