NOTES FROM THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.
By J. S. Washburn
The loftiest solid monument of stone in the world is the famous Washington monument, 555 ft. 5⅛ in. high. It was erected as a memorial to the “Father of his country.” The names of forty States and many societies which supplied a share of the money to pay for this mighty obelisk, are inscribed on special stones on the inside of the great marble shaft—pure white marble without, granite within. It is tipped with a pyramid of pure aluminum on which is inscribed the Latin words—“Laus Deo,” Praise to God. Washington himself is said to have selected the site afterward adopted. The corner-stone was laid in 1848. In 1855 the shaft had attained a height of 152 ft. Then, the funds having been exhausted, the construction was suspended for 23 years and was resumed in 1878. The finished monument was dedicated February 21, 1885, and its total cost was $1,300,000. As I have looked upon this monument to human greatness, the highest stone monument in the world, and have considered the ascription of “Praise to God,” that so fittingly crowns the summit—an inscription invisible from below, seen only from heaven above—I have thought that a vastly higher monument must be erected in the capital city—on whose summit the same motto shall be inscribed, a monument that shall stand for an infinitely greater government than the United States, for a Master Builder, a Ruler, incomparably wiser and greater than the revered “Father of his country.” This Kingdom for which we are ambassadors is vastly greater than the government of the United States. Our modest, quiet church, for which an appeal was made in the SIGNS of February 4, stands for that which is immeasurably greater and higher than that for which that towering marble memorial stands. Has the SIGNS asked too much for the capital city, when the appeal has been sent out for means to establish a memorial church here? Should not this work be established yet even more strongly by planting here our representative institutions? I can not believe that the Lord’s work will wait for years, as the Washington monument waited, for funds with which to build. A monument, a memorial, built of the enduring materials—faith, prayer, labor, sacrifice, love—will tower into the very heavens and will last in its results through all eternity. J. S. WASHBURN. 1728 14th St., N. W. Washington, D. C.