Weekly Trinity journal., 1868-05-09
NUMBER Is.
Counsel to Boys.

J
or creed is superior to all Others nor yet to ar
que that all of them equally good nor that
belief and unbeef of no practical account.
On this head will only say, generally, that the
good son of virtuous, intelligent parents will be
very apt to abide in their faith and communion
until he is quite sure that his unders tandng is
mature, and his knowledge to facts and prin-
ciples at least equal to theirs. What would
wish to argue is this-that one essential funda-
mental base of noble career in my view is q
firm, clear, living conviction that the universe
is no accident no casual product of fact,
chance, or the fortuitous conclusion of atoms
but the creation of any omnipresent, onniscient,
omnipotent Will.
! No man is old enough, or wise enough to solve
all the problems presented to finite minds by
what we see and know. If the universe has
Creator, must there not have been time when
it did not exist? If God made all things but
Himself, must He not have previously existed
alone? And must not Infnity have been
larged by the subsequent calling of the material
universe into being? Thus, question after ques-
ton may be asked, to which no satisfactory an
swer can be given, and with reference to which
we can only say; with Tennyson,
81 sink upon the altar stairs,
That slope through darkness to God.'
| But, when we quit the dreary domain of spec
ulation, all is simple cheerful, certain. We are
not the waits of Chance, the slave of Necessity.
=" Though we now see through glass, darkly,"
we can yet see enough to render it certain that
| children of an infinitely powerful, wise,
| and good Parent-too wise and loving to permit
us to defy His laws with impunity. He must
punish every alteration from the straight and
narrow path of righteousness-that is, Recti-
tude. He would not be absolutely good, If lie
did not. To permit US to do wrong with lmpu-
| nity-to break His laws and secure thereby
seeming personal advantage qualification, at
the expense of general injury-would be to re-
| sign His bengnant sceptor, and allow the world
to drift helplessly toward chaos and the unfath-
amable abyss.
The vital truth is tersely summed up by the
Psalmist in the statement, The fool hath said
in his heart There is no God" That is the one
great, fatal mistake, which covers our globe with
misery and woe. Bat for this, there could be no
libertine, thief, drunkard, no heincus
transgressor. The conceit that Gods justice
may somehow be evaded, circumvented-tha
the pleasures of sin may be enjoyed, and its pen
alties somehow escaped-is form of qualified
Atheism, immensely more prevalent ard
baleful than any other. 1t is the omnipresent
prompter of greed and lust, and Incidence, and
knavery. Less palpaby absurd than the notion
that nothing originated everything, it is more
widely cherished, and vastly injurious.
Let one harbor doubt of the universally,
the inexorabIe unavoidable certainty of Retri-
button In spite of all deceiving appearances,
reap have sown and receive as we
have deserved. The succession of effect to
cause is not always instant or obvlous-appear-
ances may often seem to ignore or defy it as
plainly as The seems TO revolye around the
earth but the truth is only obscured never
subverted. God reignS that is the great, first
truth. He does not merely contemplate and over
see; He designs, directs, and DEGREES, and Is
never disconnected, nor disappointed. What to
are alterations, defeats disasters, are to Him,
who foreseeth the end from the beginning, but
steps toward The fulfllment of His transcendant,
hap Of JTnrynr n1 nod
Young friends, do not intend to preach to
you, and you will probably hear no more from
me in this precise vein. But every plan of life
and duty must find anchorage in some funda-
! mental idea and the truth which seems to
me most essential, is that which the fools heart
denied when he said, &C There is no God. '-Hor-
ace Greeley in the Little Corporal.
TERMS OF PEAcE.-The Salem (Oregon) Union
ist has the following article, characteristic of its
present able editor 60 Whoever to-day studies
the character of the issues before the pub
lic in the political contest going on, will find
little room to doubt but that the same principles
that characterized the two parties and gave
their distinctive positions in 1860, and through
the four years of war, are the same to day
then. From the day that the Constitution of
the United States was adopted, until the hour
that the Democratic party fired on Sumter,
fierce partisan contest was going on. from that
hour to the present Liberty, poisng in her
hand the sacred balance of justice, stood upon
the battlements of our nations greatness, and
proclaimed to man the9 unerrng truth, that all
men are born equal equal in their rights before
the lar. Tyranny, with her black banner, upon
which was inscribed persons held to service
labor, marshaled her yotaries. And the genius
of light and darkness boldly stood confronting
each other. Liberty called to her standard the
aid of education, art, science, morality and re-
ligion !; each church built was encampment
each school-house was magazine; each work
shop was an armory; and she unfured her
banner to the cool north breeze, the civilization,
| refinement, sobriety, virtue, morality, religion
and industry of the nation rallied round its ample
folds, and bore it meteor-likc in the pure sky OF
equal justice, and proclaimed, this republic can
not live part free and part slave and the echo
was caught up by twenty millions of free Amer
icans who said, liberty for all! Tyranny called
| to her standard the genius of darkness anu as
ntegration. She sad come to my banner, mere
the luxury of liberty is not to the ,serviie no-
erty is only for the superior race case anu eo'Ys
mark the lines of our party. God has created
for our use and pleasure the serylle races, anu
sbips land at our door the sons ana daughters OF
Africa; they and their children, 10 the rehotest
generation are ours. The standard was Plahteo
in the low lands of the cotton held, ignorance,
rhera in the embrace of the peculiar institution
- crew male in the process of time, until the dis
,;ngnisbing lines of color needed the aid of the
microscope. The fetid breath of the lustful prop
aoator of the institution sounded long and
ioud the war-horn of the hosts of OPPRESSION
who, rayng, struck their daggers at the bosom
of freedom But the clear north winds rang out
their thunder tones, and the spotless banner of
liberty high in air, justice and equal rights
leading the patriot throng and proclaiming
equal rights, life liberty and the pursuit of hap
pness. The banner of liberty has been victori-
Gus in battle. We demand victory, and that
continuously, with the ballot until all men are
equal before the law. This is our motto: this
is the terms upon which we will conclude
peace"
The London Spectator makes curious slip
when it speaks of Matilda Griggs, who was