The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1893-03-11

. 1
God has Led and leads today this great
republic Of ours. Wen may we build
monuments to its real founders. No
man can enter the city of Washington
and see that cleaning spire Of glittering
marble as it flashes in the sunlight and
/ lifts its silver crest higher than any
monument ever built to man on this
earth and not feel that back Of its lofti
ness, its simplicity, its grandeur, there
is a deep, divine meaning; that the
man whose character it symbolizes was
worthy of such a monument. No man
who studies history can doubt that the
name of such a man will grow rather
than diminish with the process Of the
suns.
What are the elements Of the adtiOn Of
the future fOreshddOlced IN these tcOrdS
Of the prophet2
The prophet, while he thus spoke of Is
rael, had in view a wider kingdom,
wider empire, that should go through all
ages and times, and that should endure
forever. While one nation should rise
and another should fall, and God should
call one to account and weigh it in the
balance and throw it on the dust heap of
the ages out of some obscure race, he
would call another and lead it on and up.
But what are the elements sketched here
in this nation of which Isaiah dreamed?
A RIGHTEOUS NATION.
First-It must be born of righteous
ness. That is what Isaiah had in mind
when he said: open the gates, clear the
track Of history, that the righteous nation
may enter in Let thoss that have dealt
unrighteously die" The nation that is
to be born must be born of righteous
parentage. Our nation was born in
| righteousness. Thank God for its his
/ tory a distinguished infdel has said
| that God had nothing to do with this
| country. He never told a bigger lie
/ The history Of this nation is the history
of the providence of God, and the men
who founded it were righteous men.
Whatever they may have professed to
| the world, they were men who had in
their souls deep and abiding sense Of
reverence for the eternal God, and in
their declaration of independence, in
their public documents, is written that
faith, for they closed with prayers to the
providence of God for guidance and di-
rection and left in his hands the nation
that they were about to launch. They
| rebelled against their government in the
name of God-the God of liberty and
justice and honor.
They rebelled against the power of
England because she had so acted as to
give them the right primal to say: II
will not bow to unrighteousness. will
have fairness or ! will have war" There
are some things worse than rebellion
1t is peace with dishonor. 1t is the deg
radiation of a servile race that has no
power within to say, This is right, this
is wrong, and ] stand and die for the
right" Our fathers were men who could
see the difference between right and
wrong, justice and injustice, honor and
dishonor, and though they turned against
the flag they had sworn to protect they
turned against it in the name of the God
of righteousness. Nations are born thus
This nation was born in righteousness.
The man who says the Ten Command
ments and the Mosaic law are out of date
is out of date himself
A PATERNAL GOVERNMENT.
Second-Another element here sketch
ed by the prophet is that the ideal ma
ton shall be strong. believe in strong
government. Men say the true theory
of government is laissez faire-the less !
government the better. | know there
have been distinguished philosophers
-ha ho+ fhnnrxr
mean by government a tyranny that
FORCES chains, | agree with you, but il
you mean by government the communi- /
ty issuing the DEGREES of its own right |
eous attainment, then you have the true |
idea of what real government is. The.
government of this hation is becoming |
stronger.
Our fathers built loosely constructed |
federation of states, and then there came |
an hour when men said, I'VE are group |
of Independent sovereignties; we make |
laws for ourselves" And South Caro- |
lima seeded, and Massachusetts, threat |
ened to- When that happened, you came |
together on the battlefield, and you laid |
down on the altar of your country the |
lives of 100000 heroes, and with their
blood you wrote a new charter for a new /
nation that should know no little sover-
eighties within its borders, but that
from ocean to ocean and from frozen |
north to the open seas of the south
should float but one fag-the symbol of
one people, with a mighty central power
at Washington that should issue its de ].
crees and have the power supreme to en-
force them. Iaccept Appomattox. There
the nation was born again-a new ma
ton, a nation of inherent, central power,
centralized at the capital Of the nation.
Your old idea of local self government
went down in Appomattox never to rise
again, and a nation strong and mighty is
the result.
s. As our nation has grown it has grown
in its necessities for that stronger gov
eminent 1t is useless to talk about
what our ancestors had and used and