The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-09-21

lOE IHSldHCc, uds Datuldi llSdt W
hire labor for bis iron mills as cheaply
as he can. 8fr. Gould has the natural
right to use the millions he has gained
to crush q weaker rival just as Mr..
Gould's remote ancestor may have had
beright by strength Of arm and skill
in fighting to seize the family and
other possessions of a less robust neigh
Dor and beat out mis- brains with club.
Civilization, society and government
demand of every man the surrender Of
some of his natura; rights-the right
to take what he needs if he can get it,
to kill bis enemy, to 60 naked if he
finds it more comfortable or conven-
lent to do .so-and many others. AS
steadily as we are moving toward light
er governments and increasing liberty
and power of the people We are moving
toward further surrender Of natural
rights and further recognition Of what
may be called moral rights.
Christianity recognizes conditions
and governments, but its thought and
purpose are all for this moral right,
which we suspect is what Bishop
Thompson was driving at. BY "moral
right we mean the rights given a
man by character and purpose as op-
posed to the natural right of conquest,
possession and mastery by strong arm
or quick brain or good fortune. Christ
called to him the poor and weary and
heavy laden-the weaklings who have
fallen or been overcome and who under
the practical, pitiless laws fhuman ma
ture have norights or place. He tells US
that heaven is democracy of moral
right where only characterand purpose
are considered.
The human race is moving in that
direction in its process of evolution to
something higher and better. That
movement may be protracted through
centuries. The present indications are
that it will be much faster than that.
Whenever it may be, we do not think
any man who studies and thinks can
doubt that there will be time before
the end of this world when the gov
ernments, if they exist in any form,
will be of the simplest and easiest and
mere conveniences, when the moral
right will be fully recognized, when
poverty, war and all the grosser forms
of crime will be obliterated, when very
little attention will be given to creeds
and there will be community in worship
and purpose, with ambitions and di-
rections of energy very different from
now.
The old prophets msy have been in
spired directly by the Creator or they
may have thought out results from
what Il e; knew of the history and
saw of the tendency Of the race. Com
mon sense applying knowledge gives
foresight and is so closely akin to in
spiration that the mind Of the theolo-
gian is needed to define he difference.
They foresaw thousands of years ago
the time coming of which thinkers of
to-day can catch glimpses, the progress
toward which we can trace by reading
our histories. The millennium will
not need any miracle more than the
continuing miracle Of mans life and
IMPOSITION to bring it, and the human
lion and the human lamb will lie down
together, and peace and righteousness
will reign as surely as mankind con-
tinues to exist.
All the movements, big and little,
all the restless heavings and disturb
ances and outbursts Of advanced"
thought We see and hear, are symp-
toms, evidences, steps in this move
ment. Some OF them are foolish,
others in wrong directions. Most of
them have grains or germs of good and
much bad. We are like nearly blind
man stumbling through the darkness
in an unknown country toward faint
and distant light, making many mis-
steps, falling, reaching chasms from
which we have to turn to find the safe
way around.
It is the part of thinking men to
study all these things, to choose and
welcome and help the good and to
fight the bad and base and false, fear
lessly and faithfully. So can each of US
do his part toward the grand consum-
nation and fulfil the purpose Of his
being. The invisible insect which has
added but the weight Of his own body
to spray in coral reef has helped to
| build continent and has done what
| he was fashioned by Omnipotent power