Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1885-12-05

! these things, of course there is room fol
disagreement without harm.
Thanh sg wing sermon.
The following is q synopsis Of ser
mon delivered on Thanksgiving day by
DR.. McCabe, at Topeka:
Services were held at II q. m. A ser.
mon was preached by Rev. DR.. McCabe
from Psalms Xviii, 9: "We have thought
of thy loving kindness. o God, in the
midst of thy temple"
After referring 10 reasons for thanks
giving, and calling upon the people to
express their gratitude not only in songs
and prayers, but also by practical help
given to the poor and suffering, DR.. Nc
Cabe said:
The age in which we live is in some
features unlike any former age. The
great powers that have ruled the world
are ecclesiasticism and civil despotism
In all times and nations, the ruling
agencies have been oppressive religious
establishments, and tyrannical civil in
situations.
A popularity of the present age is that
these despotic influences are losing their
power-their sway has become in great
measure thing # the past.
The first great and effective demon.
stration against these mighty influences
was made in connection with the refor-
nation in the sixteenth century. That
grand movement was not at first, bit in
its ultimate form, a protest against des-
potism; it was an appeal to God against
earthly tyrann es. Luther and Meianc
thon and their colleagues did more
than assail certain corruptione in the
church. They declared the doctrine
Of individual judgment in opposi.
ton to the doctrine of the infallibility OF
the church and the priest; they declare
the doctrine that the final authority is
God, an6 not priest or king; they main
tain that the supreme responsibility of
each soul is to God himself, and not to
any civic or ecclesiastical superior.
These and such doctrines thus an
nounced have been mighty forces thrown
into human society. They have been the
IRE ccncilable antagonists of tyranny,
whether in church or state.
1t was the principles of the Reforma-
ton that weighed the anchor of
the Mayfower, in whose cabin was com
posed the first written free constitution
that the world ever saw.
1t was these principles that obtained
for us the free Institutions under which
we are now living. It was essentially
these principles-the sacred right of
each man to himself, and the obligation
of the government to do it's work for the
benefit of the mass, and in the interest
of freedom, rather than under the con-
troll of a caste, and in the interest
of slavery-that brought us
safely through the war of the
rebellion, calling forth on the part of our
people spirit of valor and sacrifice
which has thrown new splendor around
our national history-which has vindi.
Gated the human race from the charge of
degeneracy, and has relaid the founda-
ton of our gov -rnment more securely
than ever before, on the bed rock of
Truth Justice and Liberty.
Freedom ia the child of knowledge.
1t is the development of ideas
that has disturbed the old despotic
administration. The invention of the
art of printing took place in the middle
of the fifteenth century. The reforms
doubtedly the reformation was in part
the product of the extension of knowl-
edge resulting from the invention of
printing.
1t is ideas that batter down Bastiles
and Inquisitions. It is ideas that
burn the palaces of tyrants, and scare
their owners into abdication or
bind them to the bloody block. Mus
kets and cannon and torches,
and councils and constitu-
tons are but the tools with which ideas
do their work.
Liberal institutions can be established
and perpetuated only in connection with
IN unshackled press, and with unabridg-
ed liberty of speech. Through these
agencies, ideas are discriminated-l
thought is stimulated-a spark of free
lom is awakened-men learn their |
'acred rights, and tyranny becomes i'm.
There is but one influence that can
uccessfully resist whatever evil tenden-
les may exist in connection with free
Institutions that influence is chris
ianity. 1t restraints the excuses of per-
onal and factional violence, and fur
fishes to men of all classes and condi-
ions bond of union and basis of CO.
'peration.
In this state of Kansas state
o ample in territory, so rich in soil,
nd varied in climate-a state
whose cent? al location enables it to reach
nd bind together the sister states on the
asst and on the west, and 80 to become
he new keystone" of the enlarged
lnion-we shall be called to play no
mean part in the scenes on which We are
'ntering.
Standing on the threshold of our first
Iuarter centennial celebration, our record
8 one of which we are
lot ashamed. An honest and
economical management of our
public affairs; liberal provision for the
.ducation of cur youth, the children of
he poor as we'll as the rich-a system of
operating and perfected, that
hall open to settlement all of our vast
planting of churches, not
,nly in the cities, but on the frontier
wherever the pioneer builds his cabin
u runs his plowshare-the Offering of
Ictual citizenship to all, irrespective of
ace, or lineage, or color-an unshrink-
ng support of the federal government
n it's time of trial or peril-these form
,art of our record which is both mon
nent of the past, and q guarantee of the
uture.
May we be enabled to perform our
luty 50 wisely, so faithfully, that we
hall be called blessed by the genera.
ions that shall live here when these
pen prairies shall be converted into
cultivated gardens-when villages shall
lessle in all these valleys, and Or
hards and vineyards shall crown.
IL these hill-tops-snd when the spires
nd domes of q city of 100000 souls shall
asst their shadows over the spot on
which we are now gathered.