The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1873-07-10

a wide-aKake trader. His ships coasted
the shores of Asia and Africa, from Mad
agascar to Japan. OF course such a man
knew something Of the world. ...
{ He was philosopher as well as trad
er, and as such he noticed three great
facts, viz:
l. That there was wide difference be-
tween the nations of the earth.
! 2 That in his own country, Chaldea,
Mesopotamia, Egypt and some others,
God had revealed his wide and given
messages of warning and instruction to
| the nations.
3. That those nations thus favored
were the civilized, enterprising and pros
pering people, while others not thus fa-
vored were sinking and perishing from
the face of the earth.
Then he daguerreotypes the true great
facts in the proverb, "Where there is no
vision the people perish, but he that
keepeth the law, happy is he" The
pages of the worlds history substantiate
the truth of the above proverb. Ask the
black rebel worlds history, Egypt2 Ca
naan? Ninevah? Babylon? Persia
Greece? and Rome? Where are they
now? They lie low in the valley of de-
struction, with all the nations that forget
God. 1t is true we attribute to some
natural, tangibles cause their rise and
fall, but these are the outward manifes
tations of the great law that lies under
neath,-the moral law of God. Why is
it that Christian nations have outgrown
pagan ones? Professionalism advanced
beyond Catholicism Why is it that
Prussia QutstripPed Austria in the eentu'
ries' long competition between them? or
why did Prussia become SO much strong
er than France? ] care not for its ra-
tienalism She had the open Bible, and
studied it for the last fifty years, and
that is why she conquered France.
France had the open Bible, but closed it
ON ST. Bartholomew, opened again, for
ninety years, her mightiest monarch shut
it up, and banished from her border half
a million of its readers. From that hour
France began to die. "Grayelotte and
Sedan are but the echo across the centu-
ries of St. Bartholomew and the revoked
edict of Nantes" Decay begins first in
the most spiritual elements, and after
wards, by inevitable consequence, in the
ruder realms of physical power. -
Now to come closer home let me ask,
Does not our beloved country follow too
much the example of atheistical France?
Do not our people drink too freely of
of the spirit of the nation Does not our
literature smell too strong of the detest-
able socialism and atheism of impious
France? o, America, take warming. "He
that chastiseth the heather, shall he not
correct you" We may pride in our in
telligence, and free system of education.
OF course do not ignore knowledge. 1t
is an absolute necessity for the mainte-
nance of our civil institutions. The ma
ture of American institutions demands
that all American citizens shall be intel
ligent, otherwise the great principles
crystalized in the institutions cannot
find full fruition.
l believe in learning I believe in free
schools, and l believe in compulsory
law compelling parents to send their
children to school, when all other means
fail knowledge we must have. But
knowledge without that which renders it
good is more Of curse than a blessing.
With all our boasted knowledge of art,
science and philosophy, if we are not gov
erned by religious principles, our claims
to greatness are void of solid foundation.
Can the knowledge of art serve a nation?
Ask Phidias and Praxaletes if art saved
Greece. Shall we say polite literature
Let the mournful chorus of Sophocles,
also the closing annals of Athens and
Sparta, how utterly the wisdom of Solon
and Lycurgus had failed to save polished
and warlike states from the penalty God
has affixed to the crimes of nations
Greece, despite the wisdom of Solon,
went down into the night upon which
the sun never again shone. Likewise
Rome, after listening with rapture to the
wisdom of Hellenic sages, translated by
Cicero into the Latin tongue, went down
also into the tomb of dead nations.
But what does all this prove? 1t proves
that mere intellectual culture, even when
carried to the highest development of
which men are capable, can never suhdue
the passions, nor enable nation to up
hold the civilization to which it may
have attained in the freshness of its ma
tional life
1t is a solemn truth that shines forth
with the brilliancy of midday light, from
every page of the worlds history, that
nation not governed by religious princi-
pies in her social as we'll as politi cal life
is destined at last, according to that law
which, by brazen fetters, binds together
sin and misery, crime and punishment,to
be hurled from the pinnacle of greatness
into the valley of destruction, with all
the nations that forget God,
We as Americans have need of reform
in our social as we'll as political life The
strong hold the various systems of inf
deity are taking upon the American
mind is quite alarming, especially the un-
natural, abominable, accursed and damn
able system termed "free love" which is
infidelity in its worst shade. But this is
not the only evil that strikes at the ma
tions vitals. There is the love of money