Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-10-19

EA1DoAVAAAA 1PPAp ~ AAtAOAAo IL III
most sanguine Christian patriot has
ever dreamed Of. Was any voyage that
the world aver heard of crowned with
such an arrival as that of Columbus and
his men? After they had been encour
aged for the last few days by flight OF
land birds and floating branches Of red
berries, Martin Pinzon, standing on
deck and looking TO the southwest.
cried: land Landl Landl'' And
'Gloria in Excelsis' was sung in rain
ing tears on all the three ships of the
expedition. Most appropriate and
patriotic and Christian will be
a commemorative worlds fair
in America in 1892. Leaving
to others the discussion as to the site OF
such exposition-and | wonder not that
some five or six of our cities are strug-
Cling for it, for il will give to any city
to which IL is assigned an impulse Of
prosperity for q hundred years-I say,
leaving to others the selection Of the
particular locality to be thus honored,
| want TO say some things from the point
of Christian patriotism which ought to
be said. and the earlier the better. that
we get thousands Of people talking in
tho right direction, and that will make
healthful public opinion. | beg you to
consider ~prayerfully what l feel called
upon of God as an American citizen and
as a preacher of righteousness to utter.
My first suggestion Is that it is not
wise, as certainly IL is not Christian, to
continue this wide and persistent at
tempt of American cities to belittle and
~depreciate other cities. 1t has been go
ing on for years, but now the spirit
seems to eliminate in this discussion as
to where the worlds fair shall be held,
a style of discussion which has a
tendency to injure the success of
the fair as a great moral and
patriotic enterprise after the To-
cality has been decided upon. There is
such a thing as healthiul rivalry be-
tween cities, but you will bear me out
in saying that there can be no good to
come from the uncanny things said
about each other by New York and Chi
cago, by Chicago and st. Louis, by st.
Paul and Minneapolis, by Tacoma and
Seattle, and all through Che states by
almost every two proximate cities. All
cities, like individuals, have their vir-
tues and their vices. ALI our American
cities should be our e~xultation. What
churches! What public Libraries! What
asylums OF mercy! What academies of
music! What mighty men in law and
medicine and art and scholarship What
schools and colleges and universities
What women radiant and gracious and
an improvement on all the generations
of women since Eve! What philan-
thropists who do not feel satisfied with
their own charities until they get into
the hundreds of thousands and the mill
ions! What Goods acres" for the dead,
gardens OF beauty and palaces of marble
for those who sleep the last sleepl Now
stop your SANDER of American cities.
Do you say they are the centers of crime
and political corruption? Please admit
the fact that they are the centers Of in
telligence and generosity and the
mightiest patrons Of architecture and
sculpture and painting and music and
reservoirs of religious influence for all
the continent. 1t will be we'll for the
country districts TO cease talking against
the cities, and it will be well for the
city of one locality TO stop talking
against IA cities OF other localities.
New York will not get the worlds fair
by depreciating Chicago, and Chicago
will not get the worlds fair by bonn
harding New York.
Another suggestion concerning the
coming exposition: let not tho materi-
alistic and monetary idea overpower the
moral and religious. During that OK
position, the first time in all their lives,
there will be thousands of people from
other lands who will see a country with
out a state religion. Let US by an in
creased harmony among all denomina-
tons of religion, impress other nation
alities, as they come here that year,
with the superior advantage Of having
all denominations equal in the sight of
government. All the rulers and chief
men of Europe belong TO the state re-
ligion, whatever it may be. Although
our last two presidents have been Pres
byterians, the previous one was an
~Episcopalian; and the two previous,
Methodists; and going further back in
that line of presidents, we find Martin
Van Buren, q Dutch Reformed; and
John Quincy Adams a Unitarian; and a
mans religion in this country is neither
hindrance nor advantage in the matter
of political elevation. All Europe needs
that. All the world needs that. A
mans religion Is something between
himself and God, and 1t must not d.
rectly or indirectly be interfered
with.
Furthermore, during that exposition,
Christian civilization will confront bar
barism. We shall as q nation have q
greater opportunity to mako an evan
gelizing impression upon foreign ma
tionalities, than would otherwise be
Afforded us in q quarter Of a century.
Let the churches Of the city where the
exposition Is held DO open every day,
and prayers be offered and sermons
preached and doxologies sung. In the
less than three years between this and
that worlds ~convooation, let us got q
baptism Of the Holy Ghost, SO that the
six months Of that worlds fair shall be
fifty Pc~nticosts in one. and instead OF
5000 converted, as in the former Pente-
cost, hundreds of thousands will be con
verted. You mnst remember that the
Pentecost mentioned in the Bible oc-
Cured when there was nc printing press,
no books, no Christian pamphhts, nc
religious newspapers, and yet the infu-
ence was tremendous. How many na-
| tionalitios were touched? The account
says: "Parthians and Modes and Elan
ites,p that Is. people from tho eastern
countries; "Phrygia and Pamphylia,'
that Is, the western countries; sCyrene
and strangers Of Rome, Cretes and Ara
bians," that is, the southern countries;
but thcy were all moved by the mighty
spectacle. Instead of the sixteen or