The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-11-27

Shall we, with others, seek her origin
in the pulpit Of John Knox in Edin.
burgh? Shall VIC, with the great Ger.
man historian, declare that John Calvin
in Geneva was tho virtual founder OF
the United States OF American Were
tho roots OF our nationality fastened, as
many believe, in tho soil OF
Nlarston Moor. where Cornwalls
Ironsidcs broke in pieces the
army OF King Charles? Or shall
VIC not rather look back OF all these, 10
the holy fields OF the Old and Now Tesla.
mcnts, which tho sixteenth century
opened up again to mankind? We may
say, with truth, that free America was
in the Bible" From the Bible cane
many OF the strongest impulses that
colonized these shores. From tho Bible
came simpler forms OF scli.govcrnment
In town and church, that have gone
with our civilization in Its westward
march.
Hence came the observance OF tho
Lords day, the bulwark OF our freedom,
and hence the teaching OF Biblical truth
TO the young, which Daniel Webster dc.
clarcd, "has done more to preserve our
liberties than grave statesmen and arm
ed soldiers" Hence came our public
schools, and the long line Of Christian
colleges that stretch from tho clms OF
Harvard and Dartmouth on to tho
shores OF tho Pacific coast. Hence
came also the separation OF church and
state, and that principle OF liberty
which Roger Williams learned from
Him, who said: "My Kingdom is not OF
this world" From the Bible came, rs
Edward Everett declared, "the elements
OF our national institutions" 1t was
m echo from the Scriptures which
Thomas Jefferson sounded in tho great
Declaration. From the Bible came the
moral forces that carried through our
first revolution, and which have with
stood the wastings OF corruption in sue
ceeding years. From the same source
have sprung the moral reformatiors
that have preserved
OUR NATIONALITY AND OUR FREEDOM.
The American republic is OF heavenly
birth. Its fountain, at least, is far up
among the shining hills OF God. Re-
mcmbcring the origin OF our national.
ity, and recalling what precious inter-
ests and celestial truths it enshrines, we
should not doubt its continuance. But
it must meet the new pcrils, US it met
and conquered tho old.
A few years ago Archdeacon Farrar,
in the Academy OF Music, PHILADELPHIA,
gave lecture to an immense audience,
entitled. Farewell Thoughts on Amer
ica." Speaking OF the tremendous
burden OF responsibilities resting on
tho nation, he said it was ito combine
the old and the new, the past and tho
future; to lead the nations OF the world
in the path OF temperance, as We have
led you to the paths OF emancipation !;
to be the torch bearers OF our tagging
moral consciences, and by judicious
laws to help us and all the world to get
rid OF that evil OF intemperance, the
miseries from which, Mr.. Gladstone
said, are greater than war, famine and
pestilence combined; to establish q
pure and righteous press; to ncutralize
the evil done by the recitation OF every
petty detail oil vice and crime all over
the world; it is to heal the Unsuitable
greed for paltry and intrusive person
alitics; to guard the ideal OF true free
dom and see tina. this free people must
take heed that it does not confound
freedom with license. nor with the
passion oil the noisiest, nor with free
dom to do wrong unpublished; and to
keep due equilibrium between liberty
and advance"
We hope, therefore, that the whole tone
OF these red letter Thanksgiving days,
will be to school us back little way into
the deep facts OF our case, TO give us a
tingling sense OF the true grounds OF ma
tional strength, and make us feel in the
innermost OF hearts that what vigilance
and self-oHcring have been the only
means OF procuring in the past, only
vigilance and self-ollering will be COM
pctentto maintain in the present, and
bcqueath to the future.
What now OF the future? This puts
us beneath the spell OF our third inspir-
alton. The great God over us; the
valiant and sacriiicial past behind us
the untravclcl years and the unborn
generations forward OF us. We stand
together to-day not far from the thresh-
old OF the twentieth century. We can
almost feel the passing away OF the old
and the incoming OF the new. We
seem to ourselves to be at point be-
tween two contiguous seas, where we
can hear the murmur of the tide rs it
rolls its Gagged and crumpled waters
through the connecting straits. We be-
come sensible OF the very spirit of mo-
ton with which all is interiused. 1t is
in way, like the experience once
gained in looking through fine tcle-
scope. The glass was turned to par
ticular part OF the heavens, and was
directed to look through it, before the
observer in charge had set in motion
the machinery that was to neutralize
the earth's motion on its own axis, so
as to keep the glass steadily pointed
to one particular star. l looked
through the glass, and saw the
stars scuddine past like mcteors in 4
November star.shower. 1t seemed al
most rs though could feel the earth
move. 1sccmed to come for an instant
into communication with the great
spirit OF all motion as it pervades the
earth and the heavens. And, my hear
crs, there is certain thrill akin to this
that comes from the passage into 4 new
century of national life. Wo feel how
instinct with movement everything is.
In Imagination we see the push OF the
past breaking forth into the ago to
come. We catch swift, iull glimpse OF
history upon its march.
There is something appalling in the
presentiment we gain OF tho
NATIONAL IMMENSELY OF OUR COUNTRY,
in what it promises, md in what il
threatens. tits asingular experience,
hardly to be imagined by one who has