The Cecil Whig., 1886-07-10
Is Our National Morality DGCayiag?
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Robert w.
Beers, in the Elkton Presbyterian
Church, Sunday, July 4, 1SS6.

fdOiiShtd Oy RtqutS.
Righteousness exalteth nation; but sin
is reproach to any people. .''-ProrerJs
rtc., 81.
1t is plain from these words OF God
that national greatness is to be tested
solely by its obedience to the laws of
God. For Israel, for the United States,
for every nation, there is no other critic
rion. Mankind has many tests; God has
but one: righteousness exalteth na-
ton; but sin is a reproach to any pee
ple." Nation after nation has disbelieved
these words; and nation after nation has
perished as the necessary and inevitable
consequence of such a disbelief. The inner
moral life of the nation is indispensable
to its security, its strength and its pei
manent advancement. 1t is to the nation
what the spirit of enterprise, courage
and faith is to the man; it is to the nation
what the soul is to the physical organiza-
tion. The question of the presence,
prevalence and progress of this moral life
is the question upon the answer to which
depends the answer to the further one
whether the nation is to be like that
noble and powerful one which Milton
saw in his vision, rousing herself like a
giant starting from sleep, and shaking
her invincible locks, or whether it is to
be like that inactive and lifeless Colossus
of which he had at another time tie
vision, standing like the carved image cf
giant, menacing only to children ard
weaklings, with arm and club lifted, but
never striking blow.
Lei us then, on this, our national ami
versary day, consider this all important
national questionable question of life or
death for the nation:
Is the moral life in our nation decaying
or n0t?-There are many who feel that
the process of moral decay has already
begun, and that it is going forward stea-
dily, stealthily and surely. They COL
trast our times of luxurious selfindul-
gence with the times of the old robust
endurance and strenuous endeavor-our
times of comparative incredulity and
Indifference with the times of the old, in
tense religious conviction; and ours seem
palid in comparison with that vivid age,
effeminate in comparison with that at
stere and heroic period. Doubtless there
are many things which favor this conclu-
sion.
l. Let us, then, in the first place notice
some Of tie ecideaces Of moral decay in
our nation.
1. The old times Aace passed away
with the strain which they put on mans
spirit and will Individuals are still
called to suffer and be strong;; but for the
nation change has come. The days of
the first settlers, when they began the
work of reducing this wilderness to the
beauty of Christian civilization; the
days of the French and Indian wars-of
the vast Revolutionary peril and strug-
gles-they have all passed away.
The nation now dresses in soft raiment;
lives in handsome dwellings; rides in
palace cars; crosses the ocean in magnfi-
cent steamships; transfers the work to
machines which used to belong to human
muscles and brows; and it may well
seem when we are lazily receiving news
from all the world with our coffee at
breakfast, and when farmers are riding
at ease in their labor, as if the old mus
Gle of the heroical energy of the past
must have lost its grip.
2. Then, too, the great political discus
si0nS of the past have ceased to excite
and educate the mind-discusson con-
| cerning the Constitution, concerning the
fundamental legislations of the land.
These discussions involved vast princi-
pies, touching the very origin of society
and the true order of the State. They
naturally elected vast powers, brought
forth and trained great orators and wri-
ters-Jefferson, Hamilton, Webster, CAL
houn and the others; and the swelling
impulse Of such discussions went every
where through the land. The founda-
tion theories of human government had
to be considered; great and illustrious
political doctrines found eloquent utter.
auce from lips unmatched in skill and
power And the result was profound
stimulation of the American mind, and
even of the moral nature. These discus
sions. and the yet more exciting ethical
debates on questions connected with sia-
very, have passed away. The latter were
questions which touched directly the
conscience and the heart, as we'll as the
judgment; they were questions discussed
in every school district, in every pulpit,
on every platform, in every caucus
questions which evoked the highest
powers and the deepest passion of
righteous indignation. They generated
in many true martyr-spirit. Their in
tluence was seen, their vast and terrific
echo was heard, in the marshaling of the
armies which marched and fought in the
great civil war.
These discussions have passed away,
though their influence remains. And in
comparison, the political questions which
now attract and excite us are of feebler
force and of secondary Importance. We
would not underrate the Importance of
the question of Free Trade against Pro-
lection, or that of Civil Service Reform.
But these questions and the others asso-
ciated with them have, evidently, not the
wide sweep, the magnificent, energizirg &
power, which belonged to those that ear
lier engaged the public thought. They
do not even prepare us for the profound
questions which are just looming up be-
fore us concerning Communism, and the
relations of Capital to Labor. Our poll
tical discussions now are on questions of
dctaH rather than on the great .fundamen-
tai facts and laws of society and the
State.
3. Then, too, tie old toJmS Of religious
taiM seem losing their p01cer, and the loss
is great one. Men may despise and
hate the old New England Calvinism, or
they may admire and honor it; but no.
body can deny that in it's time it built
great character, when God was present
to the consciousness of men by reason of
its imperious instruction; when life was
solemn under its light, as touching the
eternites; when the shadow of judgment
and Divine inquisition was over all ac-
| Al.