The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-02-16
Saturday Night Musings.

A healthy, jovial company, with raw
enous appetites and good digestion, has
! just sat down to sumptuous dinner,
when a sleek, smooth, Oily-tongued in
dividuaI enters the room with bow, a
smile and a smirk, and blandly begs
the guests to wait few moments while
he calls attention to the food of which
they are about to partake. He then
| commences: -
Ladies' and gentlemen, that excel
lent hamper of roast beef, so tender and
JUICY, am told, is portion of an ami
NAL with diseased liver, and may even
! have been afflicted with rinder pest ;
cattle do have it, and it is raging fear
fully in Germany now.
"Your roast pork is probably full OF
! trichine, and it is from an unclean ami
NAL, and not at ali fit for human food.
"Your turkey was raised down in
Nebraska, where its only food is worms
and grasshoppers, and the flavor Is very
different from grain-fed fowl.
"Your bread looks nice and white,
! but l understand they put alum in 1t to
make it white, and il is said they knead
| it by tramping it with their feet.
"Your tea, so fragrant, was picked,
! handled and cured 10y a lot of dirty,
greasy Cinnamon, half of whom were
probably rotten with leprosy.
"The purest thing on your table is
! that water that sparkles in your crystal
| goblets, and if you will examine drop
of it under my microscope, and see the
myriads of animacule that wiggle and
squirm down your throats with it, you
will scarce have a stomach to drink IL. ."
! By this time the stomachs of all, es-
! peclally those of the weaker ones, will
Oe pretty well turned, and the company
would not enjoy their dinner very we'll.
| If you were to say to him, "Well, we
are hungry, and must eat something.
Have you anything else to offer us ?''
He would reply with disdain, "Oh, no!
| [ am not a coOk!'
Now, if every word this man told you
was true, would he have done you IA
yor? On the contrary, would it not have
been a piece of impudeuce and imper-
! tinence, which would have fully justi-
fed your host in kicking him out of the
! house?
The object of the above illustration
will be obvious to every one. Our Gre
ator has given US spiritual and moral
nature, as we'll as physical one. Con-
sciousness, benevolence, and veneratiou
menIiveuess. Our spiritual and mora
natures require cultivation and devel'
! opment, food and nOurishment, as wei
as cur spiritual nature.
The Creator has made provision fol
the nourishment and culture of these
higher and nobler attributes of our ma
.ture. We here have the Bible, the
teachings of Jesus Christ, from which
to prepare our spiritual food. 1t is the
best in the world. 1t has produced
moral and intellectual giants. No othel
kind of spiritual food, from Confucius Il
Joe Smith, has ever developed so higl
an order of morality and spirituality al
the Christian religion.
| We have then our choice of thret
things, to feed, nourish and develop ou
spiritual nature with-with the God
the religion and the Christianity of tht
| Bible, or reject that, and feed on th'
husks which have been the spiritua
food of the heather; or discard spiritua
food altogether, aud set to work t
starve, Obliterate and destroy all tn,
higher, nObler and better elements o
uature-that element alone which raise
US above the brute.
And those critics and skeptics who g
about the world under the speciOu
claim to the title of Free Thinkers,
Truth Seekers" ETC., wrapped up il
their own self-cOnceit, trying to rob u
Of our spiritual food, are set of scoun
Irels and hypocrites who merit the con
tempt and detestation of all men. The.
attempt, like the slanderer, to ''stea
from US that which not enriches then
and makes US poor indeed"
All that any honest, sensible skepti
could consistently say to the Christia
is this: 81 recognize the fact that W
all have a moral and spiritual natur
which Graves and requires food an
nourishment. That which seems
nourish and satisfy you is not to m
taste, but l have no more right to dis
parage it than 1 have your choice {
temporal food, or of your taste in dress.
Whoever goes farther, or says MOI
than that, is prompted only by his ow
vanity, egotism and self-righteousnes
and not by desire to benefit his fellow
beings.-SeRtiReL.