The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-08-05

BY REV. WILLIAM NJ. RAKER.

If a citizen of the planet Mars were to visit
our earth, the volume which he would be sure
TO issue from the martial press Immediately
on his return would be reprinted here from
advanced sheets, ii it could be S. arranged.
and read by US with great interest. Not that
be could tells us anything Of ourselves which
we did rot already know; but for the fresh
ness of statement which could not but char
acteriZa the views of such an outsider. Now
Mars cannot be very much more unlike earth
than was the part of our country from which
the writer came unlike New England Aud
we cannGt but observe the contrast most
where the shades of difference are sharpest
defined That is. OF course in Boston. You
may Safely say that Spain is Spaniard, and
SO OF each of our cities. The moment you
mention Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York,
Chicago, you bave an idea OF the city in ques-
ton. as il it were an individual lnd an indi-
vidual Of a character dstnctiyey his own.
But OF no city is this quite so tue as il is OF
Boston, which is, as we all know, the unaduI-
terated result Of two undred and fifty years
of New England! And DO city on earth de-
serves higher praise than Boston. Fiom long
before the throwing of the tea overheard and
up to date, what city has been quite SO prompt,
as well as pure, in its patriotism? 1t hast
ened ftom its remotest extreme OF tie land 70
aid submerged Louisiana first OF all the cities,
because generosity was instructive to it, and
| nothing So swift as instinct. 1t was as swift
| in declining the aid offered il from abroad af
| ter its great confagratio1, because its princi-
pie of self-reliance is as instructive as its char
| ity TO others. And there is no greater mis-
| take than to sneer at Boston or The ground
| that it confres itself, like a pedatt, exclusive
| iy to care for the intellect. | stood yesterday
| among the walls of one Of its great institu-
| tons of learning; but | sat to day tor hours
| in one OF its forty free bathing establishments,
10 enjoy the delight of its street Arabs as they
| focked in from tie hot streets. to splash
| about in the water, made as free to them as
| the air. For every palatial public school there
| is som edifiee, as magnificent, for lhe suffer-
| ing body. Not gallery OF art but has its
| counterpart for the outer man in a restaurant
| whose food is supplied to the poor as pure and
| as cheap almost as water. Take the police
| for instance, in comparison with the legaiized
| bandit,i of New York. Their efficiency in re
! gard 10 crime is exceeded only By their cour-
tesy to all except criminals Vastly more
might be said in just praise OF Boston; yet
the writer fears it will all be accepted upon
the principle of "de mortuis nil Risi bonum'
| for it is the obituary OF dying Boston that
| is here being written.
Why not say so? The writer is a 7 ative
4 and ardent lover OF the South, and the South
OF his BIRTH and 3oyhood is as utterly passed
| away as is the Roman Empire. They have
| no hesitation here in Boston OF assuming as Il
| matter OF couIse that PufitanisIn there own
immediate and distinctive ancestry, is as Ut
| terly obsolete and extinct as is the mythology
of Rome. Is it not singular the degree 10
| which the courtiers of Charles IL. thought the
| same cf Puritanism-as cordially detested by
| them too? Yet, if my memory serves me,
William of Orange and hn Wesley, tie ex-
odus OF the Free Church of Scotlani, Spur
gecn, and the present amazing revival in Scot
| land bave taken place since the Merry Mon
| arch, HuIibras and the world of that ilk. II
unbelief lives and dies and lives again, let US
acknowledge the fact, equally historical.
| that belief, 100, lives and flourisbes amaz-
| ingly after it has seemed 10 have been utterly
eradicaed Mil.cfism-the frm persuasion
that the world ends with uS-is as big3ted a
belief outside OF Christianity as inside. IL IS
impossible not 10 recognize tie culture, refine
ment, genuine excellence, often putting 10 the
blush the professors of religion, of many of
the representatives cfunbeliet. Aud yet they
will themselves acknowledge, astonished, yet
| candid, that whatever becomes Of Christiaui-
ty as a form of belief, their form of unbeief is
perishing and rapidly. Some of them are eu-
deavoring 10 turn their attention from the
whole matter, in despair, to literature, AIT,
science. Others are giving up alb steady
thought upon the subject, to concentrate
themselves upon The making OF money. which
than that of a materialistic science, art aud
literature the achieving OF millions OF doilaIs
now, instead OF the paltry thousands of old,
being but more massive mateTalism and Il
more infatuating than of yore.
The exact trouble in Boston, as in every
other camp Of unbelief, lies in this, that not =
soul therein has anything to suggest as q
substitute for Christianity; no. not the ghost
OF an available suggestion. We have invent
ed the reaping and sowing machine, the
steamship and the telegraph, aud have some
what revolutionized the world by In sc. Be
fore we can roll the slnbe ont OF AID quite be-
yond the religion OF the NazaIese we mast
and it is said with deepest reyercEce we
must invent anothe1 aud better Christ.
Franklin snalchel the lightning flom the
skies; but greater F.anGn must snatch
from some quarter some moral electricity Of
greater flash and force than is yet known to
the science of cepticism-somethtag which
will arouse and impel men ut once more now
erfuliy and more beneficially than is seen in a
revival. The vehement demauo OF the world
upon unbc ief is for the coming oi Is Algsslal
The annunciation OF its counter Chiist. L
they could but reproduce some such from the