The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-15
Pill TRUE EQUALITY.
The True Meaning and Attainment Of Free
dom. Equality and Fraternity.


TRxT-Learing us an example that se should ohow HIS
steps II Peter ii, 81.
Does the example left at one time and place fit
ali times, places and conditions9
The mind and spirit of Jesus Christ will, / am
persuaded. become a nineteenth century king
rs much as they did a poor man in the first GEN.
tury. They are in place in a palace or in q tent
anywhere and at any time.
Let me speak of the example set by Jesus
Christ He was subject to His parents" we see
Him at twelve years of age in the temple, and
able to talk with the doctors of the law and say
ing to His parents. twist We not that | must be
about my Fathers business2' Here is a con-
seriousness of His errand into the world-His
high commission-and yet He was subject TO
his p~arents-was. in fact. a carpenters son un-
I'll He was thirty years old. / find Him keeping
the law in all points like any dutifui Hebrew
son. 1t is a remarkable thing. He knew more
than His father or His mother; He knew more
than the doctors of the law, and yet He con-
formed-was as obedient as any common child.
lie observed the law in the least things.
Now. for centuries we have heard the saying,
'The king can do no wrong" The world was
educated TO believe that law was for the common
people; law was for the subjects of Henry VIII;
law was for the tenants and serfs, not kings. We
have respect to persons. We are not the same
to all men. Society visits transgression very
strictly on common ~people-people who make
oyeralls at So cents a dozen. We have not con-
sidered the remark of the private soldier. in the
guard house. to the Duke of Wellington: Gen
sral,,' he said, You cannot hire all the cardinal
virtues for 81 a month" But over the ocean soci-
ety seems to be quite charitable to princes and
dukes. Mobiles were above the law. We do not,
on this side of the ocean. admit this any more.
and there is an increasingly vigorous protest
against the doctrine on the other side expressing
itself in various ways, varying according to the
intelligence of The proteStants. But we still
cling to the notion that great genius, great talent,
even the possession of great wealth, are in some
way above the law; that great statesmen. poets,
painters, singers, may do what is forbidden to q
common laborer. coal miner or bod carrier, and
on this side the ocean to princes and dukes of
the mind. and it is. ] believe, simply impossible
for a man worth $25, 900, 600 to disgrace himself.
So far as / can learn, the great painters and
poets, masters of music, the great singers of the
world, have been people who lived above the
law, and the common people under the law have
been indulgent to them.
Now / need not say that the example of Christ
Is to this effect: That nobleness obliges. that
rink, wealth genius. talent. power of any sort
places the holder under obligation not to rule
bnt to serve. That if there is to be tolerance,
and there is to be, it is to be toward the COM
mon, the poor, the weak, the ignorant.
We expect the tramp to tell the truth, and are
offended if he exaggerates-but the man of
many millions, he is allowed. to lie like q gentle
man. Laughter The example of Christ tells
us 10 pass lightly over in q slave what calls for
the severest Judgment in a king or a car. No
man In Russia can possibly commit in a life
time the crime that the Gar is committing
every day. He is assassinating a nation. He is
not blowing his people up, he is trampling them
down. Every minute he lives he is an agony to
thousands. The doctrine of eternal punishment
viii never grow weak so long as such monsters
live.
Jesus was subject to His parents. AS a rule,
obedience TO parents is the duty of a child.
There may be exceptions. What is the rule in
the exceptional case2 Keep the rule and suffer.
1t is for the good of the world that Sthe north
wind should blow-but here and there somebody
freezes. | do not suppose that Joseph and Mary
were wise people. Very likely they made mis-
aakes in what they told their son to be and do,
bsit ne was subject to them for the sake of the
general law that children obey their parents
JcSlls fell In with the order of the religious serv-
be of the synagogue and the temple It was
not perfect. but he conformed to it. He fell in
with the crstoms of His time and natiop-dress-
Ell IN the national garments, paid taxes.
The New England radical was not satisfied to
protest against the fugitive slave act, but he also
refused to pay his road tax. and was properly
sent to Jail and kept there until a more sensible
radical paid it for aim; LLauehterl We find
Jesus at a wedding-not performing it. but as
sisting it. falling in with the order of it. Evi-
IDENTIFY he was a guest welcome at any mans
table-not a critic of the kitchen or of the order
of the house in which he was guest. He was one
to whom women brought their children. that he
might bless them; that expressed what He was.
In some things Jesus is in sharp contrast to
John the Baptist The prophet Of the desert is
peculiar in dress and diet. We do not read that
women brought their little children to hin, that
he might bless them. The example of Christ,
hen, is to this effect: Insist on principles, but
Easte no time or strength on matters indifferent.
There is ne moral quality in a host of things
that people make a fuss about. They are mere
cOnventions-like the question as to eating by
the use of a fork or a ehop-stick. Nothing is so
thoroughly disagreeable as a reformer who
makes no discrimination; who permits fox and
geese. and wars against checkers and "chess."
Not only is he disagreeabie. but he is of no
effect. Nobody wants him in the house. He is
forever correcting the furniture, and the crock
cry, and the food. and the arrangements for
heating and lighting, and the play of the chill
dren. and the walk and conversation of grown
people.
In Martin Luther's time there were a thousand
things that might have been improved. but the
wise Martin gave his attention to one thing. st.
Paul eats what is set before him, asking no Ques-
tionS, and so wins the good regard of the house
keeper as to be able to introduce the gospel.
Norman Mcleod, returning from q missionary
tour, said that ''the East Indian could be made
into a Christian, but not into a Scotch Presby-
terrain" A narrow resident of a small village is
not satisfied until all the wide world is like his
little town. l hear men insist that the Indian
shall at once cease to be a hunter and become a
small farmer. How long did it take the children
of Abraham to become farmers? The steps from
hunting to farming are long and slow. You can
go from hunting to herding, horse breaking.
cat~tle-taming, and from these, by and by, to farm
inc. The Norman and the Saxon were more diff
fenlt to civilize than any Sloux-as carnivorous
and as bloody in their vengeance. Every race of
men has been savage, and can be savage. Con
Ri0ePing that the negro of + O-day Is the son of a
slave and the great grandson of an African saw
age, he is doing pretty well. There is more than
one kind of civilization. The japanese are more
polite and urbane than we are. One of them, in
Yale College, being insulted by a fellow student,
vas not violent. He wrote a note to President
Porter asking permission. merely, to kill the Of
fender. daughter Abraham and Job, and
the men to whom the angels came announcing
the birth of the Savior, were civil, if not civilized.
They were not farmers-not one of the twelve
Annsfles were farnnarS Thau civil how