St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-05-16
A Growing Religious Revolt
i Against Traditional
r Ideas.
The Work Of the Protestant
~ Orphan Home Out
' lined
And an Endorsement Fur
nished by Rev. Thomas
-.
McClary.

be happy. He may be possesSOr of pos.
sibilities that will render his future
one of promise; he may have domestic
prospects that will be of the most sat
isfying kind; and yet, lacking the one
vital principle of moral stamina, the
| keystone that makes the Whole arch of
| his life solid, he will lack the small
| thing as viewed by many, but still the
one object that makes his life sure
success. This is the theme that ran
through the mind of an interviewer on
| an occasion not necessarily recent, not
necessarily in this state, but in state
| that was obliged to hold certain men as
! its prisoners for breaking its laws; and
the case. though it may not be near
| enough for any person to fasten name
| and local history to the man, is true,
! both in outline and local fact.
Here then is man whose history fur
nisiIeS a case for our study. His local
| habitafion was i'll the central part Of
| the state of Illinois. and his life was
limited in such away that the conditions
in which he was envirOned gave him all
the enjoyment he needed or expected
for happiness. 1t is the portion of most
peOpleytO be restless. Having climbed
the mountain to get broad of view, they
are. only stimulated
TO See the Top;
having tasted OF fame, men are like the
warhOrSe that shifts the battle afar, and
are impatient for more attainm ent.
This boy, just beyond his majority,
found sense of happiness i'll the physl-
cal conditions of the landscape, and in
the local conditions Of the seasons
change. He found the intellectual pleas
ureS of the place of a kind that were in
many ways. attractive. The Grange
Debating society. with its pent-up fires
of elOquence, was the. place where he
learned that Ambition does not always
seek its servant in the gilded mansions
OF wealth, and here he learned that it
does seek the chamber of the gifted boy
in city or country. That she '1dOeS lift
the narrow window and come in That
narrow walls do expand, and that this
little place does become the place of his
dream, his name written in burning
letters On the scroll of hope. lie found
THAT here was feathered many an arrow
Yin the boys hand that was after awhile
to have longer flight. This boy was
happy in his narrow world, for it was
world that was filled with the germs OF
a life that, to say the least, was full
COT promise. .5s'2~i..i
: He found in. the pleasures.of this life
"a satisfying conditions 1neager though
they are. Ofeourse, as We grow wide
in our experiences we. lose the keen
iZest of enjoyment;Y and as. enJoyments
take a larger and yet Larger share OF
our time they grow more commonplace,
and we harder to please. As the life is
given more and more to pleasure it
wears us out with its reactions. and we
I, ! = 49, "A cynical Disposition. ~.
q But the youth whose common lot is
daily toll; TO whom pleasure is the re-
spite that only occasionally comes, finds
in the huSking, with It's ruder enjoy
ments for men of the wrestling match
or the lifting match, and its evening
parties, when youth gathered around
The very plaiirc room b.Yand sang
dramatic songs of the play, pc
culiar enjoyment. This boy entered
into all. His strong arms toiled by day
in the autumn harvest, cutting the
shocks of heavy corn or following the
drill in the wheat field, and then at
night he rode across the prairie and
gathered with the young people to sing
the peculiar songs in which the parties |
were actors. and recited the history of
some imaginary hero Or heroine. And
the one thing further it will tie neces-
sorry to say is that in this circle he found |
the answering affection to his love in
girl of noble character, pure life and |
brave heart; that he was happily mar |
ried: that he was placed in a position of |
trust: that he fell under temptation at |
a moment when it came with peculiar
force on account of needs; that he be-
came prisoner and heard the sentence
that pronounced him criminal, and.
as a result, was lost to home, friends,
wife and happiness.
Here we have arrived at the practical |
fact of most Importance; curiosity |
should not tempt us to ask for the par
ticular sin or the specific steps of the
downward march. Mercifully, we feel
that the man was unconscious of the
fact that his own sin dragged others in
the dirt; that flood OF tears must fall
III many places; that he was firing a
train Involving the many in ruin, and
the same spirit Of mercy let us believe
that the majority of such cases are pre-
scented by the men who are pictured in
the full vigor of youth and joyfulness,
blinded by Passion who stealthily walks
behind, and skilfully throws over their
eyes a film that completely closes them
to the true Significance of objects,
while with joy and song they hurry
away towards the precipice that seems
to wait
In Fiendish GIee
to betray their coming feet. Nowhere
is the fact of the blindness of infatua-
ton so remarkably told as by Tolstoi |
when he pictures Anna Karinena,
under the first flush of its influence,
walking proudly among her friends at
tile ball where fashion and rank out |
glitter gold-waking with conscious |
pride into the meshes of the net that |
held her in It's terrible grasp, but blind |
to the true condition, and blind to the |
awful catastrophe that at last awaited |
aier when the drama was ended. And |
athis fact is patent, but the problem for |
us is this-hOw can we save the young |
land strengthen the nature so as to pre- |
Jvent Calamity and preserve purity?
( do not think we can do it by the |
former methods of preaching saeri-
with its artificial theories
,of Providence and help. The world is
being filled with skepticS all the time,
and they are men driven away from re-
ligion because they revolt against ira
ditional ideas. Positively speaking. |
think the way of help is two-foId. 1t
may come through the influence of
moral precept. That moral precept may
,be grasped without any emotion and
held in a perfectly cool and Dloodless
way, and yet. so held. will serve a boy
The very assistance he needs. That is
plain morality, quality looked down
upon by many religious teachers--not
much in it, you say, with sheer try
it awhile and seel
But we do not stop here. The world
will be helped the most and the longest
by an emotional apprehension OF duty
that comes through our conscience.
which is the gateway for the light of
God. EmotionaIly unprecedented, moral
ity becomes religion; it then takes on
beauty; 1t is then clothed in the terms
of poetry. and brings music to its aid; it
then makes strong appeals to the inner