The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-22
PRINCIPLE VS.. PRECEDENT.
A Sermon Delivered by Rev. Myron
w. Reed, at Denver, Col, March Is.
Originality and Right-Doing Superior to U.s.
age, Custom. Habit, Precedent and Things
EStabliShed-Th Future of America

The fact that the world holds together is evil
dence to me that majority of its inhabitants
are well disposed and intelligent A majority Of
ill-disposed people would have ruined any world
in less than 5000 years They did ruin it in the
time of Noah, and the promise made then that
there should thereafter be no flood is promise
and wicked again-that is, should not need
a food. The bow set in the clouds is as cheerful
as it is handsome 1t means the shining of the
sun through rain and after rain.
sand all the people shall say Amen!' They
do not now but they will by and by. 1t is Curl
GUS to note the growth of the truth. 1t is at
first little seed planted in the ground, lonely
and in the dark, and then the point of It's green
lance pushes through the mold, and by and by
it is tree, and the birds of the air lodge in its
branches. Plant a live seed and put a stone
over it, and yet the seed will grow and come IN
at the edge of the stone 1t will rise. 1t is inn
possible to suppress life. Grass comes up be-
tween the brick Of the pavement. Pine trees
grow out of the side of rock. The life found a
way, and then made the way larger. You can
discourage life and make it pale in cellars and
caves of the earth, and under logs in shady
places, but it is not easy to kill it.
1t is singular to me that with mans experience
and observation. he trusts 80 much in persecu-
ton, in jails and scaffolds. Nothing will over
come anything but a reason, and that will finally
and surely pass for exactly what it is worth.
The mob stone Stephen and Saul stands by and
consents to his death, and the thing is done, and
actors and spectators think that is the end of
nhcu opI re p,,&
from that scene to think "what is it that Sephen
has said and done that he should be killed.
What was it that made him willing to be killed.
What was that light and where from that shone
On his face2' And Saul of Tarsus cannot dismiss
that scene from his thought. 1t is with him by
day and by night and be strives with it and it
strives with him, until in the long wrestle, on
the way to Damascus Saul is thrown, and the
stoning OF Stephen results in the chiefest of the
apostles of the doctrine for which Stephen was
killed. And yet men think that they can
stamp out a true thing. Stamping is
what the truth needs, as in planting
corn 1 was taught to cover it with
earth and then step on it. Such is the value of
persecution that it dignifes error When Can
ada forbids Robert Ingersoll to speak in her
long to him. What was planted by martyrs
will never be uptorn by men in dress coats work
ing at $3.50 night But that is not the chief
reason for free speech Forbidden TO hear him,
him, he would have told US how and why hole
in a graveyard is more cheerful inheritance
than a mansion in the New Jerusalem" Their
imagination of what he would Say if he were al
lowed to speak, is more powerful than anything
he could say, and does much more damage.
Nothing pleases some men more than for people
to hold them firmly back from fighting 1t gives
them the privilege of saying what terrible ruin
they would have wrought if they had only been
turned loose. And their followers believe and
construct out of their Imagination slaughter
houses and buckets of blood.
There used to be an institution in America that
men were forbidden to talk about. Even
trunk lined with the leaves of a New York Trib
une was Suspect" OF course men began to
wonder, S'What is the thing abouti" 1t must be
a dangerous thing; infiammable, of the nature of
giant powder. Slavery so hedged about from
observation and discussion, was presently the
theme of general discussion The skeleton in
the closet OF the Nation was brought out into
the light and air, and at the touch of light and
air dissolved into dust like the dead and long
buried body of an Egyptian king Nothing is
certain so long as man is forbidden to talk
about it. His friends will say that he has some
thing to communicate that, if made public, would
at once and forever overturn the protected doe
trine. The religion that is said to be better than
ours by all means, let hear all about it, WHAT'S
It'll The rumorS of such religion whose apostles
are forbidden to teach it, is disquieting thing.
Whatever is true is bound to win. The fttest
religion will survive.
Ali that a true thing needs is to have good,
full statement then it will take care Of itself
You may, if you please, kill the man who stated
the true thing from his books and letters, but
what he said has Caught on" to some ones
mind and rooted in his memory and is springing
up to bear fruit Russia bauishes her free writ
ers, but not soon enough--they go, but they
leave their thoughts behind l admire the
serene confidence OF nature. She never plants
anything except by indirecton. She commits
the seeds of plant and tree to the winds, and
rus nat they will lodge in good ground
The winged traveller is taken in; and
Sc sure is this careless method
that no plant or tree has failed yet-things that
are alive will live-some of every kind. The
lumberman goes into the pine country of Mchi-
gan and goes to cutting, leaves nothing but
stumpage, and then in year or so a fire comes
and takes what the lumberman left. But life is
there. In year or two more there is green
crop of poplar as thick as stalks in corn-field.
Cut and burn off the poplar, and then the hard
woods appear-oak and maple. Cut and burn
these away. and then in comes the pine again.
The disinherited knight has come to his own at
last 1t is as certain as that some time the Irish
will rule ireland. Principles are ike these
seeds. Care not for them, and YET they care
for themselves. They may be- buried, but
they are not dead. They are ''the sayings that
pass not away There is a saying in the Dec
laration of Independence that at the time it was
written expressed only theory not practical at
that time. The certain inallenable rights were in
allegiance, but the theory is becoming practical
now. The proclamation of emancipation makes
the exception, but the exception disappear soon
A principle knows no exception.
There is principle that does not include
Kentucky and all the parishes Of Louisiana.
river may run around big bowlder for awhile,
but it finally wears away. There are States
where all people can vote except Indians and
women. 1t is not any harder work to drop
ballot than it is to mail letter. see men and
women in the same street car-in the same post
Office see them owning property and paying
taxes on it, | have heard at Fourth of July and
Other times the phrase, mo taxation without
representation" The power to vote is worth
GER" The experiment of universal suffrage has
not been tried yet. There are exceptions
founded on no reason, only habit. A friend of
mine in bookstore in Leavenworth, Ills. saw
colored man come in and buy book. Who're is