Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-11-20

Ioc6, and he soon learns what Gods Law
teaches, that they are never to be divorced
There is poverty, affiiction, and loneliness
enough IN great city, to call forth all the
higher feelings of the heart, and lead to acts
of kindness that relieve the suffering and ele
vate the feelings of the benefactor.
The city is the best school in which tc
study human nature; TO learn what it is ir
its present fallen state, and what it was when
it came from the hand of God, in its innocen-
cy and perfection. There we see how low man
has fallen, and to what almost unfathomabe
depths of iniquity he is capable of sinking
But in the tumult of the people and the sway.
ing masses of a great city, along with the
mire and dirt that is thrown up, there are also
made to appear the shining fragments of pre-.
cious diamond which the fall has crushed, but
which is yet the glory of our nature. and
worth the efforts of Heaven to collect and set
again in the crown of the Redeemer's glory.
| Good and evil attain their most perfect
growth in the cities Here each is helped and
strengthened by his own kind If we would
lind the most perfect specimen of the oak II
we would know how tall and straight it can
grow through the lapse of centuries, we must
not look for it in the open plain, or upon the
bleak hillside, where the light of the sun can
fall upon it alike from the root to the topmost
leaf In such a position every little branch
that has shot out upon the trunk has been
nourished and has reached out laterally toward
the light the lower branches have drawn off
the nourishment of the trunk, and their leaves
have inhaled nourishment from the atmos-
phere the upper growth has been stunted ;
the tree is gnarled and twisted, dwar(ed and
Informed. But let us go to the forest for a
/ ~ IL
grown side by side with its fellows, that start
ed up with it centuries ago, and have stood
round it through every storm; their united
heads shut out the sun; the branches that
start out.supon the trunk soon die for want of
light, and drop off; the tree ever, according to
its nature, reaching to meet the light, rises
higher toward the clouds; its long, straight
trunk is protected from the fury of the storm
by the united resistance of the forest; each
tree supports its fellow, and all by mutual aid
become the great oaks, fit for the ribs, and the
plank, and masts of mighty ships. The Min
nesota lumbermen 60 to the pine forests to cut
the tallest and straightest trees, while stray
Cling pines are of little value.
AS the tree owes its height to it's surround
| lngs, so young man owes much Of his growth
to society. A youth surrounded by those of
his own age, in the pursuit of knowledge, with
abundance of competent instructors, will grow
more rapidly in learning and in the develop
ment of his intellectual powers than he could
If he pursued his studies alone, or among ju-
| veniles who are kind of under brush in the
intellectual forest
In the city, character becomes more distinct
in the individual and in masses The same
combination of good and evil is not found in
<t,o L. N
natures, and becomes more mixed and I'M
mitigated evil sinners cluster together and
by combination in wickedness, form a mass
that like the united heads of trees in dense
forest, throws its dark shadow upon every
virtue of the heart, that would else spring out
and grow upon humanity; these like the low
er limbs of forest trees are SmOthered and
drop off, and the whole mass rises to a fearful
hei hit of wckedness; Justice, mercy, pity,
>ao...uSt,u IeiallUiiS, are smof6-
cred, and the whole body, soul and mind .ro
given up to sin.
In our large cities, desperate men and wo-
men seek a community of residence, exclu-
ding from their society all virtue and good
ness, save to feast their hellish natures upon
them, as wolves would hold carnival over
lamb; they dwell together in localities which
become very hells, avoided even at noon-day
by the virtuous. There drunkenness, revel-
ling, profanity and murder reign supreme;
and men and women by hundreds, are plunged
into society of demons, so remOrscless in
their crimes, that the worst sinner who has
ripened in obscurity, is amazed at their hare
ness of heart, and wonders how human ma
ture can become so lost to every feeling of
humanity, and every generous natural impulse
In such school men are fitted for every
crime, and 60 forth at night like beasts of
prey from their dens, only to victimze the in
nocent and the unsuspecting. If we could
go into some gambling he'll in city, and night
after night witness the rcmOrseless rObberies
that are committed there upon ignorant vic
TINS who are drawn in, by those whose bust
ness it is to 60 out and hunt them up for this
very purpose; could we witness the fendish
Joy of the hardened men, and the diSpar of
those who have lost their all, we should be
filled with amazement and horror, to see how
ripe in every liendish feeling the human heart
may become, when planted in such hot-bed
of wickeness.
Dishonesty and fraud grow more maturein
cities Society there affords greater facilities,
and furnishes stronger temptations for the ru-
in of men, than are met with in rural districts !;
|
ton, and hurry thousands into poverty and
bankruptcy, are usually perpetrated in the
great centres Of commerce. Here, too, self
ishness and nard-heartednesS mature. What
man, who knows the world, expects person
al favor in business transaction in Wall
street? Who would think of pleading his
own necessities in any one of row of brokers'
Offices? Such greenness would defeat his OBJ
iect No-he must put on bold front and
make them think he is an article worth the
money There is a society in these matters-a
tall growth of money changers, whose manner
is to know no mans face in a business trans
action. Long practice of this principle, and
mutual countenance, have enabled such men
to rise, or fall, into that sublime Indifference to
the troubles of others, which cares not who
stands or falls. A rich farmer, or a village
banker, who often lends his money to neigh
Dor because he is in distress, is amazed to see
the unfeeling manner of the city broker.
Pride reaches its full development in the
city. There it finds it's true yoke fellow, and
haughtily spurning the common herd, despis-
es them as if they belonged to an inferior order
of creation. The vain become exclusives in
society, and Pharises in the Church; they
have all its arrangements internal and external
to suit their own tastes, and so far as they
can, denude the Gospel of that glory given to
it by its founder, when he proclaimed, "The
poor haze the Gospel preached to Mens."
But while sin in every form reaches ma
turiy so shocking in large cities, these are also
the home of the highest style of piety. True
Christians here must perforce withdraw them
selves from the gayeties and follies of the
| world. These things are carried to such an
absurd and ridiculous hight, by fashionable
society in large cities, that true piety and vi
tai goodness can no more grow and mature
while connected with them than the prairie
flower that glories in the unobscured light of
the sun, can flourish in the deep shades of the
forest. Hence they withdraw into Christian
society, where all are of kindred spirits; all de-
lighting in the same things; where, by mu-
tual prayers, labors exhortations and exam
pie, they strengthen each other in the Divine
life. There, surrounded by suffering, SHINING
humanity, Christians feel the calls of God and