News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-05-09

these rising tides OF drunkenness which
threaten to whelrn home and church and ma
ton: ''Thus far shalt thou come but no fur
ther, and here shall thy proud waves be
stayed"
l have not in my mind a shadow of dis
/ heartenment as large as the shadow of a
house hy's wing. My faith is in the upper
/ forces, the upper 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 cool, bright water fresh from
/ the well of Christian reform it would be said
of you as of this one of the text: 1.-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 Ambiguous went into
| battle his soldiers were very much discour-
| aged, and they rushed up to the General and
said to him: Don't you see we have a few
forces and they have so many morep and the
soldiers were affrighted at the smallness of
their number and the greatness of the enemy.
Antigonus, their commander, Strengthened
himself up and said, with indignation and
vehcmence: How many do you reckon me
to be-" And when we see the vast armies
arrayed against the cause of sobriety it 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. | have the best authority for saying
that the chariotS of God are twenty thou
sand, and the mountains are full of them.
You will take without my saying it that
my only faith is in Christianity and in the
upper forces suggested in the text. Political
parties come and go, and they may be right
and they may be wrong; but God lives, and
| think He has ordained this nation for
career OF prosperity that no demagogism
will be able to halt. l expect to live to see
political party which will have platform of
TWO pIanEs-the Ten Commandments ana the
Sermon ON the Mount. When that party is
formed it will sweep across this land, like a
tornado was going TO say, but when think
it is not to be devastation, but resuscitation,
change the figure and say, such a party as
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 dozen day all equipped and ready
for full sailing. Large lies and small lies.
Lies private and lies public and lies prurient.
Lies cut bias and lies cut diagonal Long
lmbed lies and lies with double-back action.
Lies complimentary and lies defanatory.
Lies that some people believe, and lies that
all the people believe. and lies that nobody
believes. Lies with humps ike 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. Crawling lies and
jumping lies and soaring lies. Lies with at
tachment screws and rufflers and braiders
ard ready wound bobbers. Lies by Chris
tian people who never lie except during cleo
tions, and lies by people who always lie but
beat themselves in Presidential campaign
| confess am ashamed to have foreigner
visit this country in such times. should
think he would stand dazed his hand on his
pocketbook, and dare not go out nights.
What will the hundreds of thousands of for
eigners who come here to live think of US?
What 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 l 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 food of indecency. The Christian re
ligiOn will speak after while. The billings
gate and low scandal through which we wade
every year or every IUur years,
buked by the religion which speaks from its
two great mountains from the one mount
ain informing the command: Thou shalt not
bear false witnesses against thy neighbour"
and from the other mount making plea for
kindness and love and blessing rather than
,ursing. Yes, We are going to have ma
iOnal religion.
There are two kinds of national religion.
The one is supported by the State, and is a /
natter of human politics, and it has great |
,Gtronage, and under 1t men VIII struggle for /
prominence without reference to quaEfca-
ions, and its archbishop is supported by a
alary of S75, 000 a year, and there are great
with all the machinery of music
nd canonicals, and room for a thousand peo-
,le vet an audience of fifty people or twenty
,eople or ten or two.
We want no such religion as that no such
rational religion; but we want this kind of
rational religion; the vast majority of the
PEOPLE converted and evangelical, and then /
hey will manage the secular well as the |
religious.
Do you say that this is irnpractieable2 No.
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 and shall He not
TO it? Hath He commanded and win He not
bring it to pass." The Christian religion is
coming to take possession OF every ballot DoI, !
Of every school house, of every home, of every |
valley, Of every mountain of every acre of |
our national domain. This nation, notwith- |
standing al the evil influences that are trying |
10 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 dark |
ness been so determined to win this continent /
Is they are now. What Jewel it is-a Jewel |
carved in relief, the cameo of this planeti /
On one side of us the Atlantic ocean, dividing |
is from the worn out governments of Europe |
On the other side the Pacific ocean, dividing |
Is from the supersntions of Asia. On the |
north OF us the Arctic sea. watch is the gym
laslum n which the explorers and navigatorS /
levelop their courage. A continent ten thou
and five hundred miles long, seventeen I
Million square miles, and all of it but |
bout one-seventh capable of rich culti-
-ation. Quo hundred millions of popula-
ion on this continent of North and South
America-one hundred millions, and room
or many hundred millions more. All fora
md all fauna, all metals and all precious
FOODS, and all grains and all fruits. The
Appalachian range the backbone, and the riv-
rs the gangla carrying life all through and
,ut to the extremities. Isthmus of Darien
he narrow waist of giant continent all TO
)e under one government, and all free and
III Christian, and the scene of ChrisU's per-
onal reign on earth if, according to the ex-
,ectatiOn of many good people he shall at
asst set up his throne in this world. Who
hall leave this hemisphere, Christ or Satan?
" no shall have the shore of her inland seas,
he silver of her Nevedas the gold of her Colo
ADDS, the telescopes of her obServatories the
'ra1n or her universities the wheat or her
)rairles, the rice of her Savannas the two /
,reat ocean beacheS-the one reaching from
3affin's bay to Terra del Fuego, and the
'ther from Behring straits to Cape Horn
md all the normal and temporal and spiritual
nd everlasting interests of a population
asst beyond all human computations Who !
hall have the hemisphere? You and | will
ecide that, or help to decide it by conscien-
ious vote, by earnest prayer, by maintenance
I Christian institutions, by support of great
bY putting BODY mind and
Oul on the right side of all moral, religious
nd national MOI ements.
All! it Will not be long before it will not
make any difference to you or 20 me what be-
ONES of this continent. so far as earthly COM
Ort is concerned. All we viii want of it will
e seven feet by three, and that will take in
he largest, and there viii be room and to
pare. That is all of this t, .ntry we will need
cry sooR-the youngest of rs But ne have
n anxiety about the welfare and the happi-
ess of the generations that are coming ON,
nd it will be grand thing if, when the arch
ngeis trumpet sounds, we find that our sep
lcher, like the one Joseph of Arimathea pro-
ided for Christ, is in the midst of a garden
One of the seven wonders of the world was
he white marble watch tower of Pharos Of
Egypt. Sostratus, the architect and sculptor.
fter building that watch tower cut his name
n 1t. Then he covered it with plastering
nd to please the King he put the monarch's
anne on the outside of the plastering: and
he storms beat, and the seas dashed in their
1ry, and they washed off the plastering and
hey washed it out, and they washed it
own, but the name of Sostratus was deep
Ut In the lmperishable rock. So across the
ace OF this nation there have been a great
many names written, across our finances,
cross our religions, names worthy
I remembrance, names written on the
rchltecture of orr churches and Our