The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1883-05-03
THE 4 ,NERICAN RELIGION.

on the Burlington or the Omaha lines,
come to Worthington.
THE AMERICAN RELIGION
The Liberal, published at Sydney, n.
S. w., ut the close of a review Of a bi-
ography Of II. W. Emerson, says:
''.ne thing, however, that is especi-
ally remarkable about Emerson'S ca
reer, must not remain unnoticed; it is
this, that one SO open to conviction
with regard to all truths that came
within Iris own sphere of thought and
environment: should have been utterly
blind to the great spiritual awakening
that was going on around him in New
England, in the advent of Modern
Spiritualsm. 1t shows how apt we are
t" overlook what IS happe in our
midst us something too small and con
temptible for the notice of spiritual
minded men. and us Jesus. the great
medium. was neglected in his day, so
our mediums and spiritual! phenomena
generally are comparatively neglected
now"
Disraeli, the brilliant English Prem.
ier, said that the Americans must be
lacking iH invention, or while they
were creating such an admirable politi
Cal government and system, they
would also haye invented or formed Il
new r,ligion III keeping with their po-
litic;.l system. Disraeli, like Emerson,
overlooked the movement which was
working everywhere like yeast, and
forming the rev relie ion. AT the time
he made this surface remark, there WAS
forming in America exactly what he
Thought was lacking. It is as though
Disrleli had wondered why the Ameri-
cans were not producing harvests when
everywhere the green shoots were
breaking through, the ground.
The movement Known as Modern
Spiritualism began in cabin, ut lIy-
lesvile, n. Y, thirty-fve years ago.
Not that Spiritualism, or spirit com
munication, began there, for this has
been at the bottom Of every religion,
but Modern Spiritualism, the new
phase and development. which has
spread over the world like prairie
fire, began there. 1t is distinctively an
American development and came in
this form simply because the way had
been prepared by the freedom which
our government and our Institutions
secured to men. Spiritualism is the
religious correspondence of Free Gov
ernment or of the widest political and
religious Liberty.
1t is now distinctively the American
Religion and is to become as general
among our people as our Political doc.
trines. The two must go hand and
hand, the political preparing the way
for the spiritual or religious. The
stone which Disraeli and Emerson re-
jected, or rather overlooked altogeth-
er, is to become the head of the cor
ner.
The works of the Good Gray Poet,
Walt Whitman, are not to go into An
thony Comstock's waste basket after
all. The hearing at Boston, where
co nplaint was made against sending
his Leaves of Grass thro ugh the mails
Was peremptorily brought to close by
i stalwart utterance from the court
that the worst specimens of the poet :
verse were not too obscene for him and
the complaint went by the beard. Walt
Whitman, to use a phrase of Emerson
who once praised him, ''hits the white
when he draws his bow. His descr;p
tiOns are not garnished by shams, ant
on the whole it is we'll to have one such
poet in the centuyy.-Pioneer Press.
The Pioneer Press never uttered any
truer literary Gospel than this. Ans
we need no other proof of the infamy
of the Comstock gang, and 10 bette
vindication of the course Of the AID
VANCE in denounclnG the church oil
garchy and their brutal ood-houAl
than We find in this very assault upo'
Whitman's poe.rs. This society O
jackals and hyenas is nosiDg into ever.
book published for an 'obscene'
mouthful, and attempting an intolera
BILE censorship over the American pres:
and an unconstitutional espionage owe
the U. S. mails. It is we'll that the lib
erals of the country have more of tn
liberation and long suffering patienc
of Christ than the church element have
for otherwise they would rise in thei
wrath and stamp this brutal Comstocl
to shreds and scatter his infamous so
ciety to the four winds of heaven
Walt Whitman's works do not contain
tithe of the "obscene' passages con
tanned in the Bible. He is moreove
the first American poet, the originate
of distinctively American literature
the founder or the beginner of a schoc
Of poets who will for the first time i
human history give expression to
genuine, free, Democratic manhood. U
with tlle Whitmans and down with q
infamous Comstecks. 49,