Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1870-02-24
CURE OF SOCIAL CORRUP.
TON.

The power of Christianity, as a
the same time the reforming AM
conservative element Of society
warrants doubtless all that can b.
said in its behalf, and all the con
lidence that has ever been reposeC
in it. 1t IS usually a latent power
attracting little notice, and rarely
developing a spasmodic energy
Yet the history of the world shows
of what it is capable 1t has form
ed characters marked by the lott
est type Of heroism. 1t has pro,
duced soldiers like the old blind
Zisca and Gustayus Adolphus. II
has sustained Christian reformers
like Howard and WiIberforce in o
career where the almost united cur.
rent of popular opinion set strong
against them. 1t has plucked from
the dead level Of common life, or
even the highways Of sin, men like
John Bunyan, or George White
field, or Richard Weaver, and made
them Gods instruments for regen-
Grating the degraded masses. If a
man like Thomas jefferson could
say, in view of national wrong, II
tremble for my country, when /
consider that God is just" others,
Of more evangelical views, may ex-
claim, eff it were not for Christian
ity, we should despair Of our coun-
try"
But in order that Christianity
may exert its legitimate influence,
its applied power must be brought
to bear in every social and civil
sphere. 1t is not enough that its
claims be eloquently presented from
the pulpit, or that self-denying men
seek out the ignorant and degraded
or neglect youth of the communi-
ty, and bring them within the reach
of Christian instruction. This is,
an important, we may even
say an essential, work. 1t is evan
gelism in certain spheres, where it
would be treason to the Church and
fatal to the best interests of social
life to suffer it to be wanting. But
society in these modern days is vul-
nerable morally at a thousand
points, and it needs to be defended
at them all, 1t would be a fatal
mistake to so concentrate attention
upon one or two exclusively, as to
leave others unguarded. While the
enemy is repelled in one direction,
he may be coming in like a food at
another.
We have no disposition to excite
needless alarm; but we fear that
such words as we have used, de-
scribe the actual dangers which
threaten social morality and polit-
ical integrity among us to-day. We
need to have our legislation, our
courts, our machinery Of justice
as wellas the neglect
ed classes of our population. We
have no hesitation in saying that,
N some practical respects, our po-
itical ethics are simply heathen.--
The results which would otherwise
follow the evangelical effort that is
lut forth among us, are counteract-
I'd by influences which poison the
'ountains of public justice and mul
iply to an alarming extent the
class.
A community is on the brink Of
crisis when public confidence in
he stern and impartial exercise Of
ustice is shaken, When hejudge,
whose solemnly imposed duty it is
o interpret and apply the law, is
egarded as the accomplice ofspec
lators or political partisans, -
vhen he allows himselfto ignore all
except to those by
rhom he hopes to be re elected
he very foundations of social or
er are undermined. Criminality
) sheltered by partisanship. Wick
dness exults in assured impunity,
III through the community the
varied elements of ava
ice and intrigue are let loose with
ut check, to prey upon the vitals
f society and mock at all threats
f restraint The very air is thick
18th moral pestilence. From the
ighest to the lowest sphere there !
, a new impulse given to the de- !
of corruption, and from S
le petty thief to the highway rob t
er the entire gradation of Grimm |
Iity receives numberless acces- {
ions.
Christianity, in those practical |
orms of philanthropic effort with l
hich we are all familiar, must, of 9
purse, impose some check upon /
lis influx of criminality. But it 1
.crks at a grave disadvantage, so L
ing as it does not reach the foun- t
lin and source Of the evil. The /
ood- gates are thrown open, and il
le machinery Of Christian effort {
,oops up from the flowing stream t
I'd reduces its volume; but it is b
Domed to a task which reminds us n
the lot of the tabled Sisyphus.-- 0
Ito the vacuum which it creates, h
81 evils rush in still greater abun I
lundance. h
We regard legislative corruption e
ID judicial faithlessness,-in the u
ltent to which they now prevail, q
as the exuberant fountains of U
ischief. Law cannot be enforced It
as to repress the outbreaking
olence. The daily record of :,
ime is appalling. Taxation be- "
,mes,-to the extent to which it is
rried,-Organized and legalized i
bbery. The safeguards and bar -
srs of Justice are oyerthrown, and :