Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-02-15

Among the characteristics of the time:
we are living in there is one not mucl
mentioned by the many popular speakers
who seem to think the men they speak Il
are to be benefited chiefly by being as
sured how much wiser and better and
more 'progresSive' they are than any ol
their fathers were. who suppose the age
Is to be instructed by being flattcred. and
that the country needs 10 be glorified ra-
iher than to be purified, which was GER
taiply not The way OF the old prophets
The characteristic | mean is dishonesty.
am not discrediting any OF the actual
modern Observation-Disclosures, enterprise,
invention, philanthropy Grant all these,
in large degree. Nevertheless, they do
not bring with them honesty in proper
tion. Falsehood and fraud flourish along
with them. in spite of them. and in some
cases by the help OF them. From the
vulgar sediment of society. up to its high
est submits, there spreads tremendous
force OF selfish materialism-cal il sharp
ness, or call it crime-by which men
reach after and snatch and call their own,
for use or for show or Tor boarding. what
is not theirs. Ii is stolen property. only
stolen iugeniousiy and indirectly, and in
such ways that the old forms of law.
which undertook 10 punish outright rob-
berry, iail TO overtake them. Not in 4
few rare spots. but in every spot where
two or three hundred people live together,
n part of these people consume, or lay
up, or waste, what belongs 10 other peo-
pie, and what they have managed to get
by some species of deception. What na-
4rsra1 ,.r-...ltnnff..,t 90 hn ,l,a,a
meant Tor the sustenance or comfort of
man, thar is not adulterated Oy some de-
grading mixture, or shortened in the
measure Do not the devices OF Anglo
Saxon traffic repeat, in faithful eNactness.
the devices OF the jew, denounced by the
prophet, making the ephah of the seller
small, and the shehel OF the buyer large
selling the refuse for wheat. and "ialsity
ing the balance by deceit? What line
of mechanical work is there where the
base material, or the shabby construction,
or the overcharge, does not disgrace the
handicraft What branch of commerce
without lis delusive labels its broken
promises. its advertising fictions, its
postponed payments, its calculated bank
ruptcies, its hollow contracts ? Men who
will not suffer their respectability TO be
challenged, look one another in the face.
and with mutual iuggiery of knavish
tricks conspire to grow rich by villainy
The brilliant audacities of the great com
mercial centres have their lame and
creeping copies, hardly less cruel or ca
lamitou-, back in the little rural villages,
in sight ot gravcyards where sleep the
ashes of clean handed ancestors. living
and dyIng, in their day, in the faith of a
God who has righteousness and judgment
Tor the habitation of His throne. Outside
the Church are financial Ahabs and social
Jezebels. Inside are Ananias and Sap
phira, tacilly agreeing together to lie TO
the Holy Ghost, pretending to give to
God, for missions or Bible societies,
hush-money fragment of what they have
seized from their fellow-men. Too often
there i no Peter with the courage TO
search out their sin-.Tell me whether
We sold the land ior So much" The
grand difficulty with our popular piety is
that it is still trying to find a way, in this
nineteenth century Of the Gospel, OF serv-
ing two gods together Bishop Huntiny-
fan