The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-03-16
EDITORIAL OORREsPoNpENCE.

spirits again. The bTaelng air OF the
Rocky Mountains comes floating over
from the far Pacific, bringing health
upon its wings, and imbuing the wan
derer with hope that she shall soon re-
join her loved ones, whose voices whis-
per in the breeze the precious words,
''come home.n,
How long we have been away! And
yet, gauging the months from June till
March by the work we have done, the
miles we have travelled and the thOus-
and incidents of our varied experience,
how short the time has really been!
A protracted meeting was in progress
in Council Bluffs, which lessened our
audiences somewhat, but they were fair;
and we made many friends, though bus
mess is so dull that everybody looks
straight down his nose and clasps his
few remaining nickles with desperate
clutch, so patronage to paper and books
was limited.
We believe in protracted meetinge. !
They operate so effectively to open the
eyes of all thinkers to the absurdity of
the idea that Jesus must be constantly
| importuned and labOred with by men
and women, especially at spasmodic in
tervals, to make His divine mission
available, that we are in great hope to
live to see the day when the paganism
of our idealized theological sophistry
will blossom into such perfect knowl-
edge of the near hereafter that none
shall need to say to his neighbor,
"Know ye the Lord" for all shall rec
ognize the ever-abounding dews of
heavenly grace, and learn that Jesus is
our friend when we do right and not our
scape-goat when we do wrong. Then
ministers with highly cultivated self
esteem, approbativeness, and firmness
will have their organs of conscientious
ness so manipulated by the power of
Justice that they will all be ashamed, as
some of them now are, to stand In pub
lie places in a cloak of self-righteous-
ness while denying to woman the fruit
of her hands. 1t is this, and this chiefly,
which compels the seeds of dishonor
and wickedness to be sown broadcast in
the heart of embryo humanity upon the
soil of maternal subjugation. When
= the people learn that the way tC
f conquer wrong is not to attack the tree
of evil to destroy it by looping off here
f leaf and there another, but by begin
. ming at the very foundation of equality,
justice, and equity in all things, the
, millennium will dawn. But we didn't
intend to sermonize, so pray forgive US.
We grow so justly indignant over the
self-righteous pomposity of any minister
who is satisfied with woman's subordi-
nate position that we would prove rec
! reant to our conscience should we fai
> sometimes to speak of it.
o Nor is it any argument in favor o.
f this unjust state of affairs that there are
= women who are enthused till half crazy
over religious excitement, and who are
so full to the brim with impracticablt
= efforts in religion that they fail to com
prehend their own subjugation. W.
had hoped the Crusade would havt
! taught women who pray in public tina
= there is no practical result from thei
present style of public effort that can b.
at all commensurate with the needs o
the hour; but we have seen thousand
of them so full of "glory" over Moody
y meetings and others of lesser momen
=, that they have lost sight of dens of si
= and drunkenness of every description
" and branded us "sinner" because thei
little measure wouldn't run over ou
" own cup. Again we beg pardon. Thi
= isn't intended to be sermon but an ed
= itorial letter. The protracted meeting
- and their failures will yet open th
eyes of coming generations through th
., ., aid of the public schools.
After our lectures in Council Bluff
:, were over, a Mr.. Mills, from Syracust
80 began course of three parlor lecture
two of which it was our good fortune I
~ attend.
The first, upon Huxley, was replet
'o with common sense and diligent r,
ne search into the invisible arena of nj
III ture. The law of evolution has been
careful study of his maturer years, an
certainly nothing could be more in ha
~ mony with the highest conception
% the divinity of the human and the hi
Is manity of the divine than his course
~ reasoning from heinvisible protoplas
'r- to the highest animate organism, whiC
% " he thinks it has hardly yet entered IL
~ heart of man to conceive.
VI "In all faiths, the world over"
Vi says, "the grand trouble has general
ier been that God is held under some lin
81, itary conception, some unwortt
hu thought in the mind of the worshipe
we AS the poet we'll said
'J ""Tis the most difficult task to keep
I'm The heights the soul is competent to gain.
W The trouble begins in the attempt
Vi limit God, the Infinit One, as a perSo
.'Y o1- to array Him, plain and determinate
III mold of form, as specified object
the mind, and so casting Him in o
own image that He becomes a person
hiS entity. Presently, and inevitably fro
.eS' that, He is invested in corporiety, p
W.