St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-21


a leaden and impervious SKY.
Social Value of Religion.
! Oh! children of men. clamoring for a
world, where man has rights and digni-
ty because he is a man, where power
and money are not the sole gods, and
| the sole masters, invoke religion, and
spread abroad over the face of the
earth faith III her teachings and obedi-
ence to her precepts. God reigns in the
Heavens, the father of all, and and the
judge of all. His incarnate Son. Christ
Jesus, is the Savior of all, who lest the
lOwliest be forgotten, was made so poor
that He was born in a stable, and in His
youth and early manhood was laborer
and a wage-earner. Build up on those
principles your social economy; how
changes the scene! Man, however mis-
cradle, is the brother of all other men,
in the eyes of the Master aud Father
of all men the peer of the po-
tentate and the millionaire He
has native dignity, which
none may with impunity degrade; he
has rights which none may violate. He
is dear to his God, SO that they who
would please God anr deserve praise
and reward for eternity, must be tender
| toward him and benefit him. Eternity !!
it awaits poor and rich, the outcaSt and
the prince, and the present life for all
unfods beneath the influence of Its
| promises and Its menaces.
The principles of religion will not al
ways he carried out in their plenaTy
! consequences even where they are rec
! ognzed and professed. Mans defective
nature will betray in itself by its prac-
| teal shortcomings. But this much is
always true, that they are the only
| principles which will allow healthful
social condition, and that just so far as
| they are adhered to. shall society ad-
vance toward perfection, while just so
far as they are denied aud set aside,
shall society decline toward its ruin.
Social Rights Secured by Religion.
| The principles of religion secure to
all men vital social rights, the recogni-
ton of which leads up at once to the
| solution OF the most complex social prob
lens. The individual man is not be-
! ing cast by chance upon the waves of
the world, to live or die as chance again
dictates. Nor is the earth with its treas
nres and gifts a vast field opened to
reckless competition. which the strong
| est and the widest may wrest TO his own
| purposes without regard to the needs of
his fellows. Each man is a child of
God, set upon earth with definite aim,
and receiving from God the right to
exist and to work out his destiny. All
social forms and conditions which de-
prive men, beyond their own fault, of
this right, are wrong in the eyes of
heaven, and should be altered. Labor
is the price of continued existence. ''ln
the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat
bread" God imposed labor on
man; but il was Gods provision
that labor be possible to all
men-labOr which shall give the daily
bread to themselves, and to the depend
| ent ones whose guardians nature consti-
| tuteS them. Nor could the Creator
| have intended that labor be so oppres-
sive and unremunerative as to degrade
men, sink them and their children into
| inhuman misery and suffering, making
! Impossible for them the attainment of
the destinies which the Creator has
marked out for them in time and in
eternity. Labor, if society is not per-
verted and false, will bring to the
laborer a reward that will permit him
to support himself and his family in
comfort and decency, BETTING their
| condition as rational, moral beings.
! This first law governing the relations
| Of men to men, of the poor to the
rich, and the weak to the
| strong, religion, and religion alone
| supplies. Private property is
allowed by God; it is needed for social
| peace and social progress. But in what
| soever hands it falls, and in whatsoever
| quantities, 1t is never an irresponsible
| possession. 1t never can obtain rights,
| which annul the first right of every man
sent into the world-the right to live as
rational moral being. God gave the
earth and the plentitude thereof to the
| children of men. However it may be
| partitioned off among them, enough
| must remain for the life of all; and
| when society is so constituted that some
| gather the whole earth and the plenti-
| tude thereof into their own hands, so
| that others must perish, having no room
! FOR their feet on its surface, and no sus-
tenance from its bosom for their bodies
| and souls. society is cast in wrong
| mOulGS and must be reformed.
Religion Secures Social Charity,
The principles of religion secure to
men the love, sincere and active, of
| their fellows. Love softens hearts,
loosens purses, extends rescuing hand
| toward the lowly, and breathes out
| blessednesS upon the sorrowing. Love
| accords all rights, and goes beyond
rights In its generous dealings. Love is
| the inspiration and the cement of we'll
| built social structure. Religion awakens
and preserves love. Each child of Adam
| is child of God, to be loved FOR Gods
| sake, even as we love God to be loved
il we would have God to love us. Each
| one is the brother of Christ, purchased
| iii blood on Calvary, the representative
| OF Christ, appointed toreceive the favors
| which we fain would bestow on Christ.
! The more miserable the man is,the less
| deserving in himself of our attention.
| the greater are his claims upon the love
which we should extend to him in Gods
n1mp vNnrlH foA xuith
love, warmed by its heat. lit up by its
| sunshine is world of peace and telc-
lty, OF Justice and mutual good will.
| The savage does not love map for Gods
sake; hence his delight is to murder his
| felloW-man, and even to feast Oh his
flesh. The Greek and the Roman had
culture; they were learned; they had
laws; they built magnificent cities.
| But they knew not divine love. One
fourth of the population enslaved the
! thIee-fOurthS, in servitude so dire that
an angry master had the legal right to
cast his mental in food to fattening
nshes. Philosophers hardened them
selves so as not to be moved at the sight
| OF human misery. The blood of glad
iators washed the sands of amphithe-
ators, whole imperial city looking on
| with delight. The masses lived for the
| pleasure and the service of the few,
| VINO, drunken with pride and besOtted
with sensuality, reigned as ferocious
beasts over the helpless and degraded
! millions.
The Social Question
was solved in Greece and Rome, as 1t
ever shall be solved where God is UNI
known and unloved. Christ came: the
breath of love went abroad into the
world, and the transformation began
| which FQCnltQd in Il
ChristendOm's civilization. Time was
needed to sink deeply into the minds
the strange doctrine of the common
fatherhood of God and of the universal
brotherhood of men. Nor was the les
son ever learned by all. or ever reduced
| to practice by all. But the fact is
luminous in history that the Christian