The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-11-25

beauty of proportions The great
teacher of the ages brought out ideas
on this subject which have been work
ing like leaven in human history and
human affairs. If we would realize the
mighty transformation which has
taken place in human sentiments We
must In imagination go back to the
great cities Of the early Christian CEN
turtles and study them before the
teachings of Christ had yet shed their
light upon the dense moral and spirit
ual gloom which hung over the world.
What a fearful picture the social life
of that time presents. The vices and
crimes of both rulers and people are
beyond conception. We have weird and
awful pictures of the social degrade
tion of the lower classes In our cities
at the present time, but there are
glints of sunlight to relieve the gloom
and utter wretchedn which are ever
and always associated with vice and
crime. AT that time religion was chief
ly superstitious and science was quite
puerile and childish. Religion and SCI
ence to-day join hand in hand to lift
and help and save. Then the waves of
social corruption were casting their
wrecks upon the dark breakers of the
wild and stormy sea of human life,
while now the storm-tossed may see the
beacon lights and shun the dangers,
ana thousands of eyes are peering out
over the rough pillows that they may
send the needed help to the ship
wrecked mariners. The saddest and
most pathetic feature of the present is
that so many are deaf to the warnings
and blind to the light which flashes
out with the message of impending
danger, but rush on as IL no higher
and purer life were possible to them.
From the depths of old paganism, great
souls longed and prayed that relief and
rescue might come to them, feeling that
philosophy had failed and the old re-
hgions had failed to ennoble or elevate
or inspire and men were left the VIC
TINS of brutal lust and passion.
THE only exception to this fearful
degeneration was in the weak and
struggling Christian churches, COM
posed principally of slaves and arti-
sans to whom Christ was preached as
the great messiah who had come to re-
deem the race from it's bondage. There
were striking examples among the
heather of those who lived noble
lives, and had attained a strength and
beauty of character which might well
command the admiration of all time.
The highest type OF morality was that
of the stole philosophy. Its doctrine
was that true manhood was attained
to the comforts and possessions of life,
and insensibility to Its pains and sor-
rows. To reach such a state of mind
IL gave no true motive or inspiration.
1t urged the restraint of passion and
appetite, but by a method so violent
that 1t crushed out the gentler and
nobler emotions. 1t taught that COM
passion was a weakness and even a
vice. 1t encouraged suicide as a means
OF getting rid of the ills of life and as
a refuge from oppression and tyranny.
To the stern morality of stoicism,
Christianity gave the most inspiring,
the highest of motives-the assistance
Of a kind Providence who cared for
men, and instead of hopelessness and
sadness. II preached a gospel of peace
and joy. While the torch which guild
ed the stole to a nobler manhood was
pickering and unsteady. the torch of
the best manhood in Christ upheld by
Paul, the tent maker of Tarsus, and
Peter, the fisherman of Galilee, flashed
from Damascus to Antioch. from An
tioch to Athens. from Athens to Co
rinth, from Corinth to Ephesus, and
from Ephesus to Rome.
Time would fail to tell of the quail
ties of character that are focused in
the perfect man. He has courage. not
only physical courage but the courage
Of his convictions. When he knows
his duty, he does 1t though the heavens
fall When he Is given the truth to
speak, he speaks It. not fearing the
consequences. To him rigN is the most
potent thing In the universe OF God.
Many still measure the man by the
physical powers. and with such the in
tellectual and moral and spiritual pow
ers go for nothing. In our best insti-
buttons of learning you may find men
who, II they had the choice, would
choose physical prowess instead of in
tellectual strength If we give the
physical first place We shall so far as
the product Is concerned, meet with
absolute failure. for the goal OF Chris
tianity is a perfect man. Believe me,
the standard of many in the present Is
far behind that of ancient Greece
They recognized what too many forget.
that the physical powers could only
reach their highest perfection by and
through the observance of modern
laws. / am sure Diogenes did not
place the physical above the mental
and moral powers as he went about
the streets OF Athens at midday with
a lantern and when asked what he
was doing would reply: Il am looking
for a good man. II Is out of the ques-
ton to have a nation physically strong
IL there Is not four sided Development
We believe in the glory of physical
strength. but II is very unreal and I'M
certain without moral and spiritual
strength as we'll Emerson speaks of a
man who stands four square to every
wind that blows / fancy he was a
man developed in harmony. physically,
mentally. morally. spiritually. How
rare such men are In this 18th century,
the square. symmetrical. well-poised,
complete man. II would not be such a
stretch OF Imagination to fancy Do
genes II he lived to-day. going through
the streets OF Washington or New
York or Chicago with his lantern at
midday. We might even fancy him
out West in Helena or Butte. In the
fierce sweep OF the current OF material
ism in our age. even the church is be-
ing carried froms her moorings and
instead OF fnding within her q higher