St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-12-12

-. Much business the past
years has been sold out to one COM
manding and grasping manager, Satan
by name: conducted by special agents
of inspected good standing sometimes
even in the church, whose going down
we lament with mingled shame and pi-
ty: whose operations we brand with
broad and black dishonor. Perhaps
this epidemic is slowly subsiding we
hope so. 1t may have been whole
some boil ON the body of society, work.
ing up to a head, exceedingly sore,
making all of the best part of the body
to squirm, till by way of big discharge
a better condition sanitarily ensues.
Good and thankworthy.
Religious Influence. Not my design
now to enter this field with detail, but
in point of fact here is the foundation,
and from it we address you 50 days
every year. 1t is not claimed by any
intelligent person that all human pro-
gress is in the hands of the church only,
or result of Christianity alone. Gen
uine attainments are made in knowl-
edge, intellectual power, mastery of
nature, science of government, practi-
cal arts buC Christianity determines
the direction of these things, multiplies
their value, quickens the worlds intel
lect, establishes moral ideals, makes
actual life a consecrated power. Mr..
Lecke, from the rationalistic side, re-
marks in his History of Rationalism,
that the Christian religion has advanc-
ed the development of Europe chiefly
''by assimilating the attractive influence
of pure IDEAL" and he adds, ''there is
nothing more wonderful in human his
tory than the way that Ideal has in
fused its beneficient influence into ev-
cry sphere of human thought and ac-
tiOn." l think this has been far more
conspicuous in the United States than
in Europe or any other modern nation.
Our Republic had it's birth in a relig-
ious covenant drawn up on board the
Mayt1ower and under which al men
signed themselves into a civil body
polite. Our forms of town, state, and
federal government, came by natural
selection and evolution out of their
primitive forms of church government.
Alexis De Tocqueville is impartial au-
thOrity for this statement. The New
England school came directly out of
the New England Church. John Elliot
in 1645 praying in the Gen. Assembly
of Massachusetts said: "Lord, give us
schools, schools everywhere" VIM.
Berkely, Governor of Virginia, writing
to the lords of the plantation in 1870,
said, 81 thank God there are no free
schools nor printing presses here may
the Lord keep us from them both.n 1t
is because Berkely's prayer did not
prevail and ElliOt's did, that we are
keeping Thanksgiving not as State
but as Republic. Intelligent Chris
tianity is under us. Most of our Col
leges, Seminaries, and Academies, were
founded by Christian men (once they
dedicated their enterprise to God,
kneeling on the snow in the forest prim-
evaD for Christian education, and foun-
tains of Christian learning they are,
still. The public press is as a whole
dominated by Christian ideas. The
strictly religious press is an engine of
immeasurable moral power. Our
courts, state governments, congress,
each acknowledge the supremacy Of re-
ligion even when they dishonor its pre-
cepts. 1t is because the Bible and
the Church are under US that we have
chaplains in the army and the solemn
oath on the witness stand that legisla-
tive and other bodies open session
with prayer to God: that civil con-
tracts made on Sunday are largely il
legal, and on Sunday the President
shall sign no bill from Congress. Out
of the American Church has sprung the
American Thanksgiving Day. In no
country of the globe are church and
state more distinct: in no country has
the church SO quiet and steady a hold
on the state. Goods Church, Gods
Book, Gods Day: the Three Pillars of
American Society,"" said Philip Schoff
recently. So say we all, L am sure.
Gods Day as an acknowledgment of
his supremacy: Gods Book as the
fount of education and virtue Gods
Church as the guardian of religion.
These three are good and tbankworthy.
Evangelical aUOrk. l set this down
last, with just hint about it, for the
full data that l want fail of getting
now. Of churches Gncluding 5000
catholic) there are sc, $3.50, more or less.
The amount of disinterested work car
ried on by Protestant churches is i'm
mense and fruitful: e. g., S. S. Unions
fOrerunning the churches all along the
frontier: the Y. NJ. c. A. with its thou
sand loving arms around the young
men everywhere: domestic missions:
and A. H. M. S. has in so years planted
1000 churches, expended $9,0OO,OOO.
This represents only the Congregation
al churches now, but the rest are doing
likewise. City missions single one
in New York has in charge 1000 chill
dren, spends $4,000 year, and there
are many besides: multiplied missions
in the interest of Freedmen, Cinnamon.
Indians. Note-What scene was
that at Chicago the other evening, at
the very hour we were listening to DR..
Alden in this South Church, when Gee
Gam, a Christian Chinaman, Sanders.
a Christian Negro, Big Elk, Chris
tian Indian, and DIR. Roy, Christian
White Man, each on the same platform
addressed the American Missionary
Association. Big Elk astonished the
audience by going down of sudden on
his knees upon his blue blanket, and
pouring out his soul in prayer for his
tawny comrades Foreign missions
also: the American Board, Congrega-
tional, spend nigh half million annu-
ally. Presbyterian Board nigh another
half million; other Protestant Boards
above another half million 600 Ameri-
can missionaries on foreign soil. Mapv
times that number of native workers
under them; Churches, Seminaries.
Colleges, free press, family life, Sab
bath day, put by them upon every lat
tItude and zone, and put there to stay.
Have you noticed that even Paris is
asking about our Sunday 2 At the
Trocadero, Paris Exposition, Atterbu-
ry's pamphlet on the "United States