The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-09-07

LONDON IrutQ QeecrlDeS tu6 piou5 oJdC-
ulation of Lord Salisbury and the man.
ifesto of the Bishop Of Exeter, setting
forth that the result of the late election
had been an answer to "the prayers Of
all England" Prudent men OF all par
ties should be slow about attributing
the results Of popular election todivine
influence and especially to prayer. There
are always prayers on both sides, as well
as curses, and in one election the very
cause is voted up that in another was
voted down. The Almighty. we rever,
emily hold, cares much less for our strife
and opinions than in the heat OF them
we think we do. He probably takes
about the view Of their Importance at
the time which we ourselves take few
years afterward.
The disposition to believe and at
length to assert that to be fact which
our prejudice or partisanship desires to
be fact, is two edged sword. Ifit leads
us to attribute imaginary virtues to
some persons and to prophecy impossi-
BILE victories to some causes; it just as
certainly impels US to ascribe fictitious
vices and defects to other persons, and
to hold other causes responsible for dis
asters of which they are innocent. 1t is
amazing and disheartening to note how
much of this sort of thing goes on. Men
of venerable years and well-earned re-
pute. who may be supposed to have got
past the illusions of youth and the fevers
Of passion, yet cling to their shallowest
prejudice and eagerly seize an unveriied
report Of an opponents misdoing or mis-
thinking, as il to recruit hell we're the
only safe way of sustaining heaven.
DIR. Justin D. Fulton's zeal against
the Roman Catholic church is indisput-
ably hot. That it is zeal tempered by
wisdom is less certain. He is reported
by the Boston Standard. under quota
tion marks, as saying: 1T is Romanism
that makes the police necessary. Go in
to the towns and cities where Romanism
prevails and there crime prevails This
is rather precarious reasoning. Another
observer would attribute that crime in
those places to ignorance and want; an
other to drink; another to the foreign
element;" another to idleness; another
to bad laws and incompetent or corrupt
officials. No doubt DR.. Fulton believes
that il he could turn all the Romanists
in those towns and cities into Baptists
he would extinguish crime. But he
does not know that. Without very
great changes in their physical. social
and intellectual condition, it is doubtful
whether DIR. Fulton's variety Of Protest
antiem would not make them worse
rather than better.
There are towns and cities in this
country where masses of ignorant and
degraded people have for considerable
period professed the same religion as DIR.
Fulton. We should be the last to main
tain that their religion had not done
much for them and on the whole greatly
improved their status as citizens. But
it is matter of common knowledge that
it has come far short Of redeeming them
from vice and crime. DIR. Fulton would
say that it has greatly helped. and he
would charge their defects on other and
older causes not yet wholly counteract-
ed by their religion. His plea would be
reasonable. But not more 80 than that
of the Romanist who should make an
exactly similar plea in behalf of the ef-
fects of his religion on the ignorant and
debased. We should not select Roman
ism as an ideal reformatory influence for
the ignorant and morally weak. Truth
compels us to add that neither should
we select DIR. Fulton's type of Protest
antism.
In the same discourse DR.. Fulton is
quoted as saying, "Auy sinner that hopes
to be saved by any man. or by morality,
or by anything else but the religion Of
Christ. is going to hell" We should
amend by saying that any sinner who
thinks he is merely "going to hell" and
does not see that. being sinner, he is
already there. will be likely to stay where
he is and as he lie. Sinners readily as
sent to the proposition that their course
will end in disaster: what they do not
feel is that sin is disaster. A preacher
who should lay out his strength IN savir g
his people from their sins. as Jesus did.
and not waste it in frantic endeavors 10
save them from future hell. as DR..
Fulton is doing. would be more useful
as we'll as more rational helper Of his
fellows. AS to the rest. the Romanist
and DIR. Fulton are quite at one in ex-
pecting salvation, not by personal good
ness, but by appropriation Of store OF
unearned merits They phrase and ap-
ply it differently; but the underlying
idea is one and the same.
Ambassador Bayard's family have
been holding Office continuously under