Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-09-26

into four, five, six separate churches or
congregations, with MS many ILL., paid, anxious,
and dscourugedm over or under them,
with u small uncertain attendance on the
Sunday services with brief tenure of Office
in the pastorate, and with less public social
leadership on the part Of the ministers in their
respective towns than the lawyers, the doc
tors, or the selectmen now possess. There is
no pretence that it is possible to return TO the
old state of things, but it is certain that we
must, if possible advance by other methods,
if we can discover them, to usages and habits
that will produce the same fruits Of reverence,
piety and lively interest in spiritual things
the decline Of which is obvious.
Clearly there is something wrong, and to
be doplorcd and amended in the present state
Of what may be called public Religion. Can
it be denied by the most complaisant defend
crs of the existing state Of our public life and
feeling that marked decline in the sense Of
the unseen, of accountabloncss to an iuvisi-
bic Sovereign of truth, justice and holiness
OF the profound spiritual importance Of per-
sonal piety and solf-cousecration, il the spir-
it of awe and reverence before the Almighty
purity aud perfection, in the relative import
auce Of standing well before our final Judge
a, compared with Tia, advantages Of immedi-
ate prosperity and success; in the SENSE OF
great common bond in our common amcua-
blencss tou universal and omnipotent Being
Of our common interest in common Lord
aud Saviour and in the church, which is his
continued presence with us Can it be- de-
MED that these fnlings away all attest, not
only a decline Of faith and spirituality, but
are accompanied with the decay and mopeu-
tiyeuess Of high practical morality Of
wholesome humility Of q contoutyduess with
our external lot, which was once made tolera-
bic and even happy 10y the expectation Of the
final victory over all earthly misfortune :
Uudenably. the old. invisible restraints,
which explicit faith, aud hope, and holy fear
supplied, have somewhat fallen away from
the public aud then from the private con
sciences of men. The present generation,
considering its parentagc. is strangely socu-
lar and material devoted to external things
and immediate qualification, TO business and
social cmulatons, TO dress. and equipage and
pleasure. to laeats. and drinks. and shows,
and restless change Of place. That old in
wardness Of life, which came from the recog-
milton of the souls relations to it, Infinite
Source, has largely declined, and the world,
in the sense in which the apostles dreaded
and denounced its influence, has come into
almost undisputed and even lnuded sway.
| What was that world which was coupled with
| the flesh and the devil in the minds Of our
| Gov;,,,r ,,.l l,;s ;r.p,..1i.t. f,II,,p.r.g W..
il the soil the sen. the mountains the starr
was it daily toll and bread, aud meat and
clothing; Or was it rather the recognition
and service of these as the principal thing.
so that men looked to it not as a means, but
an end, and sacrificed their hearts, consciences
and souls to its behests and its brides Surely
facilities Of locomotion, animation and thrift
in business, wide commerce and exchange Of
the products Of all lands, comfort and abund-
ance refinement of tastes, development Of
faculties, enlarged knowledge AID varied ed
ucation are not the things that the Master
would iuveigh against to-day. But he would
dcplorc and deuounoe the error and folly
which mistakes what men call civilization.
the pride Of the eyes, the pomp and circum-
stance of life for the end Of existence. or
which allows devotion to business and pleas
uro and riches and power, to dull the vision
Of God, the sanctity Of the conscience, or the
aspiration Of the heart toward spiritual per
| fcction.
We do our Puritan predecessors aud faith
ers injustice, when We charge them unresery-
eddy with Hdy7op views Of life. Stern aud
sombre views they certainly had-but not
narrow-if We include il life what belongs to
its future. If we judge them by the fruit of
| their lives, We must acknowledge that certain
factors of the most enlargiug and exaltiug
| sort entered into their souls which well sup
| piled whatever they lacked IN the way Of ma
terial knowledge or mechanical advantage or
a wide territorial outlook. They lived, per
| haps wider and grauder lives, than their
children because their spiritual horizon was
broader than any territorial explorations or
conquests can make ours. What is the most
advanced astronomers knowledge of the
| depth and extent of space OF the boundlvss
| multitude Of suns and stars considered in its
tendency and power to enlarge and widen the
soul, compared with the active SENSE Of God,
Us occupying the universe aud living in the
soul What can communication with foreign
countries, or conquests over elemental bar
riers, what railroads teegraphs and tele-
phones do, to take the place or fulfill the func-
| tiuns of prayer, heartily believed in and prac-
tced prayer, that great emancipation from
the tyranny of time aud space, that swiftest Of
| telegmphs that leveller of external conditions
aud stations that highway to and from God
| open toall that souls telescope and telephone
revealing the invisible, and making the whis-
| pers of an Infinite Spirit heard over immeas-
urable distances; prayer, a living faith in
which, overbalanced i'll our forefathers' hearts
all that their children have since gained, with
its loss As a widener of life and an enchant-
meut and sublimation of existence and for all
the wealth and glory Of the loom and the
mill, for all the victories of steam-On the
sea aud the land, in the press and the fac
tory, for all the upholstery, and decoration
| and utilities of our luxurious modern homes
| oh give u back the richness and the Joy
of believing hearts-hearts that the Holy
| Spirit filled with his shining presence that
were transported with the noancss of God
and the communion of Christ, and ate angels
| food, and were clothed in the radiance of eX-
allied hopes and fears Alas where outward
furnishing comes to take the place, and is
looked to to supply the lack Of inward being !
How narrow, how empty, how dull, the larg-
est and most splendid and luxurious mansion,
in the midst of which dwells a shruuken un-
imaginative, unspritual soul! Aud how low
and mean and poor the civilization that Is
rich in food and conveniences and outward
splendors and shows, and only deficient in the
nobleness, the self-control, the aspiration and
spirituality of those who are crushed beneath
it Our age and time is not the first that has
suffered from the swollen current of worldly
ambitions and successes. History is haunted
with the ruins that prosperous worldliness
has heaped over buried nations that had lost
their souls in the drunkenness of their lust
for splendor and pleasure and power Paul
! himself looked upOn Rome at the very time