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

are made to protect the weak against
the strong. There are schools for the
education of the ignorant and COM
binations and means in operation for
the melioration of every kind and form
of human suffering. Colleges and
churches abound, and scatter the light
of knowledge broadcast through the
land. The arts flourish ebundantly.
The mountains are tunneled and the
valleys are filled; the roar of busy in
dustry breaks upon the ear with the
first beams of the morning sun, and
ceases not until his last rays linger
upon the mountains, and all over those
regions of knowledge, the harem is no
more; but the village, the hamlet, and
the peaceful cot, nestle among the
hills, or sit serenely by the gliding
streams in the valleys. Earth itself
has been conquered and made to pour
her golden treasures at the feet of man.
The secret and the only secret Of this
vast difference is that, here Christ is
known but there he is not. Tell me
ye who deny that Christ is the light of
the world, on whom does the hope Of
mans future rest? To what nations is
the eye of our race turned in the hope
Of advancement? Who are expected to
sunder the chains that bind the down.
trodden millions? Who are expected
to send abroad the light Of science; to
extend the arts; to raise nations from
ignorance and extend civilization
throughout the earth? Does anybody
expect this work from the Moslem, the
Turk, or Arab? Does anybody dream
that the pagans are ever going to do this
work? No, not one. But Christian
nations are expected to do it. The eye
of humanity is turned hopefully to
them and to them only.
1t sees that the light is there and ex-
poets that it will be spread abroad.
But how came that light there? The
answer is but the echo of that word
which Jesus uttered, 81 am the light
Of the world" There is no use in
denying it, or in attempting to blink
out of sight, for here are the facts
written upon the pages of history and
standing in full view at the present
hour. But it is in the religious aspect
of the case that the truth of the text is
most clearly confirmed. Lock again
at that map, and you shall find that
through the vast regions of Asia and
Africa, and, indeed, large portion of
the Oriental hemisphere, the people are
in the darkest night of heather ignor-
ance. Idolatry in its worst and most
profigate forms abounds. There are
Goods many and Lords many" and
i1ols of wood and stone; these are, as
well as temples dedicated to deities OF
every form and hue. Affairs there are
reared to divinities numerous as the
stars, and victims bleeding or burning
on those affairs meet you at every turn.
The people fast, they pray, they cruelty
every joy-they cut their esh-they
pluck out the hair of their heads they
plunge in the fiood-they immediate
their children, they burn the widows,
they cast themselves down to. be crush
ed by the wheels of an idols car, they
leap from precipices, they rush in de-
vouring flames, and all this in the
name of religion. Facts like these,
while they show how deeply the relig-
ious element is seated in the very ma
ture of man, and how it moves in the
soul as with the power of omnipotence;
at the same time evince how terribly
destructive it is of human hopes and
human bliss, when prevented by ignor-
ance or left unenlightened and unguid-
ed by the true light from heaven.
Whence look you for light to shine
n this darkness? Think you that light
will spring up out Of the night Of
paganism itself, and send all this dark
ness away2 Did Satan ever cast out
Satan, or ignorance teach knowledge to
itself, or night illuminate night? Ma
homet was no idolater. He made war
upon idolatry from the commencement
of his career. Through the trumpet of
war he blew that shrill blast, long and
loud, There is one God, and Mahomet
is his prophet" and his sharp scimeter
Kissed in the blood of those that repeat
ed not that word. But nobody expects
the darkness of paganism to be enlight-
ened by Islamism. Indeed, where it
has triumphed over paganism, the pale
moonbeams of the crescent do but
struggle here and there through the
rifted clouds, and serve only to make
the darkness more visible. Not until
the light of the cross penetrates those
regions of darkness will the people see
or be enlightened. To the cross and
not to the crescent does the world look
for the light that shall convert nations
to God and shed the dawn of an i'm
mortal day upon the night even of
death. So true it is, even in the judg-
ment of humanity, that Christ is the
light of the world, that men have ceas-
ed to look for it in any other quarter,
or to demand it from any but Christian