Smyrna times., 1877-10-31
Indications of Progress.

The indecent poet of to-day is Obliged to
publish his own books No respectable pub
Usher will contaminate his shelves, even
with his name. 1t matters little how many
dramas Tennyson may write in these latter
days. or how much he may attempt to give
them the ancient form and havor-they
will always lack one element-that of in
delicacy. He leaves coarseness, indecencv.
the double entendrc, forever behind. They
belonged to another age, and all these facts
show that we have made great advance.
Owing mainly to the wretched assump-
tlons OF dogmatic theology and the pre-
sumptions of priestly power, the literary
men and women of former DAYS were
scotfers-open, aggressive, defiant enemies
of Christianity. Now, although there is
lamentation on every side that our greatest
literary men producers are wanting in faith
that they withhold their affectionate and
trustful allegiance to the Christian religion.
and regard the church as the conservator of
great mass of superstitiOns, the scoffers
are few. We do not believe there was ever
time when the great majority of literary
men and women held so kindly an attitude
toward the Christian faith as they hold to.
day. They are recognizing the fact that
there is something in it,-a very powerful
something in it, somewhere,-and some.
thing IN 1t for them, if they could but clear
1t OF its husks, and find the divine meat
and meaning of it, They feel their lack of
faith to be misfortune Now, the differ.
ence between this attitude and that of
such man, say, as Voltaire, or Thomas
Paine, marks a great advance. We still
have Bradlaughs, it is true, but, though we
tolerate them, and listen to them. they
have very shabby following.
The changes that have occurred in the
church are very remarkable evidences of
progress. For the last three hundred wears
the world has carried on an organized re-
oelllon against priestcraft, and has been
slowly but surely releasing itself from
slavery. The superstition of witchcraft
has departed from it, 1t is true that we
still try men for heresy, and tie their legs
with creeds, but the followers of Calvin do
not burn the descendants of Seryetus.
lhey suspend them " from the ministry" !"
a mode OF hanging which is not only
quite harmless, but rather honorable than
otherwlse. The prejudices between sects
have notably been broken down within the
last nifty years,-a result which inevitably
followed the decline of belief in the over.
shadowing and dall-subordinatingim
of theological formule. Men are trying to
get at the center and essence of Christianity
as they never were trying before and they
fnd that the more closely they approach
the center, the more closely they get
together.
In the worlds politics, we still have war.
put how modified is even this awful relic of
barbarism How jealous of it has the Chris. |
uan world become! How it questions it +! |
How it strives in a thousand wavs to miti |
gate Its horrors and inhumanities What a
shout it sends up when two great nations
meet and calmly settle by arbitration a
question which in any previous age would
have been a cause of war The duel, too.
Is In disgrace Slavery is abolished nearly |
everywhere on the face of the globe |
Prisons have been reformed. The insane. |
formerly forsaken of man, and supposed TO |
be forsaken of God, are tenderly cared for |
by every Christian state. thousand |
charities reach out their helpful hands to |
the unfortunate on every side. The nations |
are brought every day nearer to one
another, in the interchanges of commerce.
and in the knowledge Of and respect for
one another. Popular education is aug. |
menting its triumphs and enlarging its area |
every day. And this record of improve. |
ment is sealed by vital statistics which show |
that the average duration of human life has |
been slowly but indisputably increasing |
from decade to decade.
The world improves, but it improves as |
the tree grows, "wthout observation" |
The work of one mans life is small when !
applied to twelve hundred millions of |
people, but it tells in the grand result We |
discover a great nest of corruption in our |
government, and are tempted to despair, |
out we break it up. There are SO MANY |
VICIOUS men around US that we feel as If |
Che world were going to the dogs. vet the |
focoil and outcry and protest we make |
snow that we are more sensitive to tho an. |
prehension Of what is bad than we wera
formerl ly. The world improves, and the |
man who cannot see it, and will not see it |
mas very good reason for suspecting that |
there IS something morally at fault in |
hlmself-J g. HoHQnd; ,ScriJner for Noy.
A party of French wits once stopped at a
tavern. When the feast was over one of |
the members called in the hostess. "An. |
gellque," he said, am going to give you |
lesson in astronomy. Have YOU not |
heard of the great Platonic year. when |
everything must return to its former con. |
dltlon Know, then, that in $4,000 years |
we shall be here again, on the same day |
and at the same hour. Will you give us |
credit till then?" The hostess, however.
had her reply. i am perfectly willing"
she retorted, but it is just I6, 600 wears since
you were here before, and you left without
paying; settle the old score, and will |
trust you on the new"
Matches are still on strike.