Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-04-17

in the Church as well as in city councils
Senate chambers and Congress balls.
The sin Sabbath breaking is national
curse and a national crime. The views
and practices of the church in regard TO
the Sabbath are too low and too lax.
The Sabbath is. often desecrated, ana
that Dissertation justified on financial
basis by those whose confessions OIL iai.h
should lead them to remember the pap
bath day and keep it holy. The Church
is doing incalculable injury to the cause
of religion in this attempt to accommo-
date this law of righteousness to domes-
tic convenience and financial interests.
By this attempt to conform the prin-
ciples of the law to the loose theories
and looser practices of the age in regard
to the nature of the Sabbath, the Church
is becoming partaker with the world
in national sin that is sapping the very
foundations of righteousness. If the
foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do? Spain, Italy, France and
Mexico are sufficient examples of nations
without hallowed Sabbath.
Intemperance is a great reproach to
our nation. 1t is mighty social and
political evil. 1t is the source of more
domestic miseries and vices than any one
other evil in our nation, causes more suf-
fering, through poverty and domestic
disgrace, than any other social evil. 1t
is both vice and crime. AS vice
it degrades man, debasing his intellect
and his affections 1t destroys domestic
peace and virtue AS crime it Injuries
the community and corrupts society,
rendering both property and life inse-
cure. AS vice it is the parent of many
vices; as a crime it is the father of
many crimes. Drunkenness, licentious-
ness and gambling are terrible trio al
most inseparably connected. In our
large cities the air, tainted and poisoned,
is reeking with this triad of social and
political evils. There is danger of our
becoming a race of drunkards.
How may we individually aid in
perpetuating and increasing our national
exaltation
BY doing all we can to diminish and
destroy its reproach. Shall any professed
disciple of Jesus turn his eye from the
scenes or his ear from the voices of the
wounded and dying victim of sin in all
its forms and degrees ? He who can
deliberately turn to his ease or his pleas
ure saying, "Am l my brothers keeper"
should have burned on his brow the
brand of Cain, as an outcast unfit to live
within the pale of civilizedsociety.
AS nation we have been exalted to
heaven in point of privilege. God has
given us a goodly heritage. He hath
not dealt so with any people. What a
land is ours of splendid opportunities
What grand sceneries of mountain
heights and indispensable landscapes
What rich valleys and fertile plains
What beds of coal and wells of oil
What mines of gold and silver What
rivers and inland seas for domestic COM
merce!. What boundless coasts and
oceans! What schools of learning
What a gospel of purity and peace!
What a religion of righteousness and
salvation What affairs of liberty
What heavenly hopes What holy
God With all, what heritage is ours
By personal conservation to Christ
and earnest conformity to the divine
law of righteousness, each may aid in
exalting our nation. We must be con-
sistent in our word and in our walk, in
our precepts and examples, in our pray
ers and in our practices. We must not
only abhor that which is evil, but we
must cleave unto that which is good. And
! lest our enemies would take an ell
where we would yield an inch, we must
abstain from all appearance of evil.
The greatest reformers the world has
ever known have been the greatest agi-
/ tators. Agitation is disturber of the
peace and power of the princes of
this world. Agitation is a purifyer of
feted air and miasmatic vapors. 1t is
promoter of purity and righteousness.
1t is both hated and feared by the enc
mics of truth. Moses was an agitator.
Paul, Peter and John, Wesley, Calvin
and Huss, what agitators? These, that
| turn the world upside down, have come
hitherward. Let us all be agitators.
We must carry our conscience and relig-
ion to the polls and practice there as we
! pray at home.
The divine Christ and His divine Cos
| pel-at home and in the market place,
in the prayer meeting and at the polls,
! in the nursery and in the school, in the
forum and in the press, in our legisla-
| tive halls and in the executive mansion
! of the nation-are our sources of nation
al exaltation. They are our only hopes
of stability, of strength and of salvation.
For the destruction of our national re-
proach and the perpetuation of its exal
tstion let us pray and preach. For this
let us agitate and toll Let us examine
ourselves to-day. Let us confess and
forsake our sins. Let us humble our
seves before the Lord. Then shall we
be His people and He will be our God.
Happy is the people which is in such
state; yea happy is that people whose
| God is the Lord
GOOD FRIDAY.-Friday being Good
Friday" as well as the day appointed
! for the animal State Fact d;v;pa oar,-;oo