Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1882-12-09

me might Of my hand has COTTON me
TINS, Was Gods warning to his chosen
| people.
In land where every one partakes
! oil the sovereignty which inheres in II
lTee ana intelligent people and hence
Shares IN the feeling OF national great
ness, tnere IS peculiar danger that n
! noasttul spirit may become a national
SIN. Pride intoXicates and peculiarly
corrupts. tits that offense against God
| when has even been the ruin of ma
TONS The finger of a mans hand which
| once pointed Babylon's doom is still
writing that of all who cry, us not this
the great Babylon that have built"
rms torgetWlness of God is indicated
| largely by rush after mere earthly
substance. Israel and Babylon, Greece
| and Rome, with numberless other peo-
| pies, have been cnervated to death by
this passion and its resultants, love OF
pleasure and luxury. Death threatens
every people that treads this path.
When there comes a general eagerness
to be rich with hasty methods of secur-
ing this, II speaks sadly for the DAYS
which are rushing on.
With grief it must be said that the
revelations of the years but now pass
ing, as to corruption in social and bus
mess and political life to degree con-
ceiVed by few, tell a story far from en-
couraging TO those who know that Gods
laws and processes fail not. o, let us
teach our children that there are things
better than gold and ease and luxury
and power. Uprightness is better; hon
esty of spirit: devotion to right; purity
in dealing with our fellows. Such
things make the distinction between
good and bad men; between gilded
4 - 4
man or family get this greed for
wealth and luxury and the pure image
of God fades most rapidly from their
souls. Thus the nobler principles Of
character are most quickly obliterated.
The crash Of dishonor and death which
so surely comes at the last is but the
climax of such forgetfulness of God.
We look too often on fame and pesti-
lence and panic as altogether evil. We
err in this. II is~ we'll that society
should pause now and then in its mad
ness, and call up that there is God.
IL We're we'll for us all more frequent
~ to think of this, never to forget il,
until at last ii becomes the habit Of the
life.
1t is sad also, to have to say. that in
the conduct of part Of the secular
press of our land, there is evidence OF
a fearful absence of that moral princi-
pie necessary for Divine Benediction.
Perhaps there is no intellectual and
moral power in the land superior 10 the
press-the news press, | mean-eXcept
the Divine Wood and the pulpit, the re-
Election of that word. When fairly
united ON any principle, the influence
of the press in our country is well nigh |
universal, for cur citizens, thanks 10
the common schools, almost UNIVERSAL |
lt H..
place occupied by the minister of Christ |
and the teacher of youth, its position is |
most desirable for influence on society. |
The editor of a largely circulated paper |
sits on throne of mysterious power |
and rules multitudes. He reaches in |
deed, far beyond the minister as to the |
number Influenced and the frequency |
of the impression, If he is immensely |
his inferior as TO the sacredness of his |
thoughts and the authority backing the |
same. In the case of the editor infu- |
ence is limited TO his own opinion, as |
that Of a mere man-usually il relates |
TO temporal interests only. The minis |
ter speaks for God. His thoughts are |
Gods teachings rs to peace, sorrow, |
life moral, spiritual, eternal. Such |
thoughts will always be beyond others |
infinite in their importance to dying |
men. Yet, as intimated, immense as |
an index Of sentiment, and as train |
ing power, is the influence of largely |
circulated journal.
1t is heart sickening then TO see the |
eagerness with which IL considerable |
proportion of these men WELD their ire |
mendOus power for evil, for cOrrup- |
ton, fat jobs, TO influence passion, TO |
uphold political rings, which seek evil |
ends, and gaming-rings, and rum-rngs. |
u. a
of corrupt principle They |
pander to deprayCd appetite. They cor |
rupt our youth. With some of these |
men there is nothing so sacred but that |
with foul hand and fouler mind they de- |
file il. Witness the defence of the at
tempt to introduce the Passion Play in |
New YOrk,a year since-alsO the plaud-
its which filled their columns Of the ac-
tress from Paris whose children bear |
no fathers name. The very presence |
of such sheets becomes poison more |
deadly TO the body polite than that |
from POntine marshes which laid low |
its thousands in old imperial Rome.
This corruption Of so large a portion |
of the press il one of the most fearful |
evils of the land. II is a blessing IN
deed, that so many Of the men who |
flash thought along the myriad wires |
which run from their own brains and |
hearts TO those Of their many thousand |
readers and SO largely magnetic their
lives through that most glorious Of all |
the steam Press, are men
who battle for right and truth. If all
We're such how the world would leap
forward i'm the march OF true progress !
No American citizen who would wish
the blessing of the Divine Being on his
family and land, should permit a sheet
Of impure principles to enter his dwell
ing. See that IL good, pure sheet is
there. Don't rob your children and
yourself of such an influence. But be
Jealous for them and your country at
the point we indicate.
II. As citizens we should have 4 care
lest In failure TO take interest in the
political affairs Of the land we become
Of duty 10 God and the c0un-
try.
Next to purely religious effort for the
good Of men. nothing is more important