The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1853-08-31
5uuAaq RRuAinq
SERVANTS of GoD in joyful lays,
Sing ye the Lord Jehovah's praise.
MOntgOme-u~
Faith In the Future.

WIDESPREAD is the belief that men
are progressing towards more exalted
states OF material and spiritual existenc.
than they have hitherto attained. That
they ale emerging from dense darkness
INTO glorious light--that they are casting
from them the long array Of artificial and
pcrverse systems with which the sleep Of
centuries has encompasscd them, and are
coming intn fuller freedom, happiness,
and ORDERS the cherished hope Of thou
sands; a hope that finds eloquent cxposi-
tors both by the tongue and pen A faith
so general must surely have some sub.
stratum of truth for its foundation, and
must be something more than the mere
vision of an excited imagination.
The golden dream Of happy Millcn-
nlunl-of futurity rich with al the glo
ries Of Eden--has been at once the desire
and prophecy of sage and poet from car
lest to latest day. But Mt no period of
The worlds history has this hope assumed
such a significance never has it attained
SD h"und|css an exception, as in the pres
ent day. There is good cause for it.
The Spirit Of the Lord has been hrcathed
upon the people. Evei since the middle
OF the last century-when the first grand
influx OF Heaven-born truth, and that free
dom OF thought and will which truth i'm.
parts, manifested itself externally in the
American Revolu,ion-thc cause Of hn.
man liberty. the supremacy of intellectual
power Over brute fore, of Christianity. in
short, over all to which it stands antaro-
niStic, has been one continued triumph
II has been y season of turmoil and apita.
ton, Of defiant wordsanl tr,ub!ous deeds,
anything but pleasant to the lovers of the
ce@35asiisaif. ii"-fshr.&Inrf- Iahare was evytr
anything else And how mach more is
unquiet to he looked for when we remcm-
Der the atjcct and confirmed slavery in
which the whole earth has been kept to
false and evil influences for ,gcs past =
Unil truth annihilates error, there must
be, rs a consequence Of their coming into
collision, disturbance, war, and confusion.
Truth and falsehood, good and evil, can
not co-eAist; for the life and permanence
Of tie one requires the utter extermina-
ton of the other. When it is further
considered that there is hardly social ar
rangemcnt, from the fold of garment 70
the articles Of n creed, which is not open
to criticism, deep. and long must be the
combat which awaits humanity, and dark
and weary must he The wilderness to be
traversed, ere it will reach the Canaan of
rapose, and the order and beauty Of lea-
Ven lie around it. Not in vain has Infn.
ite Wisdom assured us that the king
dom Of Heaven is taken by Violence
The New Jerusalem, in its everlasting glo-
ry and magnifccncc, can descend upon
earth only in the degree in which each in
diyid"al fights the hard battle with self,
and his legion Of evil passions and desires,
and thereby attains the meek dignity Of
n true manhood, and lives an honest, low
ing, pious, and useful life. When We re
fleet that whatever of beauty, or OF use,
pertains to the grass by the wayside, to
the blooming clover to the yellow waving
corn, to the queenly lily, anil the regal
rose, is but the effect Of their constant
obedience to the natural laws of the uni
verse-what, may we not ask, will be the
condition Of Gods master-work when, in
dividually, men submit themselves to the
benign operation of those divine laws
which have been graciously revealed for
the go crnment of our spiritual system E?
How certainly would our observance Of
them transform the howling wilderness of
our present social existence into the CITY
and paradise Of God