The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-04-24
THE GOLDEN AGE.

4 w ACAO ShAAA VIC LOCSLC Vic OOAU
+ en- Age? In the past, or in the fu
ture? All answer that it is not il
the present. This is an age O
: iron. Now we have toll, sweat
struggle, disappointment. Tn
|, ancients put it in the distant pas;
All their nations and tribes hat
! traditions of fairer chimes and bet
ter days, times when nature wa
f more generous and men more vir
D tuous. Broken strains of the mu
D sic of Eden have Thus fioated al
, over the world.
best age the world has yet seen
and that the Golden Age is in thu
future. 1t is the witchery of dis
lance which makes us carelessly
assume the superior excellence o,
the past. We feel the ruggednes:
of our path and the hardness o.
our lot,and, looking back through
the softening haze of years OF
centuries, we take for granted
that our fore-fathers Jared better
than We. We do not feel the chill
winds that pierced them to the
bone. Even their trials and mar.
tyrdoms are glorified. They seem
elevated to mountain peaks, while
We are clambering over bruising
rocks at the mountains base. So
Alpine tourists, seeing on the
peak of Mont Blanc q half dozen
| a6yapfuropo ol,pnhorS ora mont g.
say, allow delightful that must
be! what a prospect they have
spread out before themr' forget
ting the piercing cold of that i'm
mense altitude, the perilous and
utterly exhaustive ascent, and the
yawning chasms of eternal ice
which threaten to return. Dis
lance enchants.
The Bible and right reason
agree in rebuking all such regret
! full admiration of former ages.
They bid us turn our backs on
the past and welcome the beckon-
ing angels of the future. AS long
as the Babylonish captivity Coos
people were perpetually making
our blunder, that blunder of which
no age can claim the monopoly,
and clarifying the past. They
pointed back to the deliVerance
from Egypt, as though that were
the only proof which memory or
faith could produce of Gods gra-
cious power. So the prophets
were continually reminding them
that God was not dead, but that
he still lived and wrought for
them. "The everlasting God
fainteth not, neither is weary"
"Remember We not the former
things, neither consider the things
of old. Behold, 1 will do a new
thing"
There is-and we are in no dan
ger of forgetting it-a right use
of the past. We cannot cut loose
from it, and we ought not to I'M
dervalue it. We might as well
deny our pare1 tage. The past is
the foundation on which the pres
ent rests. 1t has made us what
we are. "Other men labored, and
y AAAEO SAICA AnIO OA4CLL loDOLos
The lessons of the past are above
all price. If we listen there will
come up to us from it's depths
voices of instruction, admonition,
and cheer. David shows us how
to use it. He argues himself into
heroic courage, or rather Vindicates
the courage which memory spon-
taneously inspired, by saying,
"The Lord that delivered me out of
the paw of the lion and out of the
paw of the bear, he will deliver
me out of the hand of this Philis-
tine" He gives US the same ar
gument in another form of words,
worthy to be placed in golden let
tiers on the walls of every church
and chapel and cleset, "The Lord
hath been mindful of us; he riU
bless u.s."
The wrong use of the past is
that which leads to an undervalu-
alton of the present, and a half
despair of the future. 1t is for
ever asking, (what we are express
ly forbidden to ask, "Why were
the former days better than these?"
It looks with despairing eye alike
on State and church. 1t pirates of
Roman bravery" and "Spartan
integrity" and of "the fathers of
the Republic" The craggy pres
ent offends its vision, but the haze
of centuries softens and glorifies
the more craggy past. Our
school-day reading books showed
us little more than the green spots
in the desert of ancient history.
They gave us the best items in
the biographies of the best men.
But if any man will study with
care the annals of any ancient ma
ton in any age he will turn from
it with relief and delight to our
own times and to our own
country. Suppose sixths of
the Presidents of the United
States had died by assassination,
and that the accession of a new
President was wont to cost twenty
Congressman their lives, and q
thousand of our largest capitalists
their entire estates; and that the
favored {? candidate could secure
the brief tenure of his bloody
scat only by distributing to every
soldier of vast standing army a
donation of several hundreds OF
dollars! Yet such was the state
of things, age after age, in the
Roman empire. And on one oc.
casiOn the Pretorian Guard actual
ly sold the empire at public auc
ton to the highest bidder! Being
dissatisfied with the donation
offered by the chief aspirant TO the
purple they proclaimed an auction
A rich old senator named JuliaI
was sitting at his table when the
news reached him. His wife anC
: daughter urged him to go and bic
| for the throne of the world. III,
: refused; but, over-persuaded, h,
, reluctantly went, bid against hi
rival, and, having the longer purse
5 carried off the doubtful prize, hi
: donation being about a thousan,
dollars to each soldier.
: These brief references to civi
affairs must suffice at present
though it were easy to gather froI
4 almost any chapter of ancien
- history such instances of Yiolenc
n and despotism and various an
; rampant vice and crime as woul
= seem the inevitable precursors {
Z: 4 the disintegration of society an
I the depopulation of the glob'
II And we apprehend that a carefi
reading of our own national hi
q tory would greatly disenchant I'll
: popular mind of its idolatry I