St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-07-23
IMPLEMENTS TO PROGRESS.
The Way to Heaven Must Be Kept
Clear

w. j. Lhamon, at the Church OF
Christ, preached from the text, ''If thy
hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off,"
Mark tx, A. The progress of the in
dividual, he said, is the measure of
social progress. Parties, states and
nations can be no better than the aver
age of the people. Jesus aimed not at
wholesale reformation by martial con-
quest. or by legal enactment, or kingly
DEGREES. He knew that moral, mental
and spiritual progress; that the better,
social state, and the higher civilization
He began at the basis of all human
actiOn-at the individual head and
heart. Jesus did not despise small
audiences, for He knew the worth of
human units. In the eyes of Jesus any
one man has. the intrinsic value of
an immortal being, but he is
also one of many, and may become as
salt to the mass, or as leaven to the
loaf. Therefore he said, 'Whosoever
shall cause to stumble one of the least
of these that believe in me, it were
better for him if a great milestone were
hanged about his neck and he were cast
into the sea-" To wreck the body is
bad: murder is awful; but to wreck the
than do that. Such is the estimate that
Jesus sets on sanity souls. He goes
farther and says, better lose your foot,
better lose your hand, better lose your
eye than lose yourself. The surgeon
says the same when he amputateS an
arm to save the patients life. The world
looks on and cOmmendS the act. But
why is it that when Christian cuts off
the club room, the pool room and the
ball room because they endanger his
better being, the world is ready to sheer
at the act? Amputation in order to
salvation is just as reasonable i'll re-
lIgl0n as in medicine and surgery, and
this is what Jesus means when He
says, ''If thy hand cause thee
to stumble cut it off," What
the downfall of the religious man is to
be avoided. If politics should get in the
way of mans religion he had better
cut 1t off; better go to heaven simple
citizen than to gehenna congressman
or a senator. If sectarian pride should
get in the way of the soul, cut it off;
better GO to heaven simple Christian
than go to ,gehenna bigot. If wealth
should endanger the soul, better give it
to the poor and go to heaven a pauper
than go to gehenna a millionaire. We
near or hlgn life killing people. Better
live hermit than take the way of
single season in Washington to gehenna.
Perhaps these things are not necessa-
rily bad, but if they do get in ones
religious way they are to be got rid of
by amputation. There is only one cure
for kleptomania, and that is to quit
stealing; cut it off. There is only one
cure for drunkenness, and that is to
stop drinking; cut it off. So of many
other sins that destroy the man, or i'm
pede his progress on the heavenly way;
they must be cut off. One cannot quit
lying and stealing by degrees; he must
stop instanter. In this is found the
principle of state and national abolition,
or prohibition. If slavery gets in the
way of national progress, prohibit it.
Ii the saloon, abolish it. Cut them off.
Better such amputation than national
degradation. Christ puts religious char
ter above every thing else. A growing,
Godlike soul is the grandest thing on
earth. Christ will permit nothing to in
terfere with it. Things as near to us as
hand, or foot, or eye, must be sacrificed
if they threaten, or endanger, or i'm
pede our religious progress. Better
amputation than condemnation. He
roic measures are justified by a heroic,
enterprise. At all hazards the way to
heaven must be kept clear.