Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-01-30

-"Render unto Caesar the things that are
| C@sar's. and unto God the things that are
| GODS" There Is very great and Increasing
danger to our institutions, growing out OF
| the neglect of imperative political duties, on
| the part or SO many good people. Every cit
| lzen of the commonwealth should make his
| influence felt in the election to Office of the
| men who are to enact and execute the laws.
| And he who neglects this fails TO discharge
one of the chief duties of citizenship, wheth-
| er preacher or layman.
2. INORDINATE LOVE OF LUXURY.
| II seems to be a law of nature to which
there are no exceptions, that the rising opu-
| lence and grandeur of a nation must be
counterbalanced by the decline of its heroic
| virtues. Patriotism always exists in its
| greatest vgor in the early period of nation
al life. 1t operates with the greatest force
where 1t meets the greatest resistance Lux
| ury is the offspring of wealth; IL bespeaks
| taste, culture and refinement. But luxury
| and patriotism are incompatible, A people
| are s'rong to endure and mighty to resist
| till weakened by the eXcesses of luxury.
| "Ninevah was inviDcible to all her foes and
triumphed in all her military expeditions
| till Sardanapalus, her last king, thought
more of the pleasures of the palace than the
| discipline of the camp" Alexander bade
defiance to all difficulties, but at last, with
the conquered world at his feet he died amid
the carousals of banquet. Solomon, the
wisest king, the valient and skilled soldier,
the "conqueror OF conQuerorS" receiving
tribute from many naIlOns, ana nOnOr from
all, weakened his intellect, enervated his pa
triOtism and turned away his heart from the
altars of his God by the eXcesses of luxury
In the decay of nations through this evil
the wine cup has been the chief instrument
tallty, and judging by the appalling figures
that represent our own expenditures In this
direction, we are unwarned by the sepul-
chres of the buried nations that have pre-
ceded us. Directly and indirectly this one
item in our bill of luXures--.so called
rpunhpS billions n In in of
the irreparable loss and doom of q hundred
thousand of our population every year.
3. The undue love OF power Is another ele-
ment of danger, out of which comes whole
brood of evils, imperiling the peace and
safety of the nation. Chief among these
evils, expressed in bitter partisan STRIFE is
the shameless and almost open and defiant
purchase and sale of the ballot, and the in
timidation Of the defenceless voter. 1t was
Wendell Phillips who said. "The uneduca-
ted ballot is the winding sheet of liberty"
What shall we say, then, of the purchased
ballot, and the wholesale corruption of the
ballot box? Remember the ballot, which is
the expression of a freeman's will, is the
shield of our liberties, the palladium of our
great republic, by which our laws are enact
ed, and upon which iswritten Christian civ
ilization, the hopes of unborn millions. He
who corrupts the ballot Is the enemy of lib
erty, and deserves a felon's cell. The free
dom and purity Of the ballot must be pro-
tected, or our republic is failure. He only
is true American who knows no party
when that party is wrong, and who will leave
party ranks when the peace, prosperity and
honor of the country demands the overthrow
OF organized corruption, whether in New
York or New Orleans; and who knows no
North to the injury of the South who knows
no South to the prejudice of the North, and
who is for the union of these States, now and
forever.
4. We have not time now to consider at
length that towering and pretentious for
aiUn n c a. m has ci ly nd
yet so rapidly grown up in this country, and
the deadly peril to civil and religious liberty
involved in its triumph. 1t is both foolish
and cowardly to close our eyes to the plain
fact that the republic is in mortal conflict
with Romanism. By Romanism we mean
the hierarchy. Some of the priests and most
of the people are not consciously guilty of
the wicked and hostile purposes of the gov
erning power of the church. The hierarchy,
composed OF the priesthood and secular Of
ficers of this politico-religious organization,
at the head of which is a leader claiming in
falibility, is an unlimited despotism, the
| most intolerant, cruel and malignant known
to the history of the world. II arrogantly
claims the divine right TO govern all the ma
| tions of the earth, and to exercise complete
and unquestioned dominion In all the affairs,
| civil and religious, of every member of the
| human race. 1T wages endless and unre-
| lenting war against constitutions, civil and
| religious liberty, civil rights, and the author
| ity of the State. 1t dooms TO eternal flames
all who dare to question the authority of its
| despotc reign. Its ban and blight are upon
every law, and right, and principle of Prot
estantism, purchased by the blood of our
revolutionary sires. All history attests
its robbery of every people II has ruled, and
| its ruin of every people IL has robbed. Its
object has been to draw all the money into
| the Golfers of the church, all the power into
| the secret conclaves of the priests, and all
| the knowledge into the heads of its mana
| gers, and to leave the common people in
| nOVprtV. nnlpr va
| of vast cathedrals, and the multitudes in
| the iron grip of ignorance and superstition.
The history and condition of the papal
| States bear testimony to the truth of these
serious charges against this hoary institu-
tion, Look at Spain, once the worlds bank
er, now the worlds pauper; and Rome, once
the mother of letters. is now the blockhead
among the nations; and South America
once enriched by nature, is now starved by
the saints. And look across our own south
ern boundary, to Mexico, the mine OF the
earth, but today little more than den OF
robbers, where more than half the property
belongs to the grasping and greedy church
of Rome. In his learned and eloquent ad.
dress on John Calvin last month, in Alle-
ghany, Pa, Rev. John A. Wilson, DID,, said
"One loves to picture what fair and fertile
| France might have been had she cast her lot
with the Protestants. Instead of being an
Aceldema she might have been the garden
of the Lord. Instead of being a perpetual
battlefield, and hot bed for the couI
| ueUaU ana commune, sne might nave
le6 the nations in civilization and science
and in that which a Frenchman loves bes
of all, glory. But poor France knew not the
day of her visitation. Like Israel, she wa!
on the border of the land of promise, bu
turned back into the Wilderness not for for
ty years, but for three centuries. Offended
by an impudent act of some rash reformer
Francis raved and fumed, and swore by al
the saints in the calendar that he would ex
terminate the hated heretics With an ar
| rptinpmpnt m u
have satisfied fends, he set about the task
Wholesale arrests were made, and with al
the pomp and circumstance of papal religion
they proceeded to roast them in fires in diff
ferent parts of the capital; raising then
from, and then dropping them into the fire
by means of mechanical appliances, as |
the odor of their burning flesh was sweet in
cense to the papists' God" In reciting som
OF the monstrous and internal barbaritie
practiced upon the innocent and defenceles
victims of Romish hate and cruelty, by tn
order of this so-called church we are no
surprised when he adds: 81 confess to a feel
ing of extreme WEAKNESS coming over m
when hear men lauding the Roman Cath
Ollie Church, and claiming for II standing
, among the churches of Christ. II has neve
repented of, or even apologized for its whole
sale slaughter of Gods saints. 1t has neve
shown disposition TO act more humanel
where II has the power"
1t is the constant boast of Rome that sh
never changes her policy. The Boston PilC
; says: mo good government can exist with
out religion, and there can be no religio
without an inquisition, which is wisely de
,, signed for the protection and promotion {
the true faith" The Rev. Father O'Connol
Bishop of Pittsburgh, Pa, says; "Religiou
liberty is merely endured until the opposit
. can be carried into effect, without peril
the Catholic Church" In July, 1870, Fathe
] The Catholic World: ain 1900 Rome wi
, TCOncludad on Sacnnd Daaa