The Progress., 1893-10-14

Their Destiny Hangs In the Balance.
NEW YORK, Oct S.-The new series
of sermons on Tho Coming Revolu-
ton" was continued this morningin As
sociation hall by the Rev. Thomas Dix
on, Jr. The subject of the sermon for
today was 1.-The Blindness of the Class
es." He declared that in face of the fact
of worldwide discomfort and restless
ness among the masses most startling in
its character the strong and privileged
classes face the fact with blind adher-
ence to their traditional ideals. He main
tains that the conservative powers of
state by their aggravating course are
Fastening a revolution; that the pluto
cratic forces of socit ly with blind fatu-
ity are Fastening their own ruin, while
the church throws aside the scepter of
the world for the privilege of building
gilded ''steepled clubs" The text chosen
was from Isaiah i. 8, MY people doth
not consider"
REVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION.
We have seen in previous study that
the masses of the world are today in a
condition of restlessness that can but
indicate the approach of revolution.
Revolutions have been averted from vio-
lence in the history of nations and their
forces transformed into tlysvital work
of an evolution accomplishing the same
results. But this has only been done
when the powerful classes representing
the conservative elements of society
have shown the wisdom of recognizing
the approaching cataclysm and readjust
ing TO the situation.
1t is very rarely that class power can
maintain itself in the face of threatened
change. The trouble is, the moment
danger approaches, the threatened inter-
ests themselves seem smitten with the
blind determination to work their own
ruin.
Jerusalem of Old did not know the day
of her divine visitation. There was an
hour when the Saviour was nigh. Her
destiny hung in the balance. She turned
a deaf ear to him. And in her desola-
ton there was left not one stone upon
another. Such seems to be the history
of almost all established power.
TIE EXAMPLE OF JAMES II.
Macaulay says that James ii seemed
'''bent on running himself, and any at
tempt 10 stop him only made him rush
the more eagerly to his doom. When his
throne was secure, when his people were
submissive, when the most obsequious Of
parliaments was eager to anticipate all
his reasonable wishes, when foreign king
.doms and commonwealths paid emulous
court to him, when it depended only on
himself whether he would be the arbiter
of Christendom, he stopped to be the hire
ling of France. And when by series Of
crimes and follies he had succeeded in
alternating his neighbors, his subjects,
his soldiers, his sailors, his children, and
had left himself no refuge but the pro-
lection of France, he was taken with a
fit of pride and determined to assert his
independence. That help which, when
he did not want it, ne had accepted with
SYNONYMOUS tears, he, now when it was
indispensable to him, threw contemptu-
-ously away. He resented the friendly
intervention which might have saved
hi.n. Was ever king so used? Was no
a child or an idiot. that others must
think for him."
THE HANDWRITING on THE WALL.
Macaulay's inquiry as to James II
might well be repeated to the ruling
classes of the closing days of the nine
teenth century. Are they blind? Are
they idiots? Is it possible they cannot
see the handwriting on the walls of ev-
cry street in Christendom marking the
near approach of their supreme trial?
If so, they give no sign.
The conservative elements of society
have sometimes, however, changed their
positions most radically in an incredibly
short time when once reused to the mean
sng of the movements about them. We
read in history that in May, 1775, George
Washington on his way to congress met
the Rev. Jonathan Boucher in the mid
die of the Potomac. While their boats
paused the clergyman warned his friend
that the path on which he was entering
might lead to separation from England
IF you ever hear of my joining in any
such measure" said Washington, "you
havemy leave to put me down for every
thing wicked" At the beginning of
1916 Thomas Paine published his PAM
phlet Common Sense" A copy of it
reached Washington soon after tidings
that Norfolk had been burned Jan. u
by Lord Dunmore, as Falmouth (now
Portland) Me-, had been burned in Octo-
Der, 1775, by ships under Admiral
Graves. On Jan. 81 General Washing
ton wrote to Joseph Reed, "A few more
such flaming arguments as were exhib-
tied at Falmouth and Norfolk, added to
the sound doctrine and unanswerable
reasoning contained in the pamphlet
Common Sense will not leave numbers
at loss to decide upon the propriety of
separation"
Mr.. Edward Bellamy, in commenting
ON this historic fact, aptly says: There
were many men in the colonies who in
HIS saw far clearer than Washington
-.