The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-04-07

though 1t were pralseWorthy TO cheat
Now, as never before, ''the end justities
the means" and, ,as money is the average
Americans God, lie uses it as the an
clients did their divinities, for promot-
ing selfish pleasure. Those who are
ambitious to occupy prominent places,
but have not the means, do not hesitate
10 secure them by fraud, confident they
will never be challenged as to whence
they came. Largest fortunes are secure
ed by the most dishonest busiPess men,
who hetray confidence, fail, compromise,
retire 10 princely mansions,i herIted by
their wives from unknown rich uncles,
still maintaining high position in society
over those whom they nave robbed.
Tie evil designated among politicians
''ih- cattle vote, " il sad beyond express
si.sii Men Jest together of selling their
vojes on election day, only by such loud
auctions to be understood as crying off
their wares to highest bidder, anxious in
a noisy way TO dispose for gain or drink
the ballot that ought TO fall as silently
as snow flakes fall upon the sod, and
execute the freeman's will as lightning
does the will of God" How largely
money and position, bribes and bribery,
are the oIder of the day. God only
knows what will become of us, with pri-
maries neglected, and the percentage of
ignorance on the increase. Reigns now,
up and down the land, the accursed greed
of fortune, which is eXerting such a
power over multitudes as to overcome
all moral and religious influences, silenc-
ing the voice of reason and making men
utterly reckless in pursuit of their gold
ell idol.
With the goddess Fashion on the
throne of Reason, outlays are regulated
by the false demands OF society, and not
by the income. Handsome faces and
figures crowd back honest hearts and
heads dainty feet and immaculate
hands attract from grave and senior
statesmen the attention due to patriot
ism and brains. Officers, high in gov
ernment, eIuulating the imperial cus-
toms that pervade fashionable society,
live in gorgeous luXuriance, obtaining
the necessary equipage in the wild
struggle for social preeminence at what
ever cost or danger to country, or for
tune, or honor. And all over the land,
there is a binding glare of masquerad
ing royalty playing at the game in the
blindfolded iniquity of a gilded age.
Men and women marry purposely for
position and money, the one party,
seeking to cheat the other by false pre-
tense and hollow show, but finding
themselves the victims; for matters as
trifiing are divorced, and so society is
being filled with those who have been
both legally married and unmarried,
without losing caste. For t1Cetce
months, scandal has strobe upon the
heels of scandal, and eminent professors
of religion, ,as well distinguished men of
the world, have been charged with
crimes and misdemeaners, the details of
which dishearten piety and embolden
wickedness. Bankruptcies, whiskey
frauds, extortions, hard times, robber
les, suicides, rings, forgeries, domestic
infidelities, hush money, embezzle-
ments, dynamite explosions; but we
must stop here. 1t would seem impossi-
| Die To add a darker shadow to this page,
were the filth gathered from a hundred
pits, or the SCOT from a thousand kilns.
Never before was seen such forbidden
picturesl What if it be, that there
never before was such light in which to
see picturel
And are we not now in danger of hav-
ing this light put out in the darkness of
barbarianism9 We are not mistaken.
Annually there is cast upon our shores
flood of immigration sufficient to popu-
late a state. The great mass of it is in
every shade of antagonism to our free and
religious institutions, all the way fromJoe
Smith 10 Jap. The society of our nation
has been corrupted, not so much from
within as FROM without. Upon its re-
delnption, therefore, must depend the
salvation of the republic. He must be
deaf and blind who does not know that
as people we have reached the verge
of that precipice over which no nation
ever fell and rose again. Our form of
government is in greater danger nO10
than it was sixteen years ago. The
danger is greater now, because it is
moral ruin that impends. War, even,
may sweep over the land and cover the
harvest fields with the bones of our be-
loved, and the flowers will bloom again
over the graves of the dead, and other
haryests be increased by the fertilizing
blood, but for natio al moral corruption
there is no resurrection. Nations that
sink in their own rottenness go down
into everlasting shame, living only in
history as warning lessons to succeeding
ages.
We are not naturally disposed to cry
OUT against the times in which we live as
comparatively more evil than those that
have gone before. Be this as it may, we
are sure no good can ever come from
matchmaking the present and apotheo-
sizing the past. In the one case, God |
pity the worse past. The present is bad |
enough to make virtue hang her head in |
shame. This we rest with God. But |
every time has its peculiar dangers. |
These, sooner or later, develop into a |
crisis. Then deliverance must be found, |
or the people perish. What now is |
needed, is not a revival of spiritual fer
vor without, while corruption still turks |
within. | am Just in receipt of letter |
from the first church served as settled
pastor, which, from my second winter,
has enjoyed annually a powerful revival.
Only few weeks ago eighty members
were received as the result Of this win
ter's work. Following Immediately on
the revival, the leading man of the
church during all these years, the Su-
perintendent of its Sunday School, broke
up, having as far as possible secured the
names of his friends to heavy liabilities,
and has fed the country under indict
ments for forgery by the Grand Jury.
The influence of that one villainous man
against religion is more than all the
eighty for it. These are not the revivals
we need, in which such men as Pond,
Winslow, Drew and Keiffer, can posi-
bly, be leaders.
But we turn the picture. A short time
since, the following literally correct an
nouncement appeared in the New York
Tribune: 'At Plainfield, n. j., Henry
A. Martin, locally known as the man
whom everybody trusted died ON Fri
day, and was buried yesterday after
noon. He was town collector for fifteen
years, and his accounts never varied
cent. No nominations we're ever made
against him at an election" What an
epitaphl The imam whom everybody
trusted" He was also a man of simple,
childlike faith. Such men are needed,
and of them it is true that "their works
do follow them"
This is the Christianity we need to
have revived-that has the oaken sills
and stone foundations of truth, fidelity,
honor, honesty, purity and courage. On
these alone Is it sure to build the high |
cathedral dome of sentiment, feeling,
spirituality. We must have these manly
virtues laid dee p and solid at the bottom.
On them society must build a pure code
of public morals, and it must make tres
passers feel that they are ia disgrace.
Here this reform must begin; for unless
the people can be purified, the legislative
body, which is but reflection of society,
must be forever corrupt.