The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1872-08-22

OHUaOH AND STATE.

I'll III all Tire 0lgp0sltlOns and habits
| which lead to political prosperity, re-
ligion and morality are indispensable
supports. The mere politician, equal.
| ly with the Christian, ought to respect
and to cherish them, A volume could
not trace all their connections with
private and public felicity. Where is
| the security for property, for rcputa-
| ton, for life, If the sense of obligation
desert the oaths, which are the instru-
ments Of investigation in courts Of
Justice?
| And us with caution indulge the
supposition that morality can be MAIN
tanned without religion.
/ Whatever may be conceded to the
Influence Of refined education on
minds of peculiar structure, reason
and experience both forbid us to exl
pect that national morality can prevail
In exclusion Of religious principles
Wdshingtosa's E'dYsreN address to the
AanerScdn pe0Ule.}
With such counsels Americas sa-
/ gacious statesman shows how unpatri-
otto and foolish is any attempt to dis
parage and ignore the Christian ele-
ment in the State, to divorce the rclig-
ions from the political interests of the
country
| "A commonwealth we'll founded and
administered, derives its light, charter
of authority, and guarantees of perpe-
tuity only from God. The civil
government of a free people, to be
harmoniously and benefcially admins
tered, must acknowledge and follow a
true and religious guidance.
Irreligion is as hostile and fatal to
the proud career of the Republic, as to
individual veal. Pluck the throbbing
heart from the body, and the life cur
rents cease. Wrest the Church from
the State and destroy that reverential
acknowledgment of the divine, in the
hearts and conduct of the masses,
which the Church as The pillar and
ground Of the truth. is divinely appoint
ed to nourish, and you make repub
lie like ours impossible. 1t bchoOvcs
then the voters of this land, to take
care that both science and morality be
taught in the public schools, on the
basis of Christian truth, and under the
guidance of Christian teachers. 9th
erwise science will be only an sgnUs
fataus, and morality only a name. 1t
Is indeed not the business ofthe State
to teach religious truth as an end, but
simply as an Indispensable means to
train up loyal citizens, and to inclllcate
those principles, without which, SELF
government must perish now, as it did
in Pagan Greece and Rome, and in inf
del France. Why, pray, does the State
NEEDLE with secular education? The
answer is, it Is necessary to make good
citizens and for the same reason, self
protection, moral and religious truth
may and must be taught also.
We are proud, not without reason of
our admirable common school system,
with It's vigorous developement, but we
must remember that we are indebted
to the cross and the church, for this
vital element in the life-blood of the
State.
s.'rhe hills and valleys Of our land are
covered with the shadow of that tree,
the boughs are like the good1y cedar"
Every hamlet enjoys the shelter of its
branches, every home feels the re-
freshment of its nourishing fruit, but
only bec4lise II is Christian as distin-
guisfed from Pagan education. It
grows only in Chfistian soil, and as it
had Christian baptism and SPONSOR
ship, SO must 1t have Christian, nhr-
ure.
Allow the Bible to be prohibited in
the public schools, and the State sub
stantially DEGREES Goddess education,
an days the AK at the root, both ofthe
common school system, and of that cit
I.ir 20 ft.oS
State. The Bible is the only source of
that ponderous truth, the freedom ofthc
individual. The Oriental nations new
err dreamed of such radical doctrine.
They only knew that one man was
free, and he the despot. The old Re-
publics were based upon the idea OF
the freedom of some men, those born
free and possessed of o certain amount
of property and intelligence, not that
man, as man, was free. Plato, Socra-
ties, Aristotle, Cicero, never conceived
of that sublimest of mans rights. the
right to himself. That majestic truth
the solid rock upon which this Repub-
lican State is built. is also butressed
by the fact of the unity and brother
hood of mankind as proclaimed in the
Bible, placing every man, king, and
subject. rich and poor, ignorant and
learned, bond and Free, male and fe-
male jew and Gentle, on the same
basis of freed0 and so of certain
sacred ard u, BILE rights, in the
church and State.
Such is the great fulcrum truth
which over-turns all oppression of man
by man. or of man by Governments.
" We hold these truths to be self
evident, that all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights, that
among these are life, liberty. and the
pursuit Of happiness Such a declara-
ton could only be made, by people,
to whom it had been divinely revealed
Self-eyident' only after nearly six
thousand years OF experiment and
failure.
On the national capitol at Washing
ton, stands the pagan GODDESS of Liber-
ty, placed there by a recent Secretary
of War. but let not our artists, Fourth
of July Orators, or citizens suppose
that, that figure symbolizes ut all, the
liberty and equality of the citizens of
the Republic. II only symbolizes the
doctrine for which the Confederate
States fought, in the recent sedition,
privy conspiracy and rebellion" viz
Liberty for the fer and slavery for the
maay; but not at all the truth which
struck off the shackles from the limbs
offour millions of bond men, by which
act alone the nation was enabled to
march forward to her final triumph.
The pagan GODDESS syInboiizes, for that
is all that paganism ever knew, liberty
for class, a favored few, but that
grand catholic doctrine OF liberty for
all men, of whatever race, color, cul-
ture, religion, or condition, which is
divinely blazoned in the charter of the
Republic, and which as the pillar of
cloud by day, and of fire by night, to
marshal this nation in the way it
should go; that doctrine, say, is the
| gift of the Gospel. The Cross is the
true symbol Of liberty, and the church,
mot a petty sect,) which is Christs
Kingdom on earth, as the herald of the
1 organic unity and equality ofthe race,
and as the teacher Of human brother
hood, is the solid bulwark of free
State.
i There should be no jealousy between
the church and the State. They are
both ordained of God and inscparably
united. What God hath joined to
gether let no man put assundcr." WI
l ,xl.al rNv 80 crta - Al.