Mexico weekly ledger., 1892-03-17
MEXICO, MISSOURI, THURSDAY, MARCH II, 1892.
Holding Well to Anchor.

Don't be paradoxlcal or extreme
ly liberal, my boy, just for the sake
of appearing smart. Because some
great thinkers have so filled their
souls with the intellectual that there
was small room for the spiritual,
don't imagine that to ape them is to
be great. Every animal has some
MISREPRESENTATION, gray mat
ter, convolutions and all; but no
creature but man is spiritual. 1t is
never said of God in Revelation that
He is an intelligence. He is, of
course, but we can not approach
Him in that way. 1t is said that
He is spirit. The A B C's of
spirituality are closer to God than
the diplomas of intelligence. "What
do you know of God2" sneered a
London skeptic to humble labor
er. II am acquainted with Him, ,"
was the quick reply We think we
know much of Newton through his
works and his grand conceptions,
but in the true life of his love, his
little dog, Diamond, knew more
than we ever can.
am not disparaging intelligence.
Its acquisition is duty just as we
dam the stream or fire the boiler,
but where to guide the stream or
when to open the throttle-that is
the question. knowledge is pow
er''-but who outside of Heaven
knows more than Satan? The Johns
town reservoir was a terrible thing
out Of its limits.
Don't be too broad -gauged, my
boy-too anxious to throw off the
"shackles and fetters of the past. "
After all, we owe the past trifie.
1t is the lower rung of the ladder.
We made our railroads six or seven
feet wide at first, but now all are OF
standard, narrower gauge. There
is limit. Emancipation has done
, wonders for the world, but it has its
: bounds. The same principle that
!; freed the serf and formed the Bill OF
t Rights, if pressed too far would
nullify all restraint. !" Liberty
t gentlemen, is dangerous thing!''
l said Orville Dewey 80 years ago.
We are finding that out now. No
one clamors louder about liberty
and the tyranny of the law than the
! anarchist and the lottery adherent,
The burglar behind the bars thinks
5 restraint an awful thing. Old John
= Trumbull has the idea that
mo thief 'er felt the halter draw
With good opinion of the law
1t is quite the thing now to sneel
at Puritanism and laud the broades
tolerance. But Puritanism has
I founded one great nation and re
formed another. Liberalism ha.
d dragged third in the dust. Greece
: did not fall while Spartan virtue
v prevailed, and Israel could beat the
conqueror back as long as she was
true to her Mosaic code. We art
''~sa in the midst of restraint. There
~ f.thas far" from Adam t.
mas oeeh a ID who conforms
US he lives pea> You cal
| best to his environment. -
go over the precipice if you Wis
you can walk into the river if you
will, you can stray from the way if
you care, but he is safest who avoids
the dangerous places. He who
lived the best life said the way of
Isafety was a narrow one.
| 1t has been said of Emerson that
he soon grew too broad for the Con-
gregational Church and went to the
Unitarian; soon he was too broad
for that and became Deist and
then he began broadening into in
fidelity. Beecher broadened and
broadened, cutting anchor after
anchor till he had little left but a
a desire for notoriety. Lyman Alb
bot, his successor, the author of that
sweet-toned commentary on St.
John, is iberalizing to-day almost
into the ranks of Ingersollism.
You can be so tolerant on temper
ance that the saloon keeper will
claim you as his own; so broad on
Sabbath observance that the beer
gardener will smile as you pass; so
liberal on legal restraints that the an
archists will take you by the hand.
Satan must rub his hands with glee
when he can persuade a soul that it
is a grand thing to be extremely
liberal