St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-17
IT'S RED WITH BLOOD
The Pathway Which Leads to
the Goal Of Human Hap
piness.
Rev. w. S. Vail Delivers a Re-
markable and Eloquent
Sermon.
"Mental Liberty, Its Conflicts
and Triumphs," the Basis
of the Discourse.
Lessons Taught by the Re-
cent Outrages on Rus
sian ExileS.

cent Outrages on Rus
sian Exiles.
"Mental Liberty: Its Conflicts and
Triumphs."
The words quoted formed the basis of
an eloquent and deeply interesting SER
mon, delivered yesterday morning by
Rev. w. S. Vail before the members of
the First Universalist church. A care
fully prepared synopsis reads:
The recent outrages in Russia. show
ing the tyranny of the empire, the un-
dying spirit of the people, should fur
nish US with fresh food for thought on
the old topic of mental liberty. The
history of the remOteSt nation SHOWS
that there are universal ideas lying at
the heart of every people, and that they
are much alike as they rise in the scale
of intelligence. So we find along the
line OF national development the
blackened ashes from the martyrs
stake, the remains of the gibbet where
genius seeking for liberty was hanged;
and we pick up the songs of liberty's
poets, the sentiments of her orators, the
signs of struggle and victory. And the
strange thing about it all is that no mat
ter how red with blood the pathway
may be, no matter how severe the pains
of the battle, the martyrs are always
ready. In the days just gone we have
seen in the martyrs of Russian tyranny
The same sentiment of conviction, an
endurance and principle that we saw III
the olden times when the manacled
Christian heard the cry: ITO the lions,
to the lions" These people saw the
truth that all men are endowed with
the privilege
OF Life and Liberty,
the possession of ideas independent of
the teaching of other men; with free
thought, free speech and the free use of
every principle that does not conflict
with the right of some other man. Gov
eminent, church and social habit have
all arrayed themselves against this.
Could you therefore expect the idea to
grow? Would you not rather say,
"When the pine shall grow to its largest
size in the polar regions; when the
Gus leaf and flower in Labrador; when
the hungry lion shall lie to have the
rabbit dance hornpipe on his side;
when lambs make eagles scream with
fright, then we shall feel that in
the midst of a nation where educa-
ton is throttled we expect to find the
growth of manhood, independence and
liberty" But in the midst of the very
strongest government we hear the
strong demand for the rights
of man, we see once more the
martyrs cross. Our first conclusion is
that when men have been emancipated
by truth, they defy power and the worst
that power can do. In cur own land
and time we are in danger of nearly the
opposite condition. Long prosperity,
the emergence from the storms of war
practically unscathed, the rapid devel-
opment of the nation, all these things
make us feel that anything is possible in
our day. Therefore we indulge the
widest hopes. But from the old world
we have imported ideas born under very
different conditions, yet suggested as
too practical for us. The outspoken So
clalist, who accepts the theory in all its
details, is not destined to do great harm
nor to have much following; but aside
from him comes a
Long Line of Men
like Henry George and Edward Bellamy
men of culture and heart-men who
seem to be in deep earnest in their
movements. Their books are read by
thousands; germs of thought are
planted in many minds. The murmur
of discomfort is heard all over the
country, sometimes rising like that ON
inOus wall of the sea that breaks the
still air before coming storm. 1t is
plain to be seen that only one thing will
ever satisfy men and make them feel
willing to bear their burdens without
f1inching, and that is the sense OF just
ice and fair chance. When man
gets a sense of the liberty that belongs
to true manhood he can only he satisfied
with manly treatment. MIR. Atkinson
seems to think that all that is necessary
for man in these times IS to be able to
buy
An Eight-Dollar Suit
and an Atkinson cooker; but this is the
wrong end of the problem, good as the
advice may be. What is it that makes
it easy for the boy to kneel in the rife
pit at the command of his officer? A
belief in that mans sympathy. What
made the soldiers of Napoleon smile and
shout his name as they went down in
the waters? Belief in his sympathy.
And, believe me, the worthy man who
does not have the sense of accumulation
only wants to feel in his more fortunate
brother the consciousness of common
feeling of humanity to be his most faith
full ally. We must watch the tendency
of liberty to become license; we must
warn off the Jewelers. who refuse to see
the distinctions which nature has made,
but we must still remember that all at
tempts to put anything in the
Place of Humanity
will ever prove failure. A man built
an expensive church in summer resort
the other day. He chartered a car and
carried to the place choir. the boast of
New York, and which he pays fabu-
lous sum. And yet that mans fortune
is built on the wreck hundred men,
simply because he lived in an age which
has been full of special and class legis-
lation, and has singular inclination TO
worship the golden calf. And what is
this agitation in Concord? The people
are trying to establish a blue-blood arts
tocraey. They propose to get up So
cial union of the select throughout the
state. They had better take the little
children from the mills of Manchester
and put them in school; they had better
abolish the system of making the cor
poration the voting power to express
the minds of all it's employees, and when
they have done this and several other
things they may then talk about social
faction including all the finest"
In New York respectable woman
was recently put out of
Fashionable Church,
and when the janitor was interviewed
he said they did not want people who
were unable to pay less than $500 year
for a pew; so when ordinary people
came in he simply told them they could
not stay. Yet in that city women are
obliged to make shirts at 20 cents
dozen, neglect is driving hundreds to
drink and shame. 10000 children could
not get admission to the schools. and
what in all this time are the churches
doing? Trying to see how many rich
men they can get; trying to see how
they can get the rich and weed
out the middle class as they are able to