The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-02-20

IteQucst.
'Thus saith the Lord. Stand ye In the
ways, and see, and ask for the old paths,
end ye shall find rest for your souls."
Jeremiah, WIG.
The Prophet jeremiah lived Il. c.
G50-580, aud propheaied during the
reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin
and Zedekiah. He lived in an age of
great national and spiritual decline, and
his prophecies arc either ~ exhortatons
to repentance, ~ warnings and threat
enings against the impenitent aud incor-
rigible, or (3) lamentations over the ruin
and desolation Of Judea, that followed
the burning Of Jerusalem and the can.
tivity of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzer.
King of Babylon. Ho lived among q
people whose moral natures had been
blunted and calloused by wars and idol
atries, and who fovcd tie scays of sin in
a0hich they had been born and reared. His
prophecies-calling to reform and revival
to former piety and uprightness-grated
on the ear Of both kings and people. He
never delivered single message that was
acceptable to his countryncn. He never
preached sermon that did not render
him more unpopular. He endured re-
proach aud persecution. He was the
victim Of nurderous conspiracy, and was
more than once doomed to death, but
escaped at the last extremity by the in
tcrposition of friends. He describes him
self as one in tchose. bones the message of
God burnt like fire, and had TO 6o delivered.
And yet when delivered they but stirred
the rage of al emasculated people, who,
rather than mend their lives, preferred to
n tpcy # It,,.l al, c.:s ~. I
them of their sins.
special message from the God of Israel
To his wandering, lost, bewildered people
Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the
ways, and see, and ask for the old paths
where 10 the good way, and walk therein.
and ye shall find rest for your SOULS"
~ The words "stand ye in the ways
und see" mean: como 10 halt in your
journey, and consider if ye be in the
right road. "Staud and see," look at
your guide-book, examine the way-marks.
aud you will discovor that you are out Of
the highway and have wandered in some
by-path.
~ Having stopped to considor--au tho
mariner would say, to get your bearings
You will surely discover that you have
gone wrong. What then? "Ask for the
old paths" Enquire for the true high
%sy. Find i: as speedily us possible.
~ And having found 10, withou.
further delay, walk therein.'' Beat
retreat, set yourselves right, then "for-
ward" all along the line. "Walk there
ln"-show the same eagerness to 90 right
that you did to go wrong.
az What will be the result OF thi,
change Of conduct? "Ye shall find rest
fot your souiy.'
know that tho language ia highly
tigurntivc aad the imagery poetic, but 1
think have given you the truo e1posi-
iion. In plain language, God e1horted
his people to examine their position to-
wards Him-to make inventory of their
past lives, to hunt up their Bibles :.nd
DrIhy their llves into submission to its
teachings, to go back to first principles
in religion, and they would be a happier
and better people. And as prophecy
was not given for one people or age or.
clusively, but for all time and alf men.
We may with all prcpriety appropriate
this oxhortation TO ourselves and our
time.
think the text is call to mo, al re-
sunlptton, addressed to men in 1879 A.. G.
as properly rs 625 D. @. History re-
peats itself, sin and iniquity repeat them
selves, and in this nineteenth century we
find suspension of morals Just as did
Jeremiah twenty-five hundred years ago.
After an interval of sixteen years. we
have just had q return to specie PAYMENTS
in the United States. Opinions differ as
TO the advisability of this measure at this
time. do not know; but 1 do know
that moral forces that have been held in
suspension for many years ought to be re-
sunlcd. In truth, they ought never to
have been suspended and, as they were
suspended, they ought to have been re-
sumod long ago, but as they have not
boen fully resumed, the work should be
done ut once.
Some, perhaps will say there has been
ITO moral suspension. May bs not, but
my observation is that the moral forces
In operation among US before the war
have never been fully resumed. We are
wont to look at the results of the war as
physical, social and political.
1t Is easy for US to call up the san
culinary fields and review the thousands
Of slain and wounded. We daily look
upon the armless sleeve. the wooden leg,
the scared face, the mutilated hand, and
remember that these men now growing
kInyy uiiu pCal1uS uuOuG tuSm tue MARKS
of battle, were once the living wall brst-
ling with bayonots ''along the Potomac"
a nd so we contemplate the physical evils
of the war.
IT, We look upon the impoverished
condition of the cid people of our land,
who once lived in easy affluence. We
have seen the whole social fabric thrown
up and broken by mighty upheaval.
We have seen come thousands of mil
lions of dollars Of property wasted. We
COUP the widows and orphans, and be-
hold children descended from the first
families in the land grown up In igno-
rance and vice, whose patrimony, swept
away by the war, are left no means of
education. And we arc familiar with
the social evils of the war.
(3) The chs 1ges wrought in the po!iti-
cai snhere ore moro mnrked than those
Of the social or physical. Several mil
lions of people-ignorant, semi-barba-
rous, Of low order Of intellect been
raised 70 position and power, wholly in
compatible with their safety or the safety
Of !he:: rulers. Net oaPatuio vi appre-
c;ating liberty, they have turned il into
licentioGUness. Invoking The torch and
axe, they have dotted our land with
burnt homesteads and smouldering ruins.
The busts OF Habersham and Berrian
and Walton aud Hall have looked down
fium their niciies, In the Georgia State
House, upon the wretched farces enacted
by miserable abortions, white End black,
who claimed 10 be their successors; and
tho bones of McDutfie and Hayne and
Calhoun and Butler have ratified in their