The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-06-19

ground itself in the confident belief tha
the death of the body is but the emanci
patton of the soul; did not feel the as
surance that there is power in the uni
verse which will lead safely through "th'
wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.
In the full blaze of the Nineteenth Centu
ry, when every child in our common
schools knows things such as the Egyp
tian in his wisdom never dreamed of, i
is natural for us to look back upon the
wisdom of 5000 years ago as man looks
back upon the accomplishments of the
child. And yet for all this wonderful
increase of knowledge, this enormous
gain of productive power, where is there
community in the civilized world where
there is not want and suffering? Here
with vaster knowledge and wider expert.
ence, we are building up nation greater
than any other, there are yet thousands
among us who find it difficult to assert
the first of all national rights-the right
to earn an honest living.
We boast of equality before the law
and, notoriously, justice is deaf to the
call of him who hath not gold, and to the
sin of him who hath. Under the shad.
ow of our colleges, children are growing
up in vice and crime, because from their
homes poverty has driven all refining
influences. We pin our faith to univer.
sal suffrage; yet the control of public
affairs is passing into the hands of q
class of professional politicians, and our
Government is becoming the instrument
of men who are robbing the people. We
have forbidden titles of nobility, yet
there is growing up among US an aristoc-
racy of wealth as remorseless as any that
ever existed. We girdle the land with
iron roads and cover it with telegraph
wires each day brings some new advance
in science and art; yet the complaints OF
hard times come oftener and are louder ;
everywhere are men harassed by care and
haunted by the fear of want; pauperism
is increasing; insanity is increasing ;
there are more and more men who do not
get wife; more and more women who
wait in vain for husband. The causes
that are thus producing want in the
midst of plenty, ignorance In the midst of
knowledge, aristocracy in democracy,
weakness in the midst of strength, you
will find they are something which this
Hebrew statesman three thousand years
ago perceived and guarded against
Moses saw that the real cause of the
enslavement of the masses of Egypt was
what was everywhere produced in slave.
ry that in permitting the same unqual-
i6ed ownership in land as in other &C.
QUESTIONS it would ultimately raise up
the very rich and cast down the very
poor, and make the few the masters Of
the many. Inevitably it would bring
vice and degradation, and he sought to
guard against this error. Everywhere in
the Mosaic institutions is the land treat
ed as the gift Of the Creator to His com.
mon creatures, which no one has the
right to monopolize. 1t is not "your
estate" or "the land which you bought
or conquered" but "the land which the
Lord, thy God, giveth thee" And by
practical regulations He tried to guard
against the cause that converted Egypt's
ancient civilization into a despotism-the
cause that is to-day crowding our fami.
lies into tenement rooms in our cities.
He provided for the distribution of the
land among the people, and made it fol-
low every seventh year, and for a redis-
tribution every fftieth year. He made
monopoly impossible.
I do not ask this nation to follow the
forms of that time; I ask recognition
of the spirit. Yet how common it is to
honor the form and deny the spirit.
There are many who believe that the
Mosaic institutions were dictated by the
Almighty and who yet denounce the ap.
plication of their spirit to the life of to.
day. And yet how much We of to-day
owe to these institutions This very day
the only thing that stands between our
working classes and ceaseless toll is one
of those Mosaic institutions. Our work.
ing classes would get no more wages for
seven days labor than for six, and would
find it just as difficult to reduce their
working as now. That there is one day
in the week when the hammer is silent
and the loom stands idle is due to these
Mosaic institutions. That exaltation of
thought strengthened the Scotch coven-
anter in the hour of peril, and the Puri.
tar ir the strange land; it stood behind
the lo'y redoubt of Bunker Hill. The
life OF Moses is protest against the
blaspLemous doctrine current to-day, as
it was three thousand years ago, that the
want and suffering of the masses of man.
kind flow from mysterious dispensation
of Providence that we may lament, but
cannot alter. For him who will look,
yet burns the bush for him who will
hear, yet comes the voice as strong as
ever. The forgetfulness of self manifes.
ted in the shifting of the Egyptians
shines through Moses's whole life. In
institutions that make life easier for the
toiling masses we may read the same
purpose. The unsel6sh desire to make
life happier, better, nobler. He discard.
ed the claims of blood, and disdained to
found dynasty of his own, which he
might have readily done. He conquered
the souls natural yearning to depart
among friends, and withdrew from the
sight OF men to die alone lest in his
death he should be deiied and accorded
the full measure of superstitious rever.
ence which he knew was ready 10 DfeaK
forth. But the name of the Hebrew
who strove for the elevation Of his fel-
bowman is yet beacon.light to the
whole world. With whom among the
founders of empire shall we compare
him? To dispute about the inspiration
of such man is to dispute about mere
words. From the depths of the unseen
such characters must draw their strength.
Of something more real than matter, of
something higher than the stars, of q
light that will endure when suns are dead
and dark, of purpose of which the
physical universe is but passing phase,
such lives tell.
Suicide to avoid Death.