Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-11-22

W move out even toward an enemy.
That the human race might be so i'm
pressed that the lesson should never
be forgotten. this messenger from
the sky wept and plead and prayed
everywhere for everybody and ut last
died at once for those who were cru
cifying Him and for those who had
bathed His feet with tears. All that
crowd that assembled Calvary. from
the Roman soldier to the disciple,
Were gathered up in one mercy and
affection, and the morning sun of that
day and the morning breeze tina,
moved the olive trees while the sad
procession was filing along were nc
broader, were no more willing tt
touch gently the evil and the good
than was the charity that poured
forth from this unmeasured hearts
sunshine, :: perfumed gale escaping
to earth from the open windows oil
heaven. One of the first results OF
this new philosophy was the over
throw Of caste, the reduction of all
men to one level. 1t came with only
one altar, one communion, one bap.
tism. one cross, one faith, one CONVEX.
sion. one sanctuary for high and low
Thus making men to be one in the
presence of God, they began to be ono
i'll presence of each other. Such q
spectacle as that life, those tears, that
forgivness, that death, the world had
never seen before and will never be.
hold again 1t was grace more than
humanity deserved that it should bc
permitted once to see that transfigur.
alton of charity that now covers with
immortal flowers that Calvary of q
skull and of blood.
One OF the early indications OF
growth in this idea may be found in
the rapid emancipation of slaves il
brought. Mr.. Lecky has learned
from old annals that the anniversa-
rics of Christianity were made beau.
tifnl by the public announcements OF
great manumissions. st. Milania
granted freedom to 5000 slaves, Ovid
ius to 5000. and in few centuries i!
became unlawful to sell men: and
notwithstanding the coming of dark
ages, slavery died away in Europe by
the simple power of that Being who
lived alike for all and for all alike
died. You all remember that IN the
Mosaic code if a master beat slave
so that he died, but yet so that lie
lived a day after the awful cruelty
the master was not punished, it being
presumed that in that day OF inter.
val there might have como some othe,
cause ofdeath. So great q being wa!
the master. and so insignificant {
creature the slave, that the presump
ton of the law was that some other
cause of death had INTERVIEWED bu,
| in the .Justinian code, written in tho
light of Christianity, this twelve-houl
lingering no longer protected the
master, and AS general rule the ac
of crime or vice became the same il
the high and the low. AS there wa'
no difference between men in thu
temple ofreligion, there soon bccam,
little in the temple of justice. Thus
under the charity of Christ the cod,
Of Justinian came along to complet,
the overthrow of the temporary NOR
ais of Moses. Under the influence o
Christian charity that great typica
form Of oppression, slavery, hai
passed gradually away until it exist.
\ Z.
whose shores wide ocean has KEEP
far away the light and kindness ant
whole civilization of Europe. Ar
ocean sometimes becomes fortres.
against the attacks of barbarians ant
foes, but sometimes also an ocear
shuts out mans true and only friend.
and leaves tropical island to lie fol
centuries unaffected bya single noble
idea of politics or religion. Oul
own Constitution up to 1860 built ur
q wall between free and slave states
and subsequent law shut out litera
ture and all philosophy that touch
ed the relation between master and
slave, but the fragrance of Christian
benoyolence was waited over the
wall like perfume Of flowers, and the
oneness of mankind which has fol.
lowed the cross at all times came a,
last to Carolina and Texas. Came
not in its whole fullness, for the poor
black now falls dead in field or in
cabin, but that divine principle
which emptied Rome and Spain of its
slaves and which made England
emancipate her bondsmen. will grad.
nally plant itself even in South Caro-.
lima, and the tree of perfect liberty
| will grow side by side with the
| orange and the palm. Those mod
ern Canutes will yet move back their
chairs of power before the rising
| tide.
This survey of the history of char
ity as it has expressed itself through
bondage and freedom is useful, be-
cause in this one detail you can mark
and measure the general progress of
the idea. A great love cannot limit
itself to one work. What our moth
cr did for us yesterday was not the
exhaustion of her love. She comes
back to-day with new deeds and
stands with heart overlooking with
new affection for the morrow. So
the charity of which Paul speaks has
no special mission among old Roman
captives or American slaves. Those
scenes only illustrate principle
which is wider than prison or cot
ton-field. No deed of yesterday ex-
hausts it. 1t stands by a nation in
deed, but also by single heart, ready
to emancipate race or take up it.
tie child in its arms and bless it with
education and honor and piety.
Charity is the simple overlooking of
a noble soul.
But we have exhausted time enough
over the history Of the highest grace
in the Pauline picture. Let us pass
to some further estimate Of the doc
trine's practical worth. No one knows
why il is SO, but il is historically true
that out of the love of things comes
such an action or such an impulse as
no Indifference or hate can ever show.
The naturalist SO loves the external
world that he rambles all over it in
his fond quest of life or form. The
musician so loves the harmonies of
sound that night and day he is fast
encd by this indisssolublc bond to his
pursuit. Now what in the economy
of God is charity except a positive
affection that should fasten each high
intellect in the human race that the
soul may wander all over it, finding
everywhere the worlds need and
worth, and through the help of these
its own usefulness and development.
Ill-will shut the gates between that
within us and that without. Let
pain or sorrow rack one, and how
empty is the spring or summer, the
bird-song or the blossoms but let
the pain or the grief all pass away,
and how delicious is the landscape
from the Windows! Thus ill-will
shut out the great human universe
and the narrowed heart scorns the
poetry, the art, tho learning, the
thought, the condition, even the
friendship Of mankind but when
that broad love of man fully possess
es the soul, then one hears with de-
light the prattle Of the infant or the
moralizings Of even the beathen, and
finds some beauty in religion not
his own, and in lands under foreign
flag. As prejudice closes the mind
and makes man dWeller in o cave