The Washington times., 1894-05-13
Lay Sermons FOR
Sunday Reading

into our Constitution, and one antiquarian
sertion OF the Bible and the Saviour, and it is
not unlikely would have ended in adorning
that business compact with an Illuminated
text of some OF DR.. Watts hymns. 1t is quite
possible that Mr.. Thomas Jefferson and his
confreres had a clear idea that they could best
serve God by doing all in their power for the
benefit OF man. AT that time in our early his
were in earnest about it. They still had faith,
and took the statement from the Bible that
| God made man in His own image Us u fact,
and therefore naturally inferred that such
| government as would confer upon man the
liberty OF conscience and the pursuit Of hap
piness in his own way was the highest service
that man could render to Him who has many
names, but no name for all Of mankind.
Household notices have rather gone by as
means OF wall decoration, but instead OF the
insertion OF the name we commonly make
use OF in swearing 40 do our duty and our
whole duty" into the body Of our Constltu-
tion, we would suggest the adoption In both
houses OF Congress of this handwriting on
the wall on all sides, SO that a retreat to
cloakroom and committee room would make
1t impossible TO put it out Of sight, land
God made man in HIS own image"
'.Inasmuch as ye have done 1t unto one OF
the least OF these ye have done it unto me.
Had this been done during some former ses-
sion OF this honorable body, it might have
saved the far greater portion of the present
members from the phantom g!immer OF the
Handwriting" that appeared on the wall OF
the banquet room of the Assyrian king:
''Thou art weighed in the balances and art
found wanting"
That man only believes in God who believes
in the attributes OF God, mercy and justice,
and any believer in God, called by any name
he chooses; any man who has been elected
by the people TO represent them in Congress
who does not realize that he, by accepting
that position, has become "his brothers
keeper" in a special sense and that every
man within the broad lines OF this country Is
.'his brother" may well write Cain as an
annex to his titular NJ. C.
1t is likely that Nero was a good fiddler,
and if he had no steam fire engines to order
out he perhaps did well to while away the
hours t,inefuiiy while Rome burned. The
fact is that the gentleman has been much
abused; he was leader of the finer grade Of
society in his day. A great chariot driver
Cthat was prior to the English invention Of
the 'four-in-hand), n good actor, an orator
of no mean pretensions, he had the mis-
fortune to suppose that the Roman people
were made for him, instead OF thinking that
he must invoke the sacred precincts OF his
pleasures with the troublesome care of their
interests.
We have no means of knowing what style
OF fiddle he used-some far off ancestor of the
Cremona perhaps. or he might have been fid-
ding in "a fgurativs sense, say talking
ABOUT tariff with a few boon companions, to
while away the time, and in order perhaps to
seem 10 be doing something beftting the dig
nifty of a Roman Emperor. The fact probably
is the poor devil did not know what else to do;
the subject Immediately before him was too
mighty Tor his contemplation.
There are good men in this Congress, men
who would like to stop fiddling and do some
thing real for the relief of the country from
the present awful condition OF things, but the
subject is to mighty. 1t needs too deep prob
i2g for the safety OF personal popularity;
and tike other similar conditions that have
occurred in the evolution of human freedom,
il will drift on the rocks of Catastrophe for the
lack of few strong just men who have faith
in principles instead of the dead rot of expedi-
ency. The tariff occupies the same ground
now that the slave question held from 1915
10 1861 They are the twin relics of the bar
barism OF the greed of youth, and, like all
youthful indiscretions, they have to be paid for
by much OF constitutional! disturbance before |
they areiinally eradicated from the system. II
il Is truesthst every man of whatever color or |
grade of personal endowment is born Free it is |
equally true that somewhere and somehow |
his subsistence and comfort lies between him |
and nature-the only medium Of communion |
tion is labor. The next absolute requisite to |
liberty is the performance of that kind Of |
labor that is most natural to his ability and |
environment. The next is the right Of ex-
change of his labor, or the product OF his |
labor, for that of another man. working in a |
different field. My wheat for your sheep. or |
shoes, or lumber. This is the all of COM |
merce, this is the key to a universal civili- |
Zation.
In the ffties the South flung facts in the |
teeth OF the northern agitators. you would |
own and work slaves too if the conditions |
made ii profitable for YOU" This was true
At no spot on the globe has the golden calf |
more devoted worshipers than in this same
northern belt. But it was not profitable,
and therefore the sin Of our southern breth-
rem was a ''stench in our nostrils." All talk
of compromise in those days was idle wind
The current OF events coming like a cyclone
blew the Tapping sail OF sectional strife out
OF the bolt ropes, and, after laboring in the
trough of the sea for time, when the old
ship rghtcd slavery was gone. Suffering
and sorrow hung out its sable banner all over
the land. and poverty stark and gaunt spread
its skeleton wings over the land ofluxury and
leisure. Wealth, luxury, license and greed
had come into permanent camp in our north
ern towns and cities. The sutler, the con-
tractor the dealer in conscripts, the gun
maker. the dIstiller. the brewer, the dealer
and manufacturer OF cotton goods. all had
money in plenty; they wanted a ''sure thing"
in the way OF investment; fhe country had
been saved. It would now endure the in
ap1rifr If hp ha Hnn nd \
national bank, the question OF the good of
the greatest number. Its wisdom rs finality
Of finance was never under discussion. So
the first gentlemen OF our reunited country
became brokers and bankers. A new aris-
tocracy had displaced the old. Saratoga and
kindred Summer display places for luxurious
vanity were no longer supported by the
planter. the statesman, and the gambler, but
by the gambler alone under the new garb of
banker and dealer in securities and the pro-
.ected manufacturer, the pirate of the rail-
road and the stock-waterer. Was the picture
Had civilization taken such q
forward stride? Change had come; the scenes
lad been shifted; but the golden calf had an
increased congregation OF worshipers.
For thirty years our lawmakers have been
studying census reports in order to prove that
t was in some way right to do wrong-that
he continuation of a palpable falsehood
would convert it into a national truth. The
Republican party first attempted to make
tself solid by putting the vote in the hands OF
very newly emancipated slave. the more
gnorant the better. il he could only be made
o comprehend that the Republican party was,
md would continue to be through all coming
ears, ''Massa Linkum's" party. The greed
# the manufacturer would hold the North
old. while the farmer--"well, the farmer
will believe anything his newspaper and his
,olitieal orator tells him.
SO American labor has been protected by
he continued importation of the scum Of all ,
.l,- ,<rav |