The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1891-09-10
Five Gents.

pusillanimOus and Self.SatiSfed sanctuary
religion.
The church primarily exists for the soul;
its first and chief aim is the supernatural
lite and the future world If comparison
be instituted between heaven and earth she
promptly decides in favor of the former,
and if there is menace of conflict between
the one and the other, she hesitates not to
repeat: what doth it profit man to gain
the whole world. and lose his own sOul?"
But it is yet the truth that she cannot for
get this present life, nor omit to labor for
its betterment. She is the offspring and the
representative of the Lord who made earth
and heaven. whose gift to men this present
life is, no less than the future. God made
the world in love- and in love He preserves
it. And are we to imagine that it is not Gods
will that all hidden sources of happiness be
revealed, and the pOtencieS of His creation
be actualized? 1t is. most assuredly, doing
Gods will and honoring him in His works,
to make earth TEEN with favors for men, to
spread the smile of love over its cOunte-
nance. to advance men to the fullness of
their manhood, and grant them to rejoice in
the possession of Gods gift.
There is room on Gods earth for all of
Gods children; it is charity genuine and di-
vine to fit each one for his place and guard
for his place against inrOads of unjust Op-
preston on the part of his fellow beings.
In his book on Darkest England Will.
lam Booth tells of the ''Submerged Tenth"
of the population of London. They are the
Lost" the "Outcast," the "Disnherted
of the World" ''who have gone under,
who have lost their foothOld in society, to
whom the prayer of our Heavenly Father
Give us this day our daily bread'-is
either unfulflled or only fulfilled by the
DEVILS agency: by the earnings of vice, the
proceeds of crime. Or the contribution en-
forced by the threat of law" In every city
of the world there are the Lost" the
''Disinherited," in numbers greater or
smaller. Is there use in preaching the gOs-
pei to those victims of misery, until they
have been socially lifted up to the plane of
normal humanity, where men are masters
of mind and heart? Preaching the gospel
to them in their degradation and misery is,
beating idly the air. Calm first the cravings
of hunger; an empty stomach is an impa.
tient hearer. Let into the garret sunlight
and wholesome air before you strive to dis.
pei spiritual gloom, and give freshness to
the soul. Lock up those kennels of vice,
of drunkenness and of moral corruption,
into whose yawning gateways the young
man and the young woman are being swept
as by fierce torrent, without knowledge or
strength on their part to offer resistance;
this done. you may whisper to them the in
vitation to be sober and pure, and to turn
their eyes toward the sky There are legons
of human beings damned from their very
birth, because of the fetid atmosphere they
are made to breathe and the atrOciouS temp
tatiOns from which they cannot wrest them.
selves. Very little many of us know of the
fearful strugglings, and the dismal sorrows of
tens of thousands of fellow beings. Loung-
ing in cOzy parlors, we sigh over the deprav-
ity of the ''LOst;" kneeing in cusiOned pews
we thank God that we are among the saved,
or we utter prayer for the conversion of
the sinner. and we deem our saving work
over. Our charity, our zeal. am afraid is
a mockery. Our vaunted civilizatiOn-our
Christianity. such as it too frequently comes
to the surface-is selfshness, drape it as we
may in robes of culture and religion. True
zeal for the spiritual good of the masses
will bring us outside our homes and our
churches into the broad social world. where
with all our might we shall labor for healthy
legislation, bearing upon the ills of the vi
cious and the poor. for the stirring up of
consciences in the high and the lOwly. for
the protection of the weak, the humanizing
of the ''Disinherited." and the social saliva
ton of the fallen and the falling. Then.
may we believe that our work for spiritual
regeneration shall be fruitful.