The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-04-02

a0AP Az ~ OH""AU elc more SWaatlr
1t is to go on. and vice and skeptc;as.y
and even atheism are mixing poison ~
to the cup. The world has too MI ~
of ignorance, too much wickednOoln
too much poverty, too much unbonS.'
ness, too much distrust of Cod ps
Christ and another life; and with all , thy
this untitness it is moving into that in
mense area called to-morrow n 1ni>
earth is as solemn in its continuance t
it would be in its ending. The tbonoSs
that here are soon to be a hundSaS
millions of people, all of whom onc5t
to find homes and education, and
simple religion, and something of ban
piness, and that the streams of tbsso
things are all to flow out of our aso
into their century in one wboseo
weight of responsibility cannot ~
measured. Instead of SINKING ;r,o
graves and leaving the earth with tO
out an occupant. millions are to po IN
ward with all that awful power Of tba
soul fol JOY or tears. Our institutions
are to move into another century in
few years more, and the Christians now
living under the names of MANY Je
nominations will be guilty of great neS
lect if those laws and customs wbisb
to-day surround us shall not pass to ou.
children much better fitted for all tho
wants of the people.
In presence of such q thrilling futnro
we may affirm this: that what the rnl.
ing ranks or the higher class of Chris.
tians most need is enthusiasm. All tho
other forms of human life are fuIlv
aroused. Our age runs along its manv
paths. Empty of all inspiration, rely.
ion sits down and gently sleeps. Wien
awake it debates or studies rather than
loves. Enthusiasm would transform
such q desert into an Eden.
Awake, for the time is short" said
the glowing soul of Paul Not short
for humanity, but, short for each ind.
vidual. Differ as students may about
the end of the word, we all agree in
this: that each one of us will soon quit
these scenes. If we have any task to
perform in the name of God, we must
hasten to the work; if we have any kind
words to speak, we must hasten to
spei them: if we are to hand any cup
of refreshing water to mankind, we
must fill it now. 1t is time to awake
from the sleep that has long enchained
the brain and heart. Each day reads
to us a list of friends or of strangers who
have gone. While piety sleeps, death
is fully awake to his awful task.
A distinguished son of our West has
just gone. A slow disease took down
the habitation of flesh and the mind
has returned to its God. As long ago
as last summer MIR. Matt H. Carpenter
must have begun to think OF the near
ending of his powerful life, and. with
that thought, there must have come to
his gifted mind many an hour of pen.
sive and perhaps com :orting media.
ton. In the last of last September be
wrote to me quite a long letter regard.
ing the intrinsic merit of the Gospels,
and from it [ give few sentences to
show its spirit: whoever will read
Cicero's twi light speculations about
duty and the future life, remembering
that, perhaps, he was the fullest man
Of antiquity, the ripest scholar and
student of the highest period of civil
zation, and remembering that, from the
birth of Cesar to the birth of Christ
the only change that came to civiliza-
ton was decline, and that Jesus be-
longed to an out-of-the-way people, a
people apart from the high tides Of by.
man greatness, and then will reao from
the Sermon on the Mount, cannot
comprehend how he can escape the
conclusion that the difference is not
one of degree but of kind" {.
THAT Jesus, surrounded as he was,
could have promulgated system of
morals embodying all that is most valu.
able in the prior life of the world. and
to which nineteen centuries of civiliza-
ton have not been able to add a
thought or impart an ornament, is o
fact not to be explained by any ridi-
cule." If such sentiments seemed the
more rich aud valuable to the Senator
because he must soon pass into the un-
seen world, the same reason for the
same line of thought stands good for
you all. The time is, indeed, short
Awake! arise! and attempt to measure
and realize the worth, and responsible.
ity, and dignity, and the unparalleled
beauty of this world! Mark its moral
landscape! What an expanse life may
be made to be OF faith, and hope, and
love, and happiness. Mark what no
BILE characters have passed along these
paths of religion! What service they
have rendered the human race! What
fame they have honorably won from
mankind, and in what blessed hopes
they have hidden adieu to this existence