Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-05-03

| tnem away, cannot deFiate from the
old beaten paths and make certain ad-
vancement, without sacrificing social
| good, the interests Of truth and right
eousness, the prosperity of the state,
and pulling down the very affairs of
religion. Nothing more irrational or
absurd than this ever took possession
of human mind. all advancement
hitherto has been obediently made,
and to go forward is still the mission
| of the race. We are not to be con-
tent tomorrow with the destiny of
to-day, as though there was no new
truths and no better thing in reserve
for US. There are angel-hands
that becon us to prouder heights than
any to which we have yet attained,
amid sublmer mysteries than have
yet been revealed.
But let it not be supposed that
whilst we are to make advancement
and by prayer and effort are to win
our way up the steps of progress, we
are at the same time to abandon every
hing that belongs to tie past. and to
cast Unfortunately away the true
and the false, the good and the bad.
TO do this would be to leave us nothing
TO build upon: All that is excellent and
sound and intrinsically valuable Of the
past, that we should conserve and
incorporate it with the good, the useful
and the wisely adapted ofthe present.
In other words, we are to prove all
things, test them, search them, and
the good that is in them hold fast.
But while the Conservative would
have no taking down and rebuilding,
and would have us satisfied with
whatever is; the Radical would sweep
forever off from the face of the earth
every existing institution, law custom,
and doctrine--he would not leave
landmark of the past, not broken
column,uor an inscription, nor letter,
nor footprint even, by the aid OF
which we might trace the journeyings
of humanity through its pilgrimage of
many thousands of years. Aud this
he would do by way of getting at the
root of things, and empty the world
by one mighty capsize OF all that is
false, wrong and oppressive. This is
stark madness. The man who would
prove nothing, hold on to nothing
who would reject everything, the
good with the bad, the right with the
wrong, the true with the fslse-who
would tear down without reassembling
the fitting material in new aud more
beautiful cdifice, is simply mad, aud
ought to be in straight-j jacket We
know that there is much that needs to
be put away-many errors and corrup-
tons that need to be abandoned
that in society, in the state, in the
church, in the family, there are wrongs
and abuses of which they should be
cleansed. But along with these, we
know very well there is great deal
that is good, and true, and pure, and
of the highest practical Importance to
the race. This we should sift out,
and prove and hold fast.
The radical method Of reform is
we'll taken off in an article by Haw-
thorne, entitled, Earth's Holocaust.
He represents this wide world as
having become so overburthened
with an accumulation OF worn-out
trumpery, and with evils and woes
of greater or less magnitude, that
the inhabitap Is determined TO rid
themselves of all by q general bon
fire. 50 they hoaped together in
one great pile all that divided,
oppressed and afflicted humanity.
Not an outward form of evil was
spared. There were the purple robes
of royalty, and all the glittering inslg-
MIA of Kingly and priestly power. All
The Intoxicating drinks in the world
were brough: TO the burning. Tea,
aud coffee aud tobacco were aided
to the pile-then the implements of
swar-then racks from the dusty
hooks of ancient pr sons. headsmon's
axes, and sanguinary gipbets-then
creed books aud ritual, church con-
sLitution and the bonds of sect
then variety of worn-out and use,
less things, such as marriage certifi-
Gates, bales of bank bills, day books
and ledgers, notes and evidences of
debt, and all the title deeds of real
estate. The good and the bad, the
true and the false, the useful and the
useless, the WORKOUT and the ever
new-al were added to the immense
pile which was burned TO ashes.
This was the extreme radical meth
OF for purifying the earth, and usher
ing in the good time coming. The
devil stood by all the while and laugh.
ed ia his sleeve. There was one
thing that was not burned, and that
was the human heart, and out of it
crept the same old shapes of wrong
and misery which had but just teen
consumed.
have said that Odd Fellowship
occupies reform ground. 1t would
seem to be by almost divine appoint.
ment that it has been set to meet
the we'll nigh universal denial of the
Unity of Humanity, aud to provide
remedy, rather, to be itself the
remedy, for the evils which have
sprung up out of that denial There
fore 1t occupies the field, and 10 the
practical application of its principles
does actually cover the whole ground
of general Social Reform. Aud
trust it is not too much 10 claim TOR
the institution to say, that it is bet
ter adapted to carry forward such
reform, and to write the great law of
universal Brother hood on human
hearts than any other human
means or fundamentally whatever.
Each of you, my Brothers, when
you were admitted within the inner
vail of Odd Fellowship, were eau
toned against regarding the institu-
.ion as a mere protective and bene-
fetal one. You were taught then,
and you are taught continually, that
it occupies higher ground, that its
AIMS are loftier, that it has work
vastly more important than the
pecuniary assistance it renders it's
| nara that IL aaeka m radaam