Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-04-14
MEMPHIS APPEAL
SUNDAY MORNING. APRIL II, 1879,
" REroRMERs.

The conelave of ministers who, q few
months since, resolved % reform the.
tone Of the secular press Of Memphis,
have subsidized. They have learned that
while they were holding up the imptI.
fectons Of the secular press, there was
much In their own profession that de-
served lashing, and they have.
wisely concluded to let the press
purify itself, and to purify them
selves. This effort to do some
thing, and its failure, shows that the
class of %vociferous preachers Of reforms,
who feel that their special mission is 10.
exhort, denounee and seold rather than
to do any quiet and unobtrusive lDork in
behalf Of their fellow-men, seems to be
alarmingly on the increase. Male and
female ''reformers," of all grades and
calibers, abound throughout the United
States. Whether their particular In
strument for making the world and hui
man nature over again chances to be
the tongue or the pen, they are all alike
IN this. that they are inflated with g
conviction Of their own superiority, and
Of the great services they are destined tC
render society and the world at large;
they also generally participate In the
notion that the most powerful agencies
for bringing about the millennium are
speech-making and underwriting, as.
If selfshnsss and sin could be lectured
out Of the universe, and human nature
r~egenerated by rhetorical appeals.
Personally, these people with missions
are apt 10 be nuisances, being too NOR
bidly -self-centered and too conscious Of
themselves TO make agreeable or lovsble
members Of society. This, however,
might be regarded as a minor matter
were they really as useful as they imsg-
Inc IN their labors. But the fact is, they
are often a serious hindranee to right
feeling and right thinking. Being too
opinionated and conceited to suspect
that their ideas oflife, society or religion,
however hastily adopted, may possibly
be mistaken, they exhort and rebuke
with all the complacent dogmatsm OF
6 ~'revelator' who reaches knowledge on
all subjects by direct intuition, and can
dispense with all thought, study, rea-
sOning and all the laborious processes
BY which less gifted intellects strive to
get at the truth. Consequently, the
only "progress'' they promote is pro
gress associated with crude theories,
rash speculation, loose logic, fabby
sentmentaHsm and the indiseriml-
nate advocacy Of all manner Of
novelties and "isms." The spasmodic
neSormers have probably achieved some
good In gettingu up excitements thsthave
helped 70 rouse public opinion to a sense
Of particular wrongs or evils; but they
seem, as q class, to have been so super
fetal In their meditations upon the ma
ture Of the forces that affect society as
never to have understood that the real
sources Of human misery and perversity
lie beyond the reach of legislation, lee
turing and popular agitation. Suppose
they c5uld get all the laws passed that
they can propose; could get all their
theories about life and society accept
ed; what then? Why, then, after all,
the value Of the result would still de-
pend upon individual character, and the
great forces that control human action
would still continue to operate. But the
spasmodie reformer does not look as far
as this. He dreams dreams, sees visions
and delivers oracles. And so he persists
with infinite zeal and hustle in /" reform
ing the world,n full Of the consoling as
suranee that he is accomplishing mighty
things. Meantime the world rolls on In
its old, old, wicked way, the busy labors
Of these restless and of1cious spirits
making about as much impression upon
the vast dense mass Of evil and suffer
ing as the sputtering Of a lucifer match
would upon an iceberg.