The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1882-06-29


at doing good. This, as has been
! remarked, is painfully illustrated
! in the persons and works Of such
men as Rousseau, Voltaire, Hume
and Gibbon. They understood
only too well, the secret key to
the human heart, and they opened
thousands of hearts only to SOW
in them the seeds of poison and
death. They defled, as with
leprous hand, everything they
touched. They chilled with their
frosty breath the moral activities
of a continent. They spread con-
tagion and death over large
| portion of the fair heritage of
God and we may never be able,
this side of eternity, to realize the
| immense amount of harm they
have done to the world, simply
by failing to recognize the moral
in man. ~
The first three contributed per-
haps more than all others towards
the bringing in of that food of
lioentiousn ess which distinguished
the reign of Charles Ii, and which
produced an epoch in the history
of the world 80 impregnated With
the seeds of lnfdelity that it nat
arally brought forth the Goliath
of the Philistine hosts in the per-
son of Gibbon.' He was, indeed,
a giant in bis day. His splendid
attainments in literature /; his d.
Yersi6ed knowledge of man, which
enabled him with so much ease
to prey upon the weaknesses of
humanity; the distinguished pow
ers of his gigantic inteIlect,-all
unsanctiied by divine grace, and
all. welded against Christianity,
together with his shameful apos
tasy from the church, render
him altogether worthy of being
the star OF the Apocalypse, whose
name was worm. wood, and which,
burning as a lamp, fell from
heaven on the rivers Ofwater ;
and men died of the waters be-
cause ,hey'were bitter
'Envenomed with the poison of
deadly error; cbafed with the
repr"achful consciousness of a
shameful apostasy CHANTING with
a long-cherished hatred of Chris
tianity, and tempted to evil by
the seductive charms of popular
applause which is ever lavisbly
bestowed on genius, he reproduced
in himself Nero, Julian and Ju,
das.
Now, if these gifted minds had
not been soured and perverted by
a failure to recognize the moral in
man, who could adequately meas
ure the vast amount Of everlast
ing good they might have been
instrumental in accomplishing
But failing IN this they lived only
to make men miserable, and died
with the poor satisfaction Of
knowing they had only too well
succeeded. Their great popularity
lay in their splendid attainments
their success in their knowledge
of the peculiarities and even weak
uesses of their fellow men. And 6
close examination Of the phil
osophy of human nature and Of
human lite will show this to enter
largely into the success of all The
great men of the earth, both good
and bad.
In order to success there shoulc
be, too, q close observance of cir
cumstances. These materially af
feet both our usefulness ard oul
responsibility. 1t was to circum
stances that those gifted bat IN
fortunate men, whom | have JUS
mentioned, owed much of thei
success in the wrong direction
and their entire want of success
in the right. They yielded to th'
force of circumstance and em
braced the facilities for evil whict
they offered instead of contendinl
with them and rising above them
There is, indeed, somethin!
lovely and beautiful in youD!
mans quietly falling in with th
current of favorable circumstance
and pleasantly floating on TO tn
, ocean of his destiny; but there i
something tenfold more noble il
, his heroically contending wit
the current which would bea
/ him away from the object of hi
!. desire, and manfully buffettin
the waves of opposition.