The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-04-21
RELIGIOUS.

E14G1OOS
Pulpit Review of Current Events by Rev. Thos.
Dixon, Jr., for Sunday, April Il, 1891.
THE NEED OF A MORE VIGOROUS AMERI-
CANIsM.
Rev. Thomas Dixon, Jr., pastor of the
Twenty-third street Baptist Church,
preceded his sermon this morning, at
Association Hall, by the following re-
view of current events:
The nation is one of the instruments
chosen of God through which the re-
demption of the race is to be wrought.
Our Bible is the literary record of Gods
dealings with a chosen nation through
centuries of trial and training. Nations
sin. Nations are punished. God
threatened to take way from the chosen
people, their divine inheritance and
"give it unto a nation bringing forth
the fruits thereof" He did take it
away. Heholds the nation responsible
for the development of national life as
the individual is held responsible for
the development of character. Men
reap what they SOW. Nations reap
what they SOW.
/ believe God has specially chosen
the American nation the outermost
limit to which the star of empire can
20 in its Western movement, cOmplet-
ing the cyclone of the ages. I believe
that He has chosen this nation to lead
the hosts of freedom and truth in the
last pitched battle with the wrongs,
traditions, superstitions, lies andiniqui-
ties of the Old World. We have been
specially favored in the past. We
have been watched and guided by a
Providence as miraculous as powerful.
We have survived the most terrible
war this earth ever saw since the morn
ing of creation-a fratricidal war at
that, and yet twenty-five years after
it's close we are again n people, with
one flag first in the hearts of all sec
tions, mightier in wealth, resources,
people and intelligence. A magnificent
destiny opens before us. Will we
prove equal to its opportunities Will
our patriotism and manhood be equal
to it's responsibilities
If so, it is about time the young ma
ton were weaned. We are about four
hundred years old. We cut our eye
teeth a little over a hundred years ago.
We have fought our mother a time or
two, made ugly faces at several of our
European cousins, and it is about time
we cut loose from the base of original
supply and asserted a distinct national
individuality.
ism.
1. We need it in society. The effort
of society swells to ape the decaying
so-called aristocracy of Europe should
be met with the emphatic contempt OF
every man who claims an ounce OF
American manhood. The ~so-called
leadersOf American society, who basely
roll in the dirt before a title stuck tc
some attenuated specimen of the miss,
ing link masquerading as a man, merit
the contempt they receive from the OBJ
ject of their worship, and the wither.
ing scorn of a free manhood and wo.
manhood. The American girl who
marries a foreign snob is a fool of such
unbelievable stupidity, as to deserve
little pity when she is kicked and
abused by the brute she calls my
Lord" The mother who sells her w
virgin daughter to the licentious EN-.
braces of a titled debauchee is meane1
than the procuress who sells for money
the virtue of another woman's child.
A spade is a spade. A diseased de,
bauchee is still a diseased debauchee,
though he does wear a checked suit, an
idiotic expression, a single-barrelled
eye-glass, and an attenuated title.
2. We need a more vigorous Ameri
canism in our education of the youth
of the nation. Every effort to Euro
peanize our public school system should
be resisted, as we would resist the as
sault of a foreign irOnclad in our har.
Dor. The bulwOrks of this nation are
free brains, free boys, free schools. II
our school system be destroyed, the
foundations of the Republic will surely
be shaken. We have foreign communi
| ties now in some of our States who not
only refuse to conform their methods
to the spirit of American inst buttons,
but with the fury and hatred of old