Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-12-02

IuC CuuTClcS SHOulU De SuuclcnCly callcu CC
it. At any rate, this double. income as the
word implies, is not a commercial equivalent
of services rendered, but an acknowledgment
of ministerial value. 1t is a practical ex-
preston of the sentiment Of honor quickened
into action by the recognition of a noble and
worthy work.
When, therefore, the Apostle says we are
to honor all men, he means, first, that the
disposition to do it should exist, and then
that it should have a practical and forcible
expression. No sentiment of honor is worth
anything or worth much that does not ex-
hibit itself. 1t is good when it is in the
heart. 1t is better and best when it issues
from the heart and takes it's object, and puts
a robe on his shoulders. and precedes and fol-
lows him with its respectful salutations.
" This is the man whom the King delighteth
to honor =" Let him be invited to go up
higher, and take an uppe seat in the Syna-
gogue."
But why should we be disposed to honor
all men? This question, my friends. is to
be answered, if at all, by the word of God.
For the disposition to honor all men is not
natural to man. Our first instinct is not to
honor but to depreciate our fellows. We arc
generally self-asserting, self-suficient, i'm
patient of rivalry. jealous of other mems
qualities, and fearful of opposition or supre-
riority. A gentle depreciation of another, is
a mild and pleasing way of clarifying our
self. And therefore,, this man depreciates
that man, and this woman criticises tina
woman, ms the most agreeable way of calling
attention to their own superior excellence.
81 this age depreciates a former age, this
country foreign countries this town other
towns this school other schools and the
party to which we belong the party to which
we do not belong and the church of our
order the church Of other forms. When we
are left to our natural instincts. we run
d0lcn, to use a common expressive phrase,
we run down those who come into some sort
Of competition with ourselves. Even in
quarters where the most advanced liberal
opinions in politics and religion are uttered
we often find the least generosity, and the
most intolerant Judgment of the worth and
motives of others. And what is still more
singular, is, that when the law of Christ is
acknowledged as a binding and imperial
power. the old instinct continually re-asserts
itself, and the best Christian men are often
the most reluctant to give the tribute of
honor to those to whom it is due. If they
give to one man they refuse it to another.
1t is very clear, | think, that if man is left
to himself he is by no means disposed to
8. honor all men" 1t is also very clear, that
he ought to make head against this natural
inclination. Nor is it a mere regard to self
interest that should lead him to this. Yet
doubtless, there is nothing to cheap, and
nothing so valuable to ourselves, as the
courtesy which gives honor to other men.
Many an enemy has been turned into Il
friend, and many a friend kept from becom-
ing an enemy, by the giving of deserved res
pect and honor. We may say that this con-
ventional courtesy is not honor that it has a
hollow ring about it that it is a poor counter
felt yet it is a part of that social currency
which mon nevor rpfIGa ordinary raSpaot
and kindness, and pollteness, may be eonvcn-
tional, but they are agreeable. They may
differ from the honor which we ought to pay.
The moralist may say that they cannot be
enioined but | do not know that greater
violence is done to morality when courtesy is
made legal tende in place of honor, than is
done to business when paper is made legal
tender in place of gold In themselves they
are both valueless, but common consent gives
them marvellous value. Nor need one be
blamed if he prefers honor to courtesy, and
gold to paper. That which is intrinsically
valuable is better than that which is intrin-
sically worthless. The honor which we are
TO render to men, is not then, based on the
instinct of selishness, on the desire TO make
them subserve our purposes and ends.
But are we to honor all men in Difference
to the mere instinct of race? This Is what
many men say, and it is an opinion which
Ids q Il - t0AALbNN vi an 1AtANC W 0At
instructed to honor and worship humanity.
This idea of a general, abstract, manhood,
claims our universal suffrage. 1t is the doc
trine Of modern material philosophy, and yet
it is more really antagonistic to Christian
ity than any other in the world. | do
not forget that in it's doctrine of humanity,
it is honorably distinguished from some less
pronounced forms of anti-Christian specuIa-
ton. 1t has endeayorcd to elaborate and
-o.t;ao - Lib ;Jo,1 a ono eoo+;o, oC ,,o~o1
duty. But in its exhaltation of humanity. it
has made a clear sweep of the supernatural
and spiritual world. Still, while it mocks
the deepest necessities of man, it does not
refuse him some supplies. If it has de-
God, and denied the personal inmor-
tally of man, it has vet felt the need of
iiling the void with the phantoms of its own
cOnjuring. This modern material, semi-p o-
litical, and semi-religious philosophy, then,
paraphrases the Christian precept, - honor
all men," by the abstract formula, q" honor
humanity" Man is the highest being whom
the philosophy of experience can consent to
recognise. Humanity is to be w~orshiped,
enthroned, and made supreme. Man himself
is the rightful, adequate object of his own
aspirations, labor and love. Manhood is to
be worshiped by each man. And from this
new worship, we are told. there is to flow
forth a morality which shall be enthusiastic
:allV human, Wnlcn snail elevate anu DlesS
the earth, and with which the inferior ethics
faith of the gospel. Will in vain contend,
will bring in the millennium, if the
runds can be raised. But what is the real
humanity of this doctrine? Is humanity an
distraction. or is it the sum total of human
fthc former, any one can easily
sec, that it is impossible to excite any enthu-
,ia.m or love, for an abstract and unsubstan-
.ial idea. We could as well honor the law
IF gravitation, or worship a quadratic equa-
ion. If it is the latter we haveat once to make
/ wholesale sacrifice of common sense. For to
actual humanity man as he is is
20 worship, not merely love and courage,
and purity but hatred and
,owardice, ferocity and falsehood, supersti-
ion and selfshness. If it is to worship that
which the immoral decidedly predominates
over the moral, the false over the true, the
. honor all men, is based neither upon the
,couirements of selfishness, nor the Instinct
IF race.
III. Let us then, in the second place, con-
,ider what are the motives which should
cad us to honor all men.
Paul gives utterance to the first, when he
to the exclusive and arrogant
that God had made of one blood
Ill the nations. 1t was the re-assertion of
,he original sentence, =" God created man in
His own image, after His likeness" 1t
makes but little difference what his condi-
ion is it is of no consequence that he is
linked by his lower nature to the animals
lround him it is still true, that his nature
binds him with all the orders of celestial
beings above him. He has a double likeness
o God in his intelligence and in his free will.
lie is not simply an animal organism, en-
1t ia. -