, 1876-06-17

will is a great element in manhood
We need not bcstow now any more
time upon thi, branch Of our thought.
The fact stands that right is in the world
to be done, and wrong is in the world to
be avoided and it is m doing the right
and in stunning the wrong the soul is
developed and fitted for earth and
heaven
Such being the fact, the Creator has
come 10 the help Of the will by His MAX
ng wrong carry within itself calamity
that irightcns the heart away. AS the
breakers roar that in the night the YES
sci may turn away and sail toward the
deep waters 50 the life OF sin is full OF
noise and distress that the heart may be
warned before it comes into the great
gull. With many viItue is beauty that
allurts. but to all punishment for trans
grrssion is q power that alarms, and
hence its tumuIt is in religion like the
roar Of the breakers to the sailing ship,
Punishment possesses two inIluences-
the one upon the person who sins, the
other upon those who are standng
where the two paths divergc aud are not
fully resolved which path to take. The
voice of virtue that attracts and the
voice OF punishment that warns are both
powerful and lawful voices in the world
Of religion, and are to be suffered for
ever to speak right on. lie who makes
religion all love to ull does man great
injustice, and he who makes religion full
OF the terrible has again done great
wrong to society. Neither the indiyid.
ual nor society can endure any depar.
ture from justice on the sile Of TOO much
forgiveness or too much punishment.
A heaven open to every kind OF charac.
ter and he'll not founded upon reason
are ideas full Of injury to public and in.
divilual morality. There is no prin>i.
rle more valuable than that Of simple
Justice. II must obtain as between man
and man and God and man. Any devi-
alton from justice on the side Of lcniency
and love wcakens at least the moral
sense and makes man weak in principle.
and any deviation from justice on the
part Of punishment makes man timld
and cowardly and slaNish, outuf nn
over development of love would come at
last an age Of unbridlcd passion. The
calamity Of nations begins when they
begin to pass by the sins and vices Of
their leading men. When David and
Solomon and Belshazzar and the later
CAESARS begin to forgive vice, then their
nations begin to sink, not because their
money is wasted by plunderers, but be-
cause their public morals have no guides
nor motives, no energy. Tue new gene.
Tations come up without compact minds
and hearts, come up in the shape Of
oilers and libertines. a nation can af
Tord to be poor, but cannot afford to pre-
luce idle and languishing young men.
The Netherlands were poor, and so were
he colonies, but they were rich in the
sentiments of honor and justice. The sent
mental leniency Of an age is more fatal
% the public mind than it is TO the ma
,ional treasury. A new tax levy might
restore stolen gold, but there is no
method by which tax could be levied
10 restore stolen energy. The decay of
Justice has no doubt been tho great fact
that has preceded the ruin of nations,
and from this source we may fear most
for the future of our own land. The
of its government, the
slowness with which it pursues offenders,
the many instances in which it ovcrtakes
them, the lightness OF the penalty that
follows conviction, the swiitness of the
pardon that follows the sentence, have
all been conspiring for a half,century to
.lisintcgratc and destroy the rugged
character left upon this continent when
Inc smoke Of the battles of liberty first
cleared away. But look at all the his
.ory Of man and mark that the license
If the human mind has always preceded |
he ruin OF the empire or state. That
condition of moral philosophy and prac-
ice which gave the world the French
evolution and the commune, and which |
'fcrcd our country Ireeloyism few |
ears since, gift which we had not yet |
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