The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-04-28
LETTER FROM SAN JOSE.

To THE EDITOR OF THE New NORTHw EST:
I have been fully occupied since my
return to California, preaching the gos-
pie of nature-two months of the time
in Eureka, where l was well received
and had large audiences. labor dur
| ing the next month at Petaluma and
Healdsburg. About the last of May I
purpose to turn my face northward and
will, think, come by the way of Vic
toria and the Sound, and thence to Ore
gon.
! Your valuable paper reaches US each
week with its store of ripe aud sugges-
tive matter, strongly imbued with the
spirit of reform, demonstrating, beyond
a doubt, that woman's sphere of useful
ness is of greater limit than that of wife
and mother, and may be filled without
neglect or loss in any essential service
to family and home. She but enlarges
her field of labor that she may serve
them in a higher sense.
All reforms go forward, not by the
consent ofthe masses, as the masses, from
transmitted tendencies and the inherent
impulse in nature to perpetuate both
good and bad conditions, are conserva-
tive in high degree, but from honest,
earnest, pioneer work on the part of a
few people, who, for the time being, are
quite unpopular and highly obnoxious
to the masses, who cry, "Crucify them
Cruelty them !" as in ages past.
Yet, after the hard battle of life, with
its tolls and privatiOns, is past, the seed
which, in many instances, is sown in
tears will be gathered in joy in the COM
ing time, and children will strew flow
ers on the graves of those whom the
fathers stoned to death.
Such is the inexorable law of the
mind in its onward march of develop
ment; and yet, with all the friction OF a
reformer's life, there is degree of COM
fort and solid satisfaction in the inner
life which makes them strong in the
battle for right and justice.
The inner life, then, is the real, the
solid, the substance. Containing all
the mighty elements of social progress
, in the world, men and women are not
: reformers because of convenience or
gain of ambitious hopes or personal
tastes. They are impelled by convic-
tions which are, to great extent, the
result of organism. Hence, Jesus, and
: long line of reformers before and since
: His time, have trod the thOrny road and
, drank the wormwOod and the gall in
consequence of shedding light and truth
on the ignorance of the masses anchored
: to the dead conservatism of a past age.
: The mass of mankind love ease and
: quiet. New ideas involve thought and
action. A vast number are too lazy e
: think, choosing, rather, to accept the
e mental labor of others. Besides, all re-
/ formatory thought is disturbing influ.
r ence whose office is to turn society up.
e side down and inside out, smoothing ou
e the deep wrinkles of conservatism
whose folds have gathered so much O
disease and moral death.
We need not be at a loss to know why
: reforms move so slowly, if we realize
n the fact that a vast number of peopl,
:, are wanting in mental power to recon
v struct a new system for themselves il
s political or social life, and are wholly a
n the mercy of the leading class. Hence
n it is, that blind leaders of the blind fine
q the ditch, and this is just as true of pO
a litical as of religious thought. In proc
s of this childish infirRity of our people
e see the action of our California Legisla
s ture in its great leap backward towarC
: the barbarism of the Middle Ages, il
s the whipping post for wife-beaters. AT
e ter 1900 years of Christianity hav,
: elapsed, we are yet in the A B C's of tn,
n religion of goodness and humanity. See
also, our quackery bill to protect the dea
e people from unscientific butchery, a
3, though one had no natural right t,
& choose his own mode of cure or death
l. but must die scientifically at the hand
G of regular NJ. d. See, also, how help
t, less the people are in the hands of ring
l. and class legislation. Nor is the cas-
: any better in our general legislation
e What little moral life there is in Con
i gress is feebly occupied in unearthin!
g corruption in public Office. Washing
y day in the family is an unpleasant ye
n neediul thing. So also in the family o
IS States it is a necessary evil. Yet i
e makes one sad to see some of the fab