The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-09-11
EDITORIAL 8rfets.
BY REV. 1. NJ. ATWOOD, D. D.
Canton, N. Y.

1 -~e~~~s
IT is A FACT which possesses interest
for Universalists, that the arguments,
pro and con, used by their orthodox
brethren on the subject of the new here
sy, future probation, are veritable two
edged sword. On the one side they show
conclusively that there is no valid g ound
on which the door of opportunity can be
supposed to be closed at death On the
other, they make it clear that if the door
stands open for some the probability is
that it is not shut against any.
1T is probable that the first reports of
the calamity which has befallen Charles
ton will be found to have been exagger-
ated. One account tells us that the
famous church of ST. Michael is ruin
another, that it is apparently unharmed.
The apparent disaster, from such null
titude OF fallen chimneys and from the
debris Of the looser portions of the build
ings, must at first have been we'll nigh
universal and complete. The damage to
every brick or stone structure must be
considerable, and to many irreparable.
But we trust that when the alarm and
confusion Of the shock are passed. it will
be found that the city is still there and
capable of speedy restoration. In the
meantime the sympathy and aid of every
section Of the country will flow to the
stricken, smitten and afflicted city.
Such occurrences as this are we'll CAL
culated to impress men with an over
whelming eense of the insigniicance Of
his physical power and his earthly men,
orials. In an age when the worship Of
material splendors and enterprises has
become so much passion, and when
such startling liberties are taken with
Nature, an earthquake is not without its
moral uses. While the physical man and
the physical world are thrown out of re-
lation by such convulsion, and his con-
fidence in the steadfastpess of the mater
ial universe is shaken, the spiritual man
and the spiritual world abide in undis-
turbed harmony; and it is clearer than
before that noe even the "war of ele-
ments, the wreck of matter, and the
crash of worlds" can shake the security
of the soul.
1t was a hundred years on the 10TH
of last month since Thomas De Quincy
sIswas born;s and ii win be sixty four years
on the Both of the present month since
he wrote the concluding paragraphs OF
The Confessions of an English Opium
Eater" 1t was this comparatively short
essay which first attracted the attention
of Englishmen to his genius. We have
just re-read it after an interval of thirty
years, and SO far from finding that the
impressions made by it on the boy are
replaced by different and less favorable
impressions made on tho mature man,
we have received an accession of delight.
The luminous intelligence, the subtitle
penetration, the delicate humor, the weird
imagination, the sinewy vigor end facile
grace OF the style exert their spell even
more profoundly than ever.
We are sorry to record that the Sun
day World has reached an edition of
100000 copies. The World is not bad
publication and it is a particularly good
newspaper. But we have never yet seen
any reason for the Sunday rest for any
body which is not applicable, in ali its
force, to the newspaper. The World owes
its enormous circulation partly to it's en-
terprise, in part to its brightness and
| h1f GOOD 30 khn
freer rein it gives to that high stepping
horse yclept sensationalism. On the
whole, we believe the world would be
just as we'll off without it's Sunday
World. We know the world does not
think SO. 1t likes that sort of thing. So
long as it does it will have it. All the
same we could wish that it were well rid
of its taste and its toy.
Mr.. Mendenhall is reported as stat
ing that he finds the authors whose works
he has examined using certain words in
certain uniform proportions. There are,
We take it, certain words for which each
author shows partiality. 1t must have
been by anticipation of Mr.. MendenhalIs
discovery that Dickens stereotyped his
most marked characters They declare
themselves by the words and phrases on
which they are forever ringing changes
Mr.. Mendenhall processes to be able to
ascertain in this way whether a given
work or article is the production of a
given author. We have not seen the full
exposition of his theory but presume he
will test it by demonstrating who Junius
was and by corroborating Beutley's ex-
posure of the spuriousness of the "Epis-
ties of Phalaris"
The Boston Sunday Herald requests
the clergy to ask themselves "why has
the church lost its grip on the working
men?" We can answer. In the first place
the church never had any grip on the
workingman, as such. Its grip has been
on him as man and brother. In the
second place, it has lost something of its
hold on many workingmeD because they
have so largely transferred their affection
in recent years from their church TO their
various labor organizations. In COM
munities not divided up by any secular
or social fratef mites, the Christian church.
as the one great. Dermanant Omninrasanf