Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1867-09-26
stlIolous aistellauy.

II
family be too sick to come to the
table. an anxiety is felt for him ; but
let him for years not come to the
communion table, aud no concern is
expressed. Let his spirit desert bis
body, and the family put on mourning;
but let him be as dead TO divine things
AS if his spirit was deserted by the
Holy Spirit, and there is no lamenta-
ito
What viii you do with the liberty
Won have won ? Shall it be curse to
you or blessingH 1t will be one or
the other, according to the use you
make of it; the object you seek in 1t;
the level on which you live the quail
ity of your love You can make 1t
devilish, and you can make it divine ;
and which will you make ity Provi-
dence has given you q magnificent
room; how will you furnish it Z He
has opened a splendid field for your
enterprise what will you raise in II
Such grand opportunities of personal
cult ure, and public activity, and phil
anthropic influence, were never before
offe red to a people as now invite us
to profit by their privileges and ac-
cept their boons. God grant that we
NAV have the wisdom and grace to
use our liberty for noblest ends
TuE PUBLIC CALL.-The Christian
Inquirer says /: The reaction of the
war upon the taste, habits, ambitions
and morals of our people has proved
fearfully damaging. The old order
of things has been entirely broken up.
The leaders of other days are left be-
hind, if not forgotten Glasses are
dissolved. The ideas and usages with
which we had become familiar are
thrown aside. New men, new GUS
toms, new notions are everywhere
uppermost. The low have been lifted
up. Followers have become leaders.
Beggars Of yesterday are millionares
today. and set the fashion for who
ever is foolish TO follow their guidance
The consequences are legitimate.
Such an intense and insane rush and
struggle for wealth, such reckless, ru-
inous extravaganza Of expenditure,
such delirium for vulgar play, this
country has never seen. And alas !
not only taste, refinement, purity and
piety have gone down before the tide,
but even honesty, the only firm basis
Of commercial prosperity, the only
sure support Of social prosperity, the
one essential condition of individual
and public welfare, is yielding to the
weight and pressure Of popular fash
ions and faulty. Speculations, which
are merely gambling under less OBJ
noxious name, frauds, and all imagi-
nable villainies, are carried on almost
openly. 1t is estimated that single
interest lied the Government out of
sixty millions of dollars last year
More than halfof the Revenue officers
are suspected of peculation, which
means plunder. The food we eat is
nauseous with adulterations. Our
coffee is made of stale ship bread and
oil nuts, and even the milk we would
give our little ones is thick with dis
eases and tinctured with poison.
And while every legitimate business
has dropped to lower grade of meth
cd and spirit than it formerly occu-
pied, every vice has increased in an
alarming degree. Intemperance; not
orly are our streets and public places
full of it, not only do young men and
old men, and mere boys fall before it
by scores and hundreds, but even
women, beautiful, accomplished, be.
loved wives and daughters, carry its
fire blush on their cheeks, and reel
and totter under its influence on the
sidewalk. There arc more gaming
places in the city to-day than there
were dry-goods stores twenty years
ago. and the gamblers include all
classes from the boy of fifteen to the
roue of fifty But why enumerate
Every vice on the black catalogue of
transgression has more than doubled
in volume and in victims within these
FIVE years, and our outh, the pride
and hope of the land, are falling be-
meath the subtle destroyer faster than
they ever fell in Southern campaigns.
Marriages are diminishing. Homes
are breaking up The streets are un-
clean. Places of amusement are vi
tiated with vulgarity Echoes of pro.
family ring in the air, and pitfalls are
everywhere.
There is great deal that is good
here among us to-day; perhaps new
or more than now. OF that at anoth.
or time. We call attention now to
the evils, the thjokening moral perils
Of our American society. They can
hardly be exaggerated or painted in |
colors too vivid and intense. They |
work more ruin than we can calcu- |
late; and besides the ruin, they taint
the atmospheric with impurity, and /
their poisonous malaria affects every |
inAuence that operates on the mind .
and heart. Unless these vices arc
checked, these evils abated, these
dangers ayerted, woe, woe to us, our
children, and our country. And so
the question comes home TO every
Christian parent and patriot; "Nvhat
shall be doneg" There is a Public
Call to each aud all of us, and how
shall we respond to ity
The first thing is for us to see that
not only must something be done.
but that we have something 10 do
We have personal responsibility
which cannot be shaken OF or divided
with others. The country lifts her
SCARED head, and with a voice still
trenulous with fear, calls each of her
sons and daughters, as by name, TO