St. Paul daily globe., 1890-12-29

harvest of succulcnt roots and trees
disputed to him by the animal creation.
while ignorance held him in check and
made him miserable. What was the
voice that spoke to this miserable
wretch and told him of the time
of better things? What instinct spurred
him on to fight for a cause that yet
inatiOn? What led HIM to see in the
oyerarchiDg heavens possible cause OF
things that were good and possible in
fluence to make men better? And what
gave him the picture Of future land
where mountains as the healing myrrh
should be, and like the gracious frank
incense the billowy hills, where ills
would cease and pains would be no more
forever? | can see no ans Wer to this save
that as soon as we find man we find the
irresistible tendency to seek improve
ment, and the utter inability to return
to animalism without struggle. Every
scientist has noticed this, and found in
the terribly unequal fight of the prim-
tive man, and in the fact that he re-
sisted his first proof that
he was endowed with special preroga-
tive. and
But leaving the primitive man and
at making nations, what do we find?
When Rome had lost her first moral
muscle, gained by hardy endurance and
sacrifice; when her homes no longer
had the fragrance Of the olden time /;
when the bridegroom no longer pres
ented the diStatT and, kneeling down.
made the new house the first object of
his interest, and the wife the only OBJ
ject of his love; when, weak and effemi-
Match gave himself to luxury and sold
his word for gold, If you will take the
trouble to read the history that has been
written of the times. you will say that
| one living then would have predicted
that the world could not escape animal
Ism. Why did it escape? Be
cause God was still in humanity,
could exile Him from His own world.
Or, take the England of hundred years
ago. when tradesman by day was trans
formed into highwayman by night;
when orders were posted IN London that
II man desired to close his house for a
month ana expected to find anything
when he returned, he must carry his
| goods TO some place designated, where
they could be watched. The change
came by gradual evolution. What
brought it? If our leading orthodox
minister were called to the leading or
thOdOX college to preach to the senior
class and should be invited to dinner
the night before ard get so booZy that
he felt the necessity of putting his head
under the pump in the morning to
bring him around, we should all be
properly scardaliZed. If our leading
preacher should write down in his diary
| that
He Played Cards
for given amount of money on Sun
day afternoon, aud then add serious
| fear expressed in language far from
choice, we should feel that he must give
an account of this conduct. Yet MIR.
| Knight has mentioned two instances of
this kind in the highest circles of min
isterial England century and little
I beyond from this time. When did this
| change come? When did the change
come over the thinking world of your
childhood, and what makes the church
| so different from that of forty years
ago? On this point am as thoroughly
| orthodox in my way as any priest that
ever knelt before shrine, or any
| preacher that ever shut himself up on a
June Sunday because he thought it
wicked to enjoy sunshine. be-
| lieve that men know the meaning of
| God is in the social world to-day, and
| will ever be there. l believe it is just
as impossible for the world to make
| more than temporary reversion as it is
| for water to run up hill. | believe that
| the American nation will sail On like a
| proud ship. If she has dangers before
the good sense of her people will teach
her how to solve them. If collisions
! threaten her she will by an aroused
moral Indignation hurl away the temp
| pie will stand up in their manhood, and
| the spirit of God will be with them, Her
common schools, iEStead of producing a
race of intellectual demons, as has been
suggested, will produce race of intelli-
| gent men and women who will try all
| things and separate wheat from chaff.