The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-03-09
The Warrants of Goodness.

The Warrants of Goodness.
THE following extracts are taken from
recent sermon by Prof. Swing of Chicago:
The first warrant OF goodness seems to be found
| in the existence and character OF God. The one
who created all this muItlform world must be the
| legitimate law-makcr for the realm. His
will is the supreme law of the land AS man eats
| and drinks and sleeps and learns and grows, and
in all ways becomes enlarged because of the benif
cent laws OF his Maker around him. so he must
perform his moral actions in the midst OF the same
shape Of legislation. Hence the first argument
for uprightness must bo found in the being Of
God.
Let us now pass to the second warrant of good
ness. Let us find it in the welfare OF society.
An observation of results will always betray the
| law that should govern conduct. After mankind
| had by accident observed fire to be eXtnguished
by rain they detected ut once the law that water
will quench fire. Thus results in society point out
the laws of honor. Labor and prosperity would
be vaiueless if our idle neighbor might steal with
impunity. The family would have charms if
the children might be carried away into seryiude
and the wife husband transferred from home
by the superior force of another Thus all through
the beautiful texture called civilization there
the threads of goodness holding and making strong
| the fabric. All wickedness is wrong done to
society. When any young man
or young woman enters upon career of
| goodness all the walks of human life welcome
| that soul for it brings sorrow; it walks along
| breathing perpetual henediction.
| Let us pass to the third warrant OF virtue. You
| may find it in self consciousness. Far back in
history the good began to perceive a happiness
within, springing up from spirit that loved the
| right Even Horace said, "A man of upright life
need fear no enemy Even old Pythagoras said,
| Above all things respect yourself" Luther said,
| L more afraid OF my own heart than OF the
| Pope and all his Cardinals Nine. Swetchne,
with her usual poetic power, says, Coincidence is
that celestial harmony that vibrated in the OF
| the martyrs and soothed their suiferings.' 1t
would consume many hours should we read here
what all the lofty teachers have said about the
value OF peace within. In every bosom there is
a soul debating the joy sorrow Of each day by
the JOY it draws from goodness the suffering it
drinks in from the cup of transgression.
Thus have | suggested to you the warrants OF
goodness. Mans commission OF duty is signed
by three impressive names-God. society and the
SOUL 1t should seem that this enough. Oh,
what chart of voyage would that be to us pill
grims to which God and society and the soul have
affixed their powerful signatures! But powerful
as is this foundation of right, nature comes to add
one more argument TO the significant series. 1t is
| the solemn consideration of another life. The
very fact of future seems confirmed by this great
fact of conscience, or goodness, or justice which
we behold here. All this drama of man indicates
| a just Creator moving forward in scheme so vast
that these earthly years are inadequate for its
pletion. All the scenes o: nature declare that God
is being with whom slmctt endless ages as
but day. are as a watch in the night. There are
stars whose light had been iourneying toward our
earth million years when this globe first caught
| the ray. All the recent meditations of science
tend TO enlGrte the empire of the Deity and when
we turn our thou 5hts toward the soul Of man and
mark its quality we cannot but feel that the
Creator is carrying that soul along with Him into
the great eternity to come. The smile Of the in
| FAINT, the love of the mother, the mind of the
gifted the ensemble of humanity, parts of the
| universe too sublime TO be left behind in the
| great progress OF Jeho Yah. But we have no time
for this argument We affirm this, that the life Of
| virtue must receive powerful reinforcement from
The fact that few years will usher all into the
presence OF what in the poverty of language call
eternity And, injured has earth been in all its
sacred relations by the cruel deeds of the sinful so
long has its grass been stained by the blood Of the
| innocent so long have the lawless riOted in the
streets. in the home and in the State, and so long
| have the good suffered and the helpless shed their
hot but unavaiiing tears that all human thought out
| of the Bible and in the Bible have placed on the
| very threshold Of this eternity o Judgment Of the
deeds of this life, Long enough has the anarchy Of
| sin continued For six thousand or ten thousand
years earth has been the arena of every form Of
| vice and cruelty. Oh what men, what families,
| what empires have gone down in the long ruin!
All reason and all religion point to the grave as the
boundary of these scenes ofunpunlshed sin and I'M
requitcd virtue. Nothing but wonderful change Of
condition would Justify such portal of awful mys-
terry the gate of death If the scene beyond shall
be only continuance OF this dynasty why does
| such cold and mysterious river roll between the
| shores? Oh, it must be that the tomb of man is a
solemn shaft marking the place where earth's sin
passes to its penalty and earths goodness to its
reward OF the details of divinity we know moth
| ing. Imagination has up to the strange land
again and again and has tried to paint its picture,
but has toiled in vain. st. John approached it
under the impulse of inspiration, but the invisible
| world would only speak to him in enigmas of
seals and thundera and palms and harps and
crowns. Paul essayed it, but he returned, saying:
/" Ear hath not heard, eye hath not seem Virgil,
Dante, Milton the old painters, the old poets the
old theoogians, all came up TO the confines with
their marvellous genius but their sketches were
alike all vain and here to-day with no full
portraiture of that realm to which we all haste.
As when the copyists in the Sistine chapel often
let their arms fall and in despair say: oh, Ange-
10. we cannot copy theei' so the whole Srmy OF
poets and thinkers coming to this unseen world
throw down their poor brushes and pigments and
cry out: Oh eternity, cannot paint thy facel"
Its lines of Joy and sorrow are beyond all art
But err and utterly fall as may poet and theolo-
gian yet onward 1t comes. We cannot fill up the
image, but we move toward it and will SOON fall
into it, Abandoned by the pencil Of the artist and
by the pen OF the theologan there is only one pow
er in the universe that do anything for You and
me in this thrilling crisis Through the gutes Of
that eternity the wicked pass to unhappiness, the
good to bliss. Hence the righteousness Of life
seen in Christ and by Him and through Elm Of
fered to You all is the only staff upon which, lean
ing, you may ioyfully descend into the valley and
shadow of death. All else is concealed And, in
deed there is nothing else need know. 1t is
enough if when the light Of the sun, Of the moon
and OF the stars shall forsake and the eye OF the
body shall grow dim, there shall be goodness in
the spirit that shall flame forth in the midst Of
deaths shadow.
Wonderful, then, is the warrant Of goodness!
What part assigned to us in the drama Of lifel
1t comes to us: /. As the law Of God, clothed
therefore with the authority Of Omnipotence. 1t
comes; 2. As the maker and preserver Of society,
bringing to every man integrity, to every woman
wilderness OF life, to every child protection, to
every home happiness, to every nation peace. 1t
comes: 3. To the individual heart, filing 1t with
a noble self consciousness, making its very dreams
sweet its waking hours heroic. 1t comes: 4. At
last to the grave Of man. the only angel in whose
bosom we dare nestle like an infant, and sink
away into the great mystery Of death.