Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-04-06
YOUTHFUL RREVERENCE.


THE ALARMING sIgNs OF OUR TINES
On recent Sunday Rev DR.. Cyrus Bar
tol, pastor Of the West church, Boston,
one Of the most eminent ministers of that
city, preached sermon on THE country's
danger from its irreverent and ill-manner-
ed youth DR. Bartol, it may be observed.
as showing more fully the force of what he
says, is man Of remarkable and striking
presence he possesses ample wealth, but
adheres 70 his old ways of simple and un-
pretentious living-a fact which gives point
to his remarks about his humble pedestri-
an mode of taking his daily exercise.
He took for his text on this occasion the
words in the story Of Elijah the prophet,
Little children mocked him In the by
ways and suburbs Of Boston, he said, and,
as | am told, also Of New York and other
cities, are gathered year after year, espe-
cially ON leisure days, Of which Sunday is
chief, awkward squads of boys, to disport
themselves among other ways with insults
10 their elders passing by. 1t is strange
that amid all our schemes for educating the
young such a spectacle, which can have es-
capped no observers eye, should not have
drawn more attention as the most alarm
ing sign of the times Wherefore are mis-
siOnaries sent to far coasts and savage isles
while there is here an unsubjugated piece
Of barbarism blotting our civilization on
every page The American Board quar-
rels about terms of salvation to the heather
Of Africa. We try to nterdict the Roman
Catholic parochial schools aud to occupy
the whole ground with our system as alone
fit and right TO instruct American citizen
ship at the public expense. But the wide
increasing irreverence, which is essential
rreligion, in our midst, neither Rome, nor
Andover, nor Cambridge, nor any Protest
ant ministry at large seems to be able to
reach. There is IA growing unthrifty scape-
grace element of insoleuCe. which no chap
el for the poor gathers and no home for lit
tie wanderers can win.
II my hearers imagine any art Of orato-
rical eIaggeration i'll my discourse, let me
say that being mostly humble pedestrian
in my mode of daily exercise and not lift
ed in close carriage above the shot of
these Yankee and Irish arabs, more bold
and saucy than any Paris gamins, | have
myself for many seasons been hooted at,
scorned for my looks or dress, called names,
aironted for being Old in winter snow
balled. and sometimes from dark nook
struck by one or another small coward
who would instantly, for concealment and
| protection, retreat into the intrenchment of
a dozen scamps of his own color, obdurate
against all expostulation, who, if their vic
| tim said word or made a motion as the in
| iured party, were ready to renew and rub
in the afront Best, says gentlewom-
/ an of my acquaintance, mot to notice them
at all, as it only makes them worse One
might be tempted to follow this prudent
| advice if consulting personal comfort alone.
I But do We not selhshly expose others to the
same effrontery by such apparent consent
/ to any crime against ourselves Besides,
| IL is not of themselves that experienced
| elders think under this battery of juvenile
| contempt; but of the community and coun-
| try of the i'll augury and dark horoscope
| for a land they are about 10 leave where
/ liberty can be abused into such license and
/ nobody care to interfere. For on such oc-
casons of mockery by boys--in which,
am glad to say, girls, in haunts however
| low, seldom join-l have noticed that
/ grown up men across the way would look
On and laugh. Where were the police
you may inquire. | know not; only they
we're not there Perhaps like Baal, as Eli
iah ironically told the worshipers of that
false deity they were talking, or pursu-
ing, or on journey, or peradventure
sleeping and must be awaked, for which
there was no time If they had been pres
ed the saucy taunts violation of any stat
ute law rendering their shameless, unblush
ing authors liable to arrest. We talk of the
low Irish and such there are. But these
half grown and ill-begotten offenders are
not all of the Celtic race. / have known
not few sons of Anglo Saxon reputed
gentlemen, whom their proud parents had
from childhood put out to pride for a nurse
to be taught and trained to think them
selves better than common folk, and SO en-
titled to look down upon and maltreat from
a safe distance whomsoever they took no
tion to jeer or throw stones at,
What cure can there be but reverence
mutual respect, practiced and nstilled
Fear is natural to the child. Reverence
must be acquired. 1t is humility expressed
in our manner, posture, motion, behavior
and speech root and essence of religion
which we are told must not be inculcateC
in our public schools because religions ar,
so many. | deny the proposition. Their,
is but one religion, many as are the forms
II am of the religion of all men Of sci
ence,' said Alexander Won Humboldt
meaning, | suppose, a lowly bowling befor,
the glories of the creation, which it was hi
life and joy to explore. That, without
sect or dogma is enough. If the Romans
ties religion to the worship of saint or vir
gin, or the Orthodox 10 a trinity, or tn
Unitarian to one person. or the Baptist Il
total immersion, or the Episcopal to al
apostolic or priestly succession, they are al
confounding their several ceremonies an,
definitions of religion with the fact of tina
adoring attitude before the Most High