Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-05-03
LANCASTER WISCONSIN, THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1877

through hundreds OF years, often hid
den,now concerning itself with august
personages, and grand events, and
anon taking hold upon the destinies
of humble individuals,it goes forward
or is helped forward, often in the
strangest ways, and by stranges,
means, to its final consumation. 1t is
never delayed for a single moment,
never turned aside. The very things
which, for the time being, seem to de-
feat it, only help it on its way. And
if occasionally it drops out of view, as
though broken off, it is only for a
time to pursue hidden path, and
then to appear again in some new age
or nsw life which it has created.
In building world, God com.
mences with mass of nebula, which
he first consolidates and afterward
fuses. Then he cools the molten mass,
then breaks it up, then rains upon
it, and sets the atmosphere at work,
upon it; and then in the soil thus
created plants forests, and these He
buries, and turns the sea upon them,
and great beds of rock are formed
above them and everywhere; then these
are broken up, and are plowed by
glaciers, and valleys and rivers are
formed, and seas are gathered into
great basins, and tribes of animals
successfully appear; and when, at
last, millions upon millions of years
and ages have passed away, man is
created and the great work is fin
lshed.
A great life is produced in much
the same way 1t is born to-day;
that is, its final birth is to-day. But
its beginning was perhaps score of
generations ago. Its parents are
many and chosen. Figs do not grow
on thistes. Finally, after many births,
in each of which this life has appear
ed in a shapeiier and grander form, it
reaches its perfection and the world
is filled with its fame.
In like manner institutions are
brought into existence, and shaped
into towers of strength and useful
ness They are not the product of
their own age, or of single birth,
any more than the delicious apple is
the immediate product Of the sour
crab, They are the result, simply, of
long-ago planting, and of slow
growth Thus we may say of Odd
Fellowship that il is not the product
of our own time 1t is new, and yet
is very old. Forms aud modes of ex-
preston change, but principles are
eternal. In the case of great reforma-
tons and revolutions we can see, as
we 90 back upon the path of history,
that they are not the results of any
immediate agencies. There are, per.
haps, thousands of smaller waves that
have rolled behind, contributing their
force to swell the billow that has
broken upon the shore in thunder at
last. So that it is indeed difficult, of
ten, to find the commencement of a
grand revolution that has marked an
epoch in history, or to trace to their
origin the influences that have pro-
duced it. AS we go back they con.
stantly recede from us, and we find
them stirring and vigorous in some
old age that we have been accustom-
| ed to consider as totally dark and
dormant. In fact, there has never
been a time when the human soul has
slept unconscious of its injuries. and
when wrong has been suffered to pass
unchallenged.
Undoubtedly more than ever be.
fore more in this our day than in
any past day-the great truth that
union is power, and that by the well
regulated, combined action of the
many, any and all evils of the socia
and political state may be overcome
and put away, is getting into the faith
Of the people; and so it is coming tc
pass. that combinations of men, or
ganized movements. with reason and
love for weapons and means, are tax
ing the place of mobs and insurrec
tons and are slowly crowding ou
whatsoever is wrong and false and
selfish from among all civilized people
The success of Napoleon in his bat
ties. even when opposed by far su
perior force, is mainly attributable tt
that favorite vancouver of his, rapidly
collecting immense masses of troops
to throw them upon a single point
and sweep away all opposition by the
mere weight and power of numbers
This policy seems now to be adopted
in the more peaceful contest agains
the evils and the hard necessities will
which millions have to contend. See
inc how little has been accomplished
by single handed efforts, or by partia
union, the great idea that moves AM
directs them now is, that they are re
sistless in their associated strength
and acting together, with faith an
patience, can accomplish any reform
that physically or morally is possible
There is no prouder passage in tn
history of human progress than tina
which shows us petition for uni
: yersal suffrage, with three and ha
million of names borne into the Er
glish House of commons on the shou
ders of sixteen hard. featured, strong
handed workingmen, followed by fou
thousand of their fellows; and whe
their petition was rejected with scor
and insult, this host retiring agai
without noise or violence to the
homes and their daily toll land thi
because persuaded that there is n
such thing as final defeat in a jus
cause-persuaded that this is God
world after all, and that sooner c
later the right will triumph.
, But always have the tendencies
association for moral and benevoler
purposes, or for mutual protectio
, and helpfulness, existed. Hence th
) fraternities, socities and orders
every period of the world, founde
on the principle of mutual aid,
, having reference to great reforI
movements. They were the image
so to speak, of better things to come
the seeding for harvests centuries "
in the future.