Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-07-13

stone Tor It's temple from History'S
earliest dawn. TIE most ancient
historian, the bald headed Herodotus
presents as with the ideal of repub-
lie that would honor the statesman.
ship of Clay or Webster. Our
fathers antedate the era of'76. They
belong to an order of nobility whose
charter bears the superscription of
the Creator himself. .Leonidas, Ep-
ammanades, Aristides, Brutus, Cato,
Demosthones, Cicero, are numbered
with that venerable fraternity as
well as our Lincolns, Chases, Sew
ards, Stantons, and Summers. Tho
Greek patriot beheld the dreams of
his youth vanish, and the armies of
Athens trodden under the feet of the
Macedonian Phalanx and he drank
poison and died. The armies Of the
Republic afforded an opportunity
to the legions of Julius Caesar to
demonstrate their proficiency and
skill in the art of butchery and
slaughter, and Cato of Utica drove q
dagger into his own heart and fell.
"Far more true peace the dying Cato feels.
Than Caesar with Senate at his heels"
But however Caesar might dream and
theories, the establishment, or at
least the perpituity of republican
institutions in the classic ages was q
political and moral impossibillty.
Ninety per cent. of the inhabitants of
the countries under either Greek or
Roman sway were reduced to loath-
some, abject. hopeless servitude.
Prisoners takcn in war were the
property of their captors, and their
lives and bodies were at his disposal.
Unenlightenod with respect TO the
rights of the individual man, the
conquest of brute force by superior
brute force in war, was the only con-
ception of glory that the multitude
was capable of. Strike out from an
cient history it's bloody pages and
there is scarcely enough left to fill
tho fly leaves of modern spelling
book. Their marble statutes speak
eloquently Of their ideal of beauty
their fluted columns aud lofty tenn
pies are suggestive of wealth and
power concentrated in autocrAtio
hands. But the gods that were sup
posed to inhabit those temples, and
who in tho popular mind possessed
all the attributes that gods ought
to have, they were licensed to per-
petrate all sorts of murder, incest
and crime. To rescue the world
from this worshipped, delfed, noun
tain incubus of superstition, igno-
rance, vice, slavery, tho ancient
sagea, however virtuous their senti.
ments and noble their ideal, had
nothing but the light of philosophy,
and philosophy has no faith. It pro-
duced but one martyr.
But 1900 years ago, the slumbor-
ing, mentally inert mass OF humanity
that sheeted tho Roman world re-
oeived shock of q moral thunder
bolt, shock from spiritual battery
whose station was in the unseen
world. The notion of the immortal
ity of the soul was not new. 1t now
suddenly doomed up in startling di-
mansions; pointing with one hand to
tho beatitudes Of Heaven, with the
other to a state of indefnable woe,
these revelations were hurled into
the currents of human thought. The
frozen mass was thawed-the con-
crete lump in which the millions wore
imbedded was decomposed-the in
dividual man was separated from his
fellows. He stood out in bold re-
lief He learned his own dignity, his
own value from the assessment rolls
of the author of his spiritual nature.
He was individualiZed. The one
man is now match for the million.
We have now what Plus TX calls the
ago of faith. We have martyrs now,
even in the humbiest walks of life.
They die by the thousands. Be-
daubed with pitch and ignited, the
Pickering blaze ELIMINATES the
streets of Rome. Despotic power
before which everything human
yielded heretofore, now quails and
covers at the fortitude and stubborn
ness of its own victims. The mar
tyr's stake was the just limit fixed
to the absolutism and extent of
earthly power.
History does not discuss the ques-
ton whether Christianity BIO true or
false. But it does recognize the fact
that it's revelations impaired pro-
digeous energy and expansion to
the religious instincts of human ma
ture, and hereafter we find it's brig ht.
est as we'll as some of it's bloodiest
pages are duo to that instinct.
A remarkable freak of religious fa-
naticism in the middle ages, gave
the first effectual blow to feudal sla-
very, and paved the way for the cell
ebrated bill of rights called the Mag
ma Charta, thepredoccssor of our Dec
Iaration of Independence.
History informs US that some five
or six centuries ago, our remote an
cestors were bought and sold with
the land which they titled. When
we turn its telescope in that direc-
ton, only the king, his coursiers, and
his soldiers, the baron, and his
knights, and the privileged order OF
chivalry appear within its field OF
vision. The millions on whose shout
ders the drudgery and labor OF soci-
ETY. were bound are stabbed and lodg-
ed with the domestic animals, all the
property of the feudal lord. There
were no Lincoins then to issue proc
Iamations OF freedom soul OF
John Brown had not commenced its
march then-there were no William
Penns or Wilberforces. Can Heaven
devise no scheme to arouse these OPP
pressed and imbruted millions with q
sense of manhood Yes, it sends q
maniac monk, sword in one hand
and q cross in the other. His eyes
whirl in frenzy-he passes through
the streets of populous cities, along
highways, in field and forest rings
that clarion voice SIN the name OF
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