St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-09-17

airy. 1t requires no argument to dem
Onstrate the fact that our race is inn
proved by civilization, or that civiliza-
ton owes its origin and progress to re-
ligiOn. To religious influences we are
indebted for all the reforms which
benefit society. Our Sunday schools
were instituted in obedience to a divine
command. In these schools children
are taught ''withOut money and with
out price," all that concerns their pres
ent welfare and their future happiness.
These intellectual nurseries have en-
liched and fertilized, and continue to
enrich and fertilize every city, village,
hamlet and household throughout the
Christian world. If religion has done
nothing more than to bless our race
with the cOnsecrating influences of
Sunday schools, scoffers should be
shamed into silence.
WHAT RELIGION HAS DONE FOR NEW
YORK.
Our city furnishes many examples of
the beneficence of religion. Forty years
ago locality too well known as the
Five Points, with a population of sew
eral thousands, was the home of the
vilest of the vile, and the resort of 9TH
ers equally debased. Men, women and
children of all nationalities and cOlors
herded together, differing only in the
degrees of crime and profigacy prac-
ticed. Their days were passed in Ell
ther idleness or depredations. Their
nights We're spent in dance house de-
baucheries. All healthy or wholesome
influences were excluded. Children
grew up to become street beggars or in
mates of the almshouse, and their pa
rents filled penitentiaries and prisons.
These orgies continued year after year,
defiant and aggressive, until that pan
demonium was invaded by Christian
men and women whose patience would
not tire, whose courage was indOmita-
ble, and whose devotion has been re-
warded by a moral and religious refor-
nation so complete that no part of our
city is now more quiet and orderly than
the once dreaded Five Points. Thou
sands of children then growing up either
vagabonds or culprits, are now attend
ing schools, in which they are stimulat-
ed by precept and example to live in
dustrious and virtuous lives. Instead,
then, of sending forth idle, ignorant
and vicious children to prey upon sOci-
ETY., the destitute and orphan children
of Five Points, prepared for usefulness
by moral and religious training, find
happy homes in our rapidly developing
western states and territories.
Again, eight years ago, Water street
and its surroundings eastward from
Peck slip had notoriety almost as un-
enviable as that of the Five Points.
| That region was rife with drunkenness,
burglaries, pugilism and their kindred
vices. Jerry McAuley was conspicuous
in all that was wicked and demOraliz-
ing. He had the reputation of being a
terror to the precinct, a reputation
which by his own confession was de-
served. But this disturber of the pub
lie peace was converted, and then he
resolved to devote the remainder of his
| life to the service of his Master, and
with a faithful, affectionate wife as a
helper, he has abundantly atOned for
all his offences. For a long time the
misses and hOwlings of his former asso-
ciates seriously disturbed his meetings,
but courage, perseverance and patience
finally prevailed, and his work now
progresses without interruption. The
general character of the neighborhOod
has been improved, its social and NOR
al tone and atmosphere have been pu-
rifed. Sailor boarding houses have
been reformed. Sailors now carry their
Bibles with them to sea. Moody and
Sankey hymns are sung in fOrecastles.
Hundreds of half naked, hungry wives
and children, by the conversion of
drunken husbands and fathers now re-
joice in comfortable and happy homes
The mission church is crowded every
week day and evening and three times
on Sunday, with intelligent Christian
men aud women, who, rescued from
garrets and cutters, are now reputable
citizens, enjoying the fruits of their
industry, and relating with grateful
hearts the miseries of their past, the
joys of their present, and the hopes of
their future. By all who "went to scoff,
but remained to pray" Jerry McAuley
and his exemplary wife are regarded
with affection, and will be remembered
with gratitude.
INFIDELTY AND COMMUNISM.
Infdels of all ages found their strong
est arguments against revealed religion
upon what they regard as improbable.
And yet we are not called on to believe
anything more incomprehensible than
our own existence. We know that we
live in this world. Is it unreasonable
to believe that we may live in another
world .? If we are to believe nothing
but what we understand, we should go
through life incredulous and aimless.
We are ready enough to believe on
information the things that relate to
this world. But we are slow to believe
in prophecy and revelation, though
both are corroborated by observations,
experience and events. Infidelity
claiming superiority in treason" and
common sense, asks us to believe that
all of grandeur and sublimity, all OF
vastness and power, in the beautiful
heavens and upon the bountiful earth
comes by chance; that everything is
self-created and self-existing and that
law, order and harmony are accidents
Those who accept this theory would
find its application to their business af-
fairs anything but advantageous. In
fidelity and communism are kindred in
character, and aim by different meth
DDS to undermine the sanctions and Sc
curities upon which the worlds welfare
and happiness rest. Infidelity strikes
at religion communism at property
One seeks to weaken our faith, and the
other demands for the idle and worth
less an equal share in the industrious
and frugal. Agrarianism Communism
in milder type) came to us some forty
years ago from England, with Fanny
Wright and Robert Dale Owen as its
apostle. This bad element has been re-
inforced by communism from France
and Germany. All three are working