Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-29

am, and how long have resided ip the State,
and how long 1 have resided in the ward, or
the township, and if / misrepresent 50 wit
nesses will rise and shut me out from the ballot
box Is not that great advance? And then
notice the law that prohibits man voting if
he has bet on the election. A step further
needs to be taken, and that man forbidden
vote who has offered or taken a bribe, whether
il be in the shape of free drink or cash paid
down, the suspicious cases obliged to put their
hand on the Bible and swear their vote in if
they vote at all. So through the sacred chest
OF our nations suffrage redemption will come.
God will also save this nation through an
aroused moral sentiment. There has never
been so much discussion of morals and immor-
ais. Men, whether or not they acknowledge
what is right, have to think what is right. We
have men who have had their hands in the pub
lie treasury the most of their lifetime, stealing
all they could lay their hands on, discoursing
eloquently abont dishonesty in public servants,
and men with two or three families OF their
own, preaching eloquently about the beauties
of the Seventh Commandment The question
of sobriety and drunkenness is thrust in the
face of this naIion as never before and to take
part in our political contests.
NATIONAL SoBRIETY.
The question Of national sobriety is going to
be respectfully and deferentially heard at the
bar of every Legislature and every House of
Representatives and every United States Sen
ate, and an omnipotent voice will ring down
the sky and across this land and back again,
saying to these rising tides of drunkenness
which threaten to whelm home and church and
nation: Thus far shalt thou come, but no
further. and here shall thy proud waves be
stayed"
have not in my mind shadow of disheart-
eminent as large as the shadow of househy's
wing My faith is in the upper forces, the up
per armies of the text. God is not dead. The
chariots are not unwheeled. If you would only
pray more and wash your eyes in the COO, bright
water fresh from the well of Christian reform,
it would be said of you, as of this one of the
text: THE Lord opened the eyes of the young
man; and he saw; and. behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round
about Elisha"
When the army of Antigonus went into bat
tie his soldiers were very much discouraged,
him: Don't you see we have a few forces and
they have so many more?" and the soldiers
were atfrighted at the smallness of their num-
Der and the greatness of the enemy. Amigo
nus, their commander, Strengthened himself up
and said, with Indignation and vehemence:
"How many do you reckon me to be?" And
when we see the vast armies arrayed against
the cause of soDriety ii may sometimes be very
discouraging, but ask you in making up your
estimate of the forces of righteousness ask
you how many do you reckon the Lord God
Almighty to be? He is our commander. The
Lord of Hosts is His name 1 have the best
authority for saying that the chariots of God
are 20 600, and the mountains are full of them.
THE UPPER FORCES.
You will take without my saving it that my
only faith is in Christianity and in the upper
forces suggested in the text. Political parties
come and 90, and they may be right and they
may be wrong, but God lives, and think He
has ordained this nation for career of pros
perity that no demagogism will be able to halt.
I expect to live TO see political party which
will have a platform of two planks: The Ten
Commandments and the Sermon on the
Mount When that party is formed it will
sweep across this land like tornado, was 60
ing to say, but when think it is not to be de-
vastation but resuscitation, change the figure
and say, such party that will sweep across
this land like spice gales from heaven.
Have you any doubt about the need of the
Christian religion to purify and make decent
American politics? At every yearly or quad
rennial election we have in this country great
manufactures, manufactures of lies, and they
are run day and night, and they turn out half
a dozen day all equipped and ready for full
sailing Large lies and small lies. Lies pri-
vate and lies public and lies purient. Lies cut
bias and lies cut diagonal. Long-limbed lies
and lies with double back action. Lies compli-
mentary and lies defamatory. Lies that some
people believe. and lies that all the people be-
lieve, and lies that nobody believes. Lies with
humps like camels and scales like crocodiles
and necks as long as storks and feet as swift as
an antelope's and stings like adders. Lies raw
and scalloped and panned and stewed. Crawl
ing lies and jumping lies and soaring lies. Lies
with attachment screws and rufhers and
braiders and ready-wound bobbers. Lies by
Christian people who never lie except during
elections, and lies by people who always lie,
but beat themselves in Presidential cam
paign.
CAMPAIGN FILTH.
confess am ashamed to have foreigner
visit this country in such times. Ishould think
he would stand dazed, his hand on his pocket
book, and dare not 90 out mig hts. What will
the hundreds of thousands of foreigners who
come here to live think of us? What a disgust
they must have for the land of their adoption
The only good thing about it is, many of them
cannot understand the English language. But
I suppose the German and Italian and Swedish
and French papers translate it all and peddle
out the internal stuff to their subscribers
Nothing but Christianity will ever stop such
a flood of indecency. The Christian religion
will speak after while. The billingsgate and
low scandal through which we wade every year
or every four years, must be rebuked by that
religion which speaks from its two great noun
tains from the one mountain intoning the
command, Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor," and from the other
mount making plea for kindness and love and
blessing rather than cursing. Yes, we are 60
ing to have a national religion.1
There are two kinds of national religion.
The one is supported by the State. and is a
matter of human politics, and it has great pat
ronage, and under it men will struggle for
prominence without reference to qualifica-
tions, and its archbishop is supported by a sal
drals, with all the machinery of music and
canonicals, and room for a thousand people,
yet an audience of so people, or 20 people, or TO-
orr
national religion; but we want this kind of ma
tional religion-the vast majority of the people
converted and evangelized, and then they will
manage the secular as well as the religious.
NATIONAL RELIGION PRACTICABLE.
Do you say that this is impracticable? No.
The time is coming just as certainly as there is
a God and that this is His book and that He
has the strength and the honesty to fulfill His
promises. One of the ancient Emperors used
to pride himself on performing that which his
counselors said was impossible, and have to
tell you to-day that mans impossibles are Gods
easies Hath He said anG shall He not
do it? Hath He commanded, and will he not
bring it to pass?' The Christian religion
is coming to take possession of every ballot
box, of every schoolhouse. of every home, of
every valley, of every mountain, of every acre
of our national domain. This nation, notwith-
standing all the evil influences that are trying
to destroy it, is going to live.
Never since, according to John Milton, when
''Satan was hurled headlong flaming from the
ethereal skies in hideous ruin and combustion
down." have the powers of darkness been so
determined to win this continent as they are
now. What jewel it is-a Jewel carved in re-
lief, the cameo of this planetl On one side of
us the Atlantic ocean, dividing us from the
worn out governments of Europe. On the other
side the Pacific ocean, dividing us from the
superstitions of Asia. On the north of us the
Arctic sea, which is the gymnasium in which
the explorers and navigators develop their
courage A continent 10 500 miles long, IL, 600 000
square miles, and all of it but about one-seventh
capable of rich cultivation. One hundred mil
lions of population on this continent of North
and South America-l00 100000 and room for
many hundred millions more. All flora and all
fauna all metals and all precious woods. and