Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-05-10

Have vou any doubt about the need OF
.,a lug" Cbr;stian religion to purify and
make decent American politics? Al
every yearly or quadrenni,all IS election We
have in This country great manufactures.
mannfactories of lies, and they are run
dav and night. aud they turn half
dozen a day all equipped aad ready fol
fnil SAILING. Large lies and small lies.
1;es nr;yote and lies public and lies
nrur;ent Lies cut bias and lies cut
diaoonnl. Long limbed lies and lies
WITH double buck action. Lies compli-
mentary and lies defamatory. Lies that
some neople believe, and lies that all
tho neople believe 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 stirgs like adders. Lies
raw and scalloped and panned and
stewed. Crawling lies and jumping lies
and soaring lies. Lies with attachment
screws and rufflers and braiders and
ready wound bobbers. Lies by Chris
tian people who never lie except during
elections, and lies by people who always
lie, but beat themselves in a presiden-
tial campaign.
| confess l am ashamed to have a
foreigner visit this country in such
times | should think he would stand
dazed, his hand on his pocket book.
and dare not go out ut nights. What
| will the hundreds of thousands of for
eigners who come here to live think of
us? What disgust they mnst have for
the land of their adoption! The only
good thing about it is, many of them
cannot understand the English Ian
guage. But suppose the German and
Italian and Swedish and French papers
trans late it all and peddle cut the in
fernal stuff to their subscribers.
| Nothing but Christianity will ever
stop such a food of iudecency. The
Christian religion will speak after a
while. The billingsgate and low scan
dal through which we wade every year
or every four years, must be rehuked by
that religion which speaks from its two
great mountains, from the one IN mountain
bear false witness against thy ncighbor,
and from the other mount making plea
for kindness and love aud blessing
rather than cursing. Yes. We are going
to have a national religion.
There are two kinds of national re-
ligion. The one is supported by the
State. and is matter of human politics.
, and it has great patronage, and under it
men will struggle for prominence with
out reference to qualifications, and its
archbishop is supported by - salary of
$50. O00a year, and there are great cathe-
drals. with all the machinery of music
and canonicals, and room for thousand
people, yet an audience of fifty people,
or twenty people, or ten or two.
We want no such religion rs that, no
such national religion-the vast major
ity ofthe people converted and evan
gelized, and then they will manage the
secular as we'll as the religious.
Do you say that this is impracticable?
No. The time is coming just as GER
tainly as there is God and this is His
book and that he has strength and hon
esty 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 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
school house, of every home, of every
valley, of every mountain, of every acre
of our national domain. This nation,
notwithstanding all the evil influences
that are trying to destroy it, is going to
live.
Never since, according to John Mil
ton, when Satan was hurled headlong
| flaming from the ethereal skies in hide
GUS ruin and combustion down." have
the powers of darkness been SO deter
mined to win this continent as they are
now. What a jewel it is-a jewel carved
in relief, the cameo of this planet! On
one side of us the Atlantic ocean, divid-
ing us from the worn out governments
of Europe. On the other side the Pnci-
tic ocean, dividing us from the super
stitutions 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, 100000 square miles,
and all Of it but about ene-seyenth cap
able of rich cultivation. One hundred
millions of population on this continent
Of North and South Anerica-one hun
dred millions, and room for many hun
dred millions more. All fora and all
fauna. all metals and all precious woods
and all grains and all fruits. The APP
palachian range the backbone, and the
rivers the ganglia carrying life all
through and out to the extremities
lsthmus of Darien, the narrow waist of
a giant continent, all to be under one
Government, and all free, and all Chris
tian, and the scene of Christ's personal
reign on earth if, according to the ex-
pectation of many good people, he shall
at last set up his throne in this world.
Who shall have this hemisphere. Christ
or Satan? Who shall have the shore of
her inland seas, the silver of her Neva-
das, the gold of her Colorados, the
telescopes of her observatories, the
brain of her universities. the wheat of
her prairies, the rice of her savannas,
the two great ocean beaches-the one
reaching from Battins bay to Terra del
Fuego,and the other from Behring straits
to Cape Horn--and all the moral and
temporal and spiritual and everlasting
interests of population vast beyond all
human computation? Who shall have
the hemisphere? You and will decide
that, or helu to decide it, by conscienti-
GUS vote. by earnest prayer, by main
tenance of Christian Institutions, by
support of great philanthropies, by put
ting body, mind, and soul on the right
side OF all moral, religious and national
All! it will not be long before it will
not make any difference to you or to me
what becomes of this continent. 81 for