Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-05-02
A REMARKABLE SERMON.

"All things ye would that men should do
to you, do We even SO to them. MATTE :12.
Man is socialist for he is made for
associated life; he Is also a communist.
for be has common nature, common
needs and common destiny with his
fellows. A foolish and belated reIig-
ionism that breaches special and par
tial salvation for pious and pharlsaIc
coterie, apart from the general man
kind, may obscure but cannot Obliter-
ate this truth. Whatever is not of uni
versal import in religion is narrow, sell
fish and false; it comes from beneath,
not far above. There is no destiny for
a man, and no salvation for man eX-
cept as he follows Christ and involves
himself in His race. 1t is the race
the universal man-that God creates
and loves. He only loves an individual
as that individual loses himself in the
common life of human nature. There
fore any form of religious teaching
which affects to choose and save special
persons, whom it calls the elect or the
saints; consignlng the unnumbered
myriads Of mankind to endless perdi-
ton in future life; and any political
system which favors and legislates for
classes and corporate bodies at the cost
of a plundered and suffering people,
thereby consigning them to endless per-
dition In this life, are both fatally
wrong. They draw down upon the
community where such errors are pre-
valent accommodating disaster and final
ruin.
America is oppressed today under
both these evils. II is hag-ridden with
religious superstition. We go to church
on Sunday and from fifty thousand pull
pits are trumpted the irrational dog
mas of the dark ages, teaching the hui
man family are lost, ruined and doom
ed; while special persons without mer
it of their own, are chosen by divine
caprice out of the great body of the
race, made spiritual milliOnaires and
celestial plulocrats, and blest with uu-
earned and undeserved heaven of etern-
al bliss. While on week days We
groan under political gospel that has
eyes only for drones, moneY-kings,
mOnopolies, syndicates and trusts. help
them to corral the money OF the cOun-
try, and to despOll, bankrupt and en-
slave the workers and producers. Thus
the great, plain people are doubly
| damned-damned III this world by the
! politicians, and damned in the next by
! the preachers. This nation so long de-
celved, gulled and betrayed, is learning
to take in the situation. 1t IS begin
ming to say to the clergy that the only
| hell which America has to fear Is the
present hell of starvation and pauper-
Ism, into which organized cupidity and
greed have plunged million families;
and that religion which, in sorrOwful
| times turns 1T back upon the people
and concerns itself chiefly with a flu
ture theological hell ought to move
there at once, and be promptly excused
from lingering here. While as to the
politician, the people are preparing to
follow the example Of the old planta-
ton darkey who once attended a color
ed campmeeting and hearing thepreach-
er say that there were only two roads
for mankind to travel On-one a straight
and wide road that led to perdition
the other broad and narrow road that
led to destruction, said: ''If that was
so, he would make a break for the
woods" In November next the poliLi.
clans of both old parties Will find that
the Disguised voters of our state have
taken to the woods. They will no long
or follow either the straight and wide
road of Sherman Cleveland British re-
publlcanism that leads to perdition, OIL
the broad road and narrow road Ct
Cleveland Sherman Wall street democ
racy that leads to destruction. The
American people are learning at las
that both roads 60 in and come out o.
the same hole.
One hundred years ago this republic
stood on a basis of substantial equality
There was not millionaire on the con
tinent, nor was there a pauper class
For many years the increase of TIT
wealth of the land was steady and grad
ual, but within the last 80 years, owins
to the wonderful growth OF mechanical
invention, riches have increased b.
leaps and bounds at ratio unknown t.
man. But this, instead of enricheninS
the workers and enhancing the genera
welfare, has been appropriated b,
small, selfish and anxious class, wh'
have learned by the use Of corruption
funds to set at naught the will of thu
people. For 80 years the imam
cial and business interests Of this grea
nation have been used as steppin!
stones for selfish politicians serving il
the interests of monopoly. Glass ha
been set against class; section agains
section; patriotism has been sunk il
the shiny pools Of craftsmanship, and tn
common welfare sacrificed to the de
mandS of corporations and none
kings. In the spirit of funkeyism bot
parties have combined TO initiate til
monetary policy OF England, to con
tract the money of the country, TO de
strOy bimetalism, TO Cypress the lahore
and wage-earner, and to conserve tn
, interests of rings, cliques, corners an
monopolies until the elimination la
come in the enforced idleness of manua
labor, Ill closed factories, r2ined farm
ers and merchants, and bankrupte
railroads. One hundred thousand pee
p pie have succeeded in capturinghal tn
wealth of a nation of 60 millions, ali
are now reaching out for the remain
der.
The great error of mankind-an erro
i attended with the most fatal results
g is that, while governing the family b