Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-28
WRITTEN FOR THE n1sp.reuI

back. You take your own part, and pound
him well unless he is bigger than you are.
You've got to learn to stand up for your
self in this world, and we do not want any
show OF theswhite.feather around this house.
| JoHNNIE's UNHAPPY PREDICAMENT.
| This was the home teaching of the good
Christian father, who sat up very solemnly
and decorously in the head of the pew every
Sunday and listened to the sermon on the
mount and the gospel of love and non-re-
sistance. Then Johnnie at Sunday school
was taught that when anybody should
smite him on one cheek he should turn the
other for q second slap, and that he should
not resist evil, but should submit to having
his coat captured, his sled stolen,
and to have other abuses and
| indignities heaped upon him, and
should then love and pray for those who so
| despitefully used him. Johnnie-between
the church teachings and the home instruc-
tion of precept and mple-islikely to be-
come somewhat muddled in his mind on the
subject, but his nature inclines him to fight,
and ego for his enemies when they attack
him, and he forgcts all about the law and
the prophets, while the sermons are only
part of the Sunday programme, and 60 for
nothing through the week.
But there is a vast difference between doc
trines and doings, even as the history of the
church itself plainly shows. Love thy
neighbor as thyself has been preached as
great commandment for thousands Of years,
while 'loye your enemies, resist not evil,
submit to indignity and insult are the founda-
tion stones of Christianity, and yet the
church has often been lead by inscriptions
or misguided leaders into resisting evil with
all its might and main. And often it has
followed its enemies with relentless persecu-
ton.
SOMEWHAT INCONSISTENT.
In the past it has tortured and burned
and martyred heretics wholesale and retail.
1t has given sanction to battle and murder
and sudden death where its opponents were
concerned. Even in these days of boasted
| tolerance the church does not in all instances
| love its enemies, bat sometimes ISLANDERS,
abuses, and despitefully uses them. Some
sections of the church have justified civil
war and sectional slavery. So-called pa
| triotism in the pulpit counseled no love TO
| enemies, but rather melted men to march to
the field and kill them. Men sworn to
preach and uphold the gospel of peace and
non-resistance to evil deserted their desks,
and showed the incompatibiliIy between
| doctrine and practice upon the field of bat
| tie, where brothers and neighbors and
countrymen were in deadly array against
each other.
History and experience both show that
however much such law and doctrine may
be professed, the practice is overwhelmingly
on the other side. The rule of human nature
as to enemies seems to be to "get even" if
you can't get on top. 1t is the saying of a
famous philosopher, "That man should
take care above all things 20 have q
due respect for himself" and certainly,
as the world goes, no man could really
respect himself. if he placidly submitted to
being bulldozed out Of his coat, and then re-
warded the robber by giving him his cloak
also, or who was so silly as to lend money to
anyons who wanted it for the asking and
without good security. The general idea is
that while the doctrine is good, it is impos-
sible in practice.
MUCH TO DO YET.
The world is still long way off from the
point when man will love his neighbor as
himself. Carlyle says "a mystic bond of
brotherhood makes all men one," and there
is much talk of the brotherhood of man."
but how little of it is really felt is shown by
the antagonism between men of different
nationalities. Americans hate and detest
the Chinese and debar them from the coun-
try. They have a contempt for foreigners
generally, and maniiestly do not believe
that the command to love thy neighbor as
thyself includes Italians and Huns and
Poles and others. The Irish abhor the En-
glish, and will never, it is to be feared,
learn to love their neighbors as themselves.
In this country, by the protection policy,
we show the world that the doctrine of love
to man has as little standing in trade as has
the Golden Rule in politics. Love thy
neighbor as thyself does not apply to
strangers that are without our gates. Our
laws may bring bankruptcy, ruin, stsrya-
ton, and misery to national neighbors, but
of course everybody must look out for
number one. That is not Gospel doctrine,
but it is the worlds doctrine, as shown in
business and commercial intercourse.
IN SOCIETY AND CHURCH.
But to come down to immediate neigh
bors. Is the command any more fulfilled in
a neighborhood or even in church? Some
church members with full knowledge of the
command, regard their neighbors in other
pews with contempt. They say mean things
about them. They do not consider them as
equals, and will not visit them. or even
speak to them. Those in high position, or
possessed of great wealth, grow very exclu-
sive and look down in disdain upon the |
neighbors they have left behind in the race |
for money. Everyone loves good neigh |
as calamity. How can anyone love a |
neighbor when that neighbor is cross |
grained, quarrelsome and full of meanness? |
The question is asked what is a good |
neighbor, and the answers will come to |
everybody's mind. A good neighbor is one |
who possesses the qualities of friend, who |
is kindly disposed, eager to do good turns,
cordial in manners. sympathetic in trouble, |
and who is not given to meddling or evil |
speaking. How neighborhoods are so con-
structed appears to be a mystery that no one |
can fathom, but true it is, that there is |
always one or more of'the kind that knows |
everybody's business. They gossip about |
all their neighbour shortcomings. Most |
people who live in city or town know
the neighbor who runs in the back way in |
order to be sociable, who cross questions the |
girl over the back fence for news, who is /
everlastingly borrowing, and whose time is
almost wholly given up to finding out the |
inwardness of the affairs of the neighbor-
hood.
THE MIscHIEF-MAKER.
Then there is nearly always o mischief
maker to be found whose solace and salts
faction in life consists in making trouble
between good friends. This last sort of a
neighbor generally manages to keep on the
good side OF the men, whom she fatters snd
bamboozles into believing that she is q
"mighry fine woman" and that the other
women, who see through her and dislike
her, are simply jealous of her taking ways.
Shakespeare shows up such neighbors
strongly in Measure for Measure:'
NO might nor greatness In mortality j