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

into a vulgar prejudice against juliet i"eI
1t was the bitter sneer of VoltaIre that th
English thought that God had become lncar
nate for the Anglo Saxon race. But Christian
ity melts away this exclusiveness 1t does no
indeed do away with the different races ant
their various types and forms. 1t does no
attempt to blend and mingle them. Mis-
cegenation is no more a doctrine OF Chris
tianity than exclusiyeness of race. Tht
Divine Being never pushes principles to ex
tremes. God has ordained patriotism anc
the instinct of races to keep the races dis
tinct. He has enjoined Christian charity t.
save us from carrying into effect the strong
instinct of seclusion. Against that spIrl'
which would lead one class or race to domi-
neer over another for any protested cause
whatsoever, the Christian system ever utterf
her emphatic protest. 1t ever braves the
contempt of those who would honor, not
man, but the mere material civilization and
organized pride of race. It ever ranges
itself side by side with the lowest types, So
to term them, Of the human family, and In
the name of Christ bids the superior races
learn the full meaning of the creation and
the cross, and honor all men.
When VIC hear of the African savage, who
a year ago hoated his canoe in a lake Of
human blood, that he might fifty observe his
fathers obsequies, or when we look upon
those who are faithless to every obligation
of duty and honor, We may for a moment
look hard at the precept to honor all men
Yet inasmuch as this whole world is a tangle
of Satan, and all crimes flow out of the secret
and subtle fountain of sin in which we are
all implicated, it may be the pagan prince,
or criminals, apparently greater than we are.
shall stand higher before heaven than do you
or 1, when we lose our tempers in conversa-
ton, neglect the house and word of God, or
say our prayers without thinking of Him
to whom they are addressed. If the king Of
Dahomey had known what we know. he
would have repented long ago in sackcloth
and ashes.
The absence of intelligence is often held
to constitute another barrier to the honor of
man as man. Men who care nothing for
riches or rank cannot bring themselves to
respect the unin;ellectual. They will not
honor anything human that has no place at
the marriage least of intellect. Dizziness is
the hercsy that merits excommnnication-
Brilliancy is like the charity Of the New
Test tment. 1t ava,ls to cover a multitude
Of sins. | object not if honor be paid to
intellectual culture. He is truly honorable
who fills his heart with the stores OF wisdom.
But to make intelligence, IN the sense simply
IF cultivated intellect, the real test of a
claim to honor would secure such honor To
Noltaire, and may we not add, to Satan also,
while denying it to the apostles OF Christ.
To make intclli renee in the sense which 1t
is capable of rejecting on self and knowing
God the ground of that claim, is to own
that a debt of honor is due to the whole
human race.
The precept before us, is in no wise hostile
to our recognizing special reasons for honor
which individuals or classes may possess
1t is not adverse to the ordinary and provi-
Dental distinctions of society or government.
1t only insists upon a broader basis OF such
right TO honor than that which any of these
titles or distinctions suggest. 1t is IN har-
mOny with high recognition of moral worth.
1t does not force us to condone with the
possession of ignorance the extension OF
error or the guilt of crime. 1t does not I'M
ply Indifference to the interests OF wealth,
of virtue, of law or society. Suppose we
take the apostles advice and - reject a here
tic" We do not therefore neglect his COM
mand to honor all men. We may r~epudiate
an error and honor the man. We may honor
him in spite of error. We may think much
of him and yet separate ourselves for q time
from him.
Or suppose that society takes the life of
the murderer. Here, you say at last, here
is a limit to the honor Of humanity. No
the Church of Christ, the minister of Christ
waits at the foot of the scaffuld, that they
may honor in its last agony the dignity and
the intelligence of 4 human soul 1t may
be necessary to take the life of the culprit
But it may be true also. that his real guilt
is shared between the criminal and society
ut large. We hardly realize = our brother
hood in evil" Justice can punish the Grim
inal, but she cannot reach the influences
that have made him guilty. When the
OF a great wrong and misery darkens
the land, who of us can safely say, % have
had no hand in this" Sin is a labyrinth,
nobody knows where each path may lead.
one of us has done something to per-
petuate evil in this world, and there are few
hands that have never been set about the
lewis work. We none of US know how
much evil we have caused. Our own small
,st vices may have helped on the great crimes
IF our day. Society by a prevailing laxity,
" a neglect of duty. by carelessness of the
gnorant and poor may have helped produce
he crime, though her instinct of self pro-
ccti0n forces her to smite the criminal. But
Christ persists in hOnoring where society has
condemned. He rescues the malefactor from
he cross and takes him to Paradise as the
ruits of His victorious love. Even in the
extreme case of arrangement Christianity
las felt that a special honor is due to the
'ad wreck of humanity. 1t has been prodi-
5al of appreciation and tender respect for a
condition which if it involves a lifelong dis
~ocation Of faculties, does not itself imply
he final ruin of a spiritual being.
Thus is that in the presence of Christ the
outward inequalities Of life fade out of the
oul's sight, and the eye is fixed only on that
which does not change. A few years, more
II less, of external rank or wealth, or bril-
fancy or power, or poverty and service, are
qually unlmportant to him whose lifetime
eternity, and who measures human great
by the standards which eternity sup
lies.
". The practical bearings of this pre-
ept are numerous and forcible. Honor
IL men is a fitting motto for such a place
nd house as this. For this is the house of
he Son of God, who took upon himself our
lature in its lowest form in order that we
night know that there were none beneath
'ur reverence or beyond our love. 1t is His
,lace who exalted every man, however weak,
inful and low, when He became flesh and
lwelt among us. The Church knows, like
Ter great Master, no distinction of classes,
parties or characters. Her word
5 to all alike. In her sacred places we dare
Tot introduce the conventional standards of
Worldly Judgment. The Roman Church
within her courts alike the beggar
nd the prince. Under her Illuminated
eillngs, beneath the brilliant mosaics of her
roofs and within the aisles of her
natchless temples, there is no distinction of
ank. Her scores of patricians walk on the
consecrated pavement with her thou
ands of beggars. l blame her not for the
are she shows to the poor after she has
nade them such. But the best honor a
'hurch can do to man is to raise and lift and
less him, to inspire hin, with passions and
rlnciples that shall make him master both
t outward earthly fortune and of his in
Yard spiritual life. To such honor of man