St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-12-03

sum bigger than my misty thought can
take hold Of About all l can do is to
take up what Claudius Lysius said, turn
ing it over into the passive voice. and
say: With great sum was obtained
for me this freedom, which with small
yearly tax thought was paying for"
More enphatically true is this of my
religion, which undergirds and holds the
social system, and which crowns what |
ever else is good with its aureole of light. |
Religion as embodied in church privileges |
enters more radically into community |
life than even school, or post Office, or
running water; and every one enjoying |
the same wishes to pay something to-
wards the cost thereof Now any person
of small means would, l am sure, be
made to feel comfortable in his seat in
any church of this village, whatever small
sum he might contribute. But suppose
his weekly offering be 10 cents; he may
be said then to occupy his sitting at So
year (Which is something above the
cost of a Music hall course ticket but
1O4 public services are open to him, be-
sides Sunday school, week day religious
or social gatherings, not to speak of
semi annual Fast day or Thanksgiving
as at this present. But here again, as in
case Of academy, the church has been
built and paid for, and the total revenues
OF any one year do not cover actual money
cost. These actual costs are sometimes
talked about as if they were considerable.
But it should be remem bered that even a
poor and a good-for-nothing religion
costs. In Isaiah's time the carpenter
had to encourage the goldsmith; and the
solder-man and hammerer had to take
hold with will, for their religion cost
| work and gold. | do not know the aver
| age cost of a heather mans religion, but
l saw just now something about an idol
in the East TT feet high, overlaid with
gold, from the crown to the 3-foot-long
toe, a regular ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The
Buddhism of Siam costs $25, 600
year. And always the grip of sleek
! priesthood is as tight on a money bag
as on bewildered conscience. Nor does
the cost of false religions cease with
| burial expenses, for-loOk yOu-what
enormous money must be disgorged to
| get the disembodied soul altogether dis
lodged from purgatory.
But | cannot talk any longer from this
low swamp where men calculate about
religion by its money cost, or think the
sending of it over to the heather a flnan-
cial bugbear. l must get up into clearer
air and of better tone Pray, where did
our religion come from ? and how came
we by it, and at what cost ? Have we
forgotten that it was paid forin age-long
installments-paidfo for in the weary exile
of the Pilgrims in the wretched anguish
ing of true hearts down in British dun
geons; in the strangling of Tynda1e for
giving us a Bible in English print; in the
sufferlngs of the martyrs at Smithfeld
stakes in the deadly determination of
the Netherlanders in the red streams of
| st. Bartholomew Eve and the whitening
bones of slaughtered saints on Alpine
| MtS. cold; IN the Subterranean tOrtur1ngS
OF the Spanish lnqu1s1tion; in the living
torches of Nero and the ten times crush
ing of the early church under the angry
stamp of Rome; in the pathetic strain of
life among the catacombs; in the martyr
dom of IL apostles; in the tragedy that
made earth yawn and the sun hide him
self over Golgotha. All this and much
more enters into the reckOnable cost of
religion. But even this does not express
the worth of it. That comes out in what
it does for man, what it can make of him
and of the race of man in this world and
in the next. Here we strike point. A
mani What is he worth WE'LL men say
that Vanderbilt is worth 5000, zoo, 900;
and there is Jones mot the senator) who
they say is not worth dollar yet l ven
ture to say that Jones, if he is as honest
as he is poor, is worth $1,000 in cash to
community. John M. Holcomb reckoning
on averages, makes out that any one
who earns $1,000 year will, from 80
years of age, make surplus earnings of
So, 900, which is rather stimulating to
the average man. Then again of an
other sort was Herman Kottinger, who
died last summer, worth, it was said, so
many thousands. But for Is years no
one dared approach his hut, so savage
had the fear of losing dollar make him.
How queer that expression was-Kottn,
ger worth SO much That is the mere
fu1d1ty and accommodatingness of Ian
guage; whereas, nothing in the world is
so unconscionably unaccommodating as
worth-the real thing-when you strike
upon it. Reed, you remember, couldn't
be made to accommodate King George
They reckoned him worth 10 900 guineas,
but the king wasn't rich enough to buy
him. And l think it will be fresh in your
remembrance how stubbornly, unaccom-
modating was Editor George Jones of
the New York Times to the Tweed Ring,
when Richard Conolley offered him
$5,OOO,OO to keep still-a bride which,
the editor remarked to Conolley, was
probably bigger than the devil would
ever offer him a second time. 1t has been
loosely and popularity passed around that
every man has his price, and without
doubt some are bought and sold as really
in their way as the old-time negro. But
| certify you, brethren, that there are
enough left, even in world that is flush
with ials1ty greed and shams-enough
left whose hOnOr1S above price, whOSei in
tegrity is incorruptible, to con-
stitute the salt of their generation, and
to make life worth living. For the con-
science of the few manages to get itself
like bit on the head of the bulky and
balky majority, insomuch that neither
presidential election nor town meeting
will in the long run allow dishonor seat
; at the front.
hot he IF
) answer that to the snuggest figure. He
is worth the amount of honor, capabi1ity
| and conscience he carries within him
t Both his own generation and all after
: ones will value him at that, and prize
r above price his contribution to the sum