The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-01-07

SpdTeur TarCly, IL must De cOnIeSSeu,
from some ingrained inability, some in
herent defect of will, some natural per-
versity of purpose. Riches and happi-
ness depend upon other things. They
do not act as causes, but they come as
results. Any failure in the causes
which, of themselves, produce wealth
or insure happiness, or any inadequacy
there, affects the result. So far, how
ever, as these causes can exist apart
from the orderings of a divine Provi-
dence, they are in ourselves and must
work out of ourselves. All circunn-
stance or situation taken out of the
account, there is always left to us the
| power of choice. Let it be subject to
such limitations as you may, we are
still capable of exercising a power of
choice. We may choose to do right so
far as we know or understand it, or
we may choose to do wrong, and upon
this choice everything depends. So far
we are responsible, and it will always
be impossible for US to shift the respon-
sibility from ourselves to another.
Under our present social conditions
it is not so much needed to know that
we ought to do right as it is to get help
to do it. Human frailty and inability
consist not so much in not knowing
what is right, as they do in the dispo-
sition and purpose to do as we'll as we
know. The help men need is not to be
told that they ought to do their duty,
but to be SO fortified, assisted and in
spired by the love of duty that they
shall do it gladly, unconsciously. What
resources has the Christian world of
to-day on hand to meet thisneed !? The
present condition of society proves
that this is one of the most important,
popular and pressing questions of the
day. Charitable institutions, beneyo-
lent organizations, labor saving ma
chinery, cooperative enterprises, asy-
lums, schools, churches, the world is
crowded with them, money flows like
water to the making and the care of
them, and yet all of them together
have been able to do no more than
just to diminish-not to remove-the
whole appreciable weight of trouble
and sorrow that lies on the heart of
the world. "Those who think and those
who feel' are all asking what can be
done toward lessening existing evils.
Lecky says IF we take broad
view of the course of history, and ex-
anime the relations of great bodies of
men, we find that religion and patriot
ism are the chief moral influences to
which they have been subject, and that
the separate notifications and mutual
interaction of these two agents may al
most be said to constitute the moral
history of mankind" This being ad-
mitted, these two moral forces, religion
and love of country, must be the best
resources we can have in our work of
helping the world. What is the reason
then that with the best government
under the sun, the purest religion yet
given to humanity, the trouble and
sorrow and crime of the world are not
cast out? 1t is even claimed by some
that they are not so much as les
sened, that the prevailing forms of re-
ligion and government in this country
do not so much as lessen the trouble
and immortality of the people. There
are those who claim that in the matter
of ease and happiness, of life free
from anxiety, or from crushing poverty
among its citizens, Republicanism does
not compare favorably with those
forms of government which admit of a
more paternal oversight. 1t is claimed
also that the Protestant religion is
open to the same criticism. The poor
are not as well cared for under Protes-
tant rule as they once were under Cath
olicism. 1t would be difficult to prove
this, owing to the many complications
which must enter into the problem;
but there is manifestly some founda-
tion for the claim.
1t is true that patriotism and relig-
ion have been the great conserving
forces, the educators of the race. Yet
after nineteen hundred years of the
preaching of the Christian religion,
after ages of the gradual softening of
government, the world is only little
better off. Why? Because of the cold,
unfriendly, unsympathetic spirit in
which these supreme forces have been
administered. A representative form
of government, by opening the way
to the highest prizes of life, starts
every man eff in feverish haste after
them. In such a scramble the weak
and poorly-equipped must fall out by
the wayside; only the strongest can
hold out to the winning But the
pushing, anxious crowd has no time
and but little inclination to stop and
stoop down to the assistance of the
feeble, incompetent ones. Republi-
canism expects every man to be a SOW
ereign by reason of his opportunity to
be such, no matter how far nature has
put it out of his power. 1t says to
every man." Stand on thy feet and l will