American citizen., 1872-08-03
The Right Sort of Religion.

WE want religion that goes into the
family and keeps the husband from being
spiteful when the dinner is late, and keeps
the dinner from. being late-keeps the
wife from fretting when the husband
tracks the newly washed floor with his
muddy boots, and makes the husband
mindful of the scraper and the floor mat;
keeps the mother patient when the baby is
cross, and keeps the baby pleasant;
amuses the children as well as instructs
them: wins as well as governs; projects
the honeymoon into the harvest moon,
and makes the happy hours like the East
ern tree, bearing in its bosom at once the
beauty of the tender blossom and the
glory of the ripening fruit. We want a
religion that bears heavily, not on the ex-
ceeding "sinfulness of SIM" but the ex,
ceeding rascality of lying and stealing> a
religion that banishes small measures from
the counters, small baskets from the stalls
pebbles from the cotton bags, clay from
paper, sand from sugar, chicory from cOf
fee, otter from butter, beet juice from
vinegar, alum from bread, strychnine
from wine, water from milk cans, and
buttons from the contribution box. The
religion that is to save the world
will not put all the big Strawberries
at the top and all the bad ones at the bot
tom. 1t will not offer more baskets of
foreign wine than the vineyards ever
produced bottles, and more barrels of
Genesee flour than all the fields of New
York grew and all her mills grind. 1t
will not make one half Il pair of shoes of
good leather and the other of poor, so
that the first shall rebound to the makers
credit and the second to his cash. 1t will
not put Jouvin's stamp on Jenkins kid
gloves, nor make Paris bonnets in the
back room of Boston milliner's shop,
nor let piece of velvet that processes to
measure twelve yards come to an un-
timely end in the tenth, or IA spool Of sew
ing silk that vouches for twenty yards be
nipped in the bud at fourteen and IA half
nor the cotton thread spool to the yard
stick fifty of the two hundred yards of
promise that was given to the eye, nor
yard wide cloth measure less than thirty
six inches from selvedge, nor allwool
delains and all linen handkcrchicfs be
amalgamized with clandcstine cotton, nor
coats made of wooden rags pressed to-
gether to be sold te the unsuSpecting
public for legal broadcloth. 1t does not
put bricks Mt five dollars II Thousand
into chimneys it contracted to build of
seven dollars materials, nor smugglc white
pine floors that have paid for hard pine,
nor leave yawnng cracks in closets where
boards ought to join, nor daub ceilings
that ought to be smoothly plastered, nor
make window blinds of Stats that cannot
stand the wind, and paint that cannot
stand the sun, and fastenings that may be
looked at, but are on no account to be
touched. The religion that is to sanctify
the world pays its debts. 1t does not con
slider that forty cents returned for one
hundred is according to law. 1t looks
upon man who has failed in trade and
who continues to live in luxury, as a
thief 1t looks upon man who promises
to pay fifty dollars on demand with in
ierest. and who neglects to pay it on de
mand with or without interest, us u liar
C"Hgreg1fio"aii1-