Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1874-03-06

This panic has struck men right
and left, and wherever we turn we
see heap of dust where only the
other day we saw splendid and,
honorable reputation, and know not
when we open our paper any morn
ing, what fair exterior to which we
have bowed and bid good morning,
or what honorable name we have
picked out for our boys to copy for
their guidance may not have crum-
bled while we were speaking.
But could fear this dry rot in
our manhood as much as do to-
day, if l felt sure we had still left
in use even the savage virtue of the
eaylicr Indian to call a man a thief,
a liar, a coward, or a man fore
sworn, and then just put him where
he belongs. We talk about rings,
and deplore their fatal power. There
is not man in Unity church, inclu-
ding the minister, who docs not be-
long to "ring" Of some sort. 1
may say l do feel free to tell man
exactly what I think Of him, because
charity thinketh no evil, while all
the time the simple truth may be
that l am coward, and dare not do
it, or am interested in keeping the
ventilation from the thing, and can
not afford to do it, or l have no salt
of virtue to spare; so l know not
how to do it, as l belong to the
same denomination, and truth to
God and my own soul would look
like treachery to the brethren, and
so l 60 into the Gordon and try to
think that when stand before the
great white throne, the Judge of all
the earth will be in the ring too.
God help us, friends, this is what's
the matter. But We must get out of
it. We must take to truth telling
and truth doing. We must not try
to trick our souls by talking philos-
ophy or progression, or telling each
other how much we dare believe,
except there be at the heart of it ali
this salt Of virtue, which will com.
pei us to tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing bit the truth, for
we may weave webs of the finest
texture and dye them in purple and
gold, but if they are only vestments
to hide dry rot there is an abiding
justice somewhere that will laugh
at our calamity, and mock when our
fear cometh. Now, then, is there
any cure for this decay of the sub.
stance of our American manhood,
of society and the nation? For as
the men 60 the nations 60, at least
| think there is, and it begins where
l am standing and you are sitting.
We mast have this saving salt of
virtue first of all in our own nature.
We must not pray so much that
God will save our souls when we
die, rs that He will save them while
we live; not SO much that He will
take US to heaven as that He will
help to make it worth our while to
live on earth that we may each one
of us be saved from dry rot by
plunging soul forward into the salt
of truth, Of cleanness OF reality, or
in . word ! say again, of virtue.
No good can be done, except as it
is done first within each mans ma.
ture. Whether it be a mote or q
beam that it is our own eye, we
must first of all get that out. Then
we can help our fellowmen, too, by
insisting, as far as we are able, on
q thorough ventilation wherever
there is danger that dry rot will set
in by keeping things close, or by
what we call standing up for our
friends until there is nothing to
stand up for but a heap of dust
Robert Coliyer.