Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-06-04
Down on the Anglo-Saxon.

Inc fOll0Wlng nara c0nunQrums
are from the Working Church
Have we not invented thousand
kinds OF labor-saVing machinery, and
thus set the mind free from amending
drudgery Have we not risen SUI
perior TO a hundred thousand super
stitions which enchain the Old
World? Have we not applied the
sim pie principles of social and politi-
cal justice more fearlessly than any
other nation, and thus brought about
aigrander freedom and a higher type
of individual character? Have we
not driven the secrets of nature out
of their hiding-places, SO that, IN the
light of science, needless mysteries
can no longer impose upon the pop
ular Imagination Have we not
seized the opportunities which ASIA
let clip, and exalted ourselves into q
civilized and God-fearing nation Is
not this great Observation-Disclosures
withal-that we have builded p?
No, Mr. Christian American; you
have built nothing but tower of
selfconceit. You no more deserve
credit tor your invention than the
grumbling Israeltes deserved credit
for the mama which fell to them
from heaven. You have only found
what God has scattered, as he always
does in answer to special needs and
your need happened to be scarcity
of labor rather than Of bread. You
have risen superior to supefstitions
only when pulled out of them by
main force, as God pulled the Israel
ties out of idolatry by suffering, and
kept them from going back to it
only by repeated judgments. What
else were your religious wars and
martyrdoms You learn freedom
10 the first place, 0 Angl0-Saxons !
only by oppression, and then you
only learned it was good for your
selves, not others. Not until you
were again and again rebuked and
chastened did you give up longing
for the flesh-pots, the enjoyment of
freedom at others expense. And as
to your choice OF Christianity and
civilization, how impudent the az
sumptionl You were forced into
them Like the old Israel, again,
you have been cut off and hedged in
from other religions. Britain was
first Christian from cOmpulsion; tben
from policy; last. aud we fear least,
from principle, since, iC her most
Protestant days, she has carried far
more of practical degradation in her
right hand Of selfish, INSCRIPTIONS
commerce than of Christianity in her
LETT OF missionary effort. The free
Christian America, that boasts so
loudly of its institutions, may well
remember that Tor 151 years it had
20 moro choice of religions than had
Hobson of horses. The early colon
lists were made Protestant by p8rse-
cution, and their imme date descend
ants had q ra-ely-tr4versed ocean
between them and the influence of
the Old World
There is nothing in Anglo-Saxon
brain or blood that will cave US from
irreligion or false religion, and from
all the degradation which these
bring with them. There is nothing
in American soil and climate, MOTH
ing in American ideas or institutions,
nothing 10 American history, dis
coveries, tendencies, or aspirations,
that will prevent US from becoming
the most corrupt, imbeciIe, despised
nationality on the globe. The only
thing which can prevent that is an
abiding, humble acceptance of Gods
grace by the masses of the people.