Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-05-22
GOD AND PHARISEES.

to be hottest is like whitewashed sepulchre--
fair to the eye, but within are fostering flesh
and dead mems bones.
The church that builds on antiquity or learn
ing, the party that builds on its founders, or
the Individual who builds on ancestry, has not
little, but good DEAL of the whited sepul-
chre.
We care not what you did in the past, for
the question for the living is, What are you
doing now, and what will you do in the future?
Set your face heavenward and keep moving,
for the great question to be answered in the
day of judgment is, What have you done?
The church, the party or noble ancestry will
not save The Pharsees set great store Gy
having Abraham for their father. Jesus in
formed them that the Devil was their fathel
If Abraham and Moses had been their fathers,
they would have done the works of Abraham
and Moses. Catholics claim Peter for the
founder of their church, and Lutherans claim
Luther Presbyterians claim Knox, and Meth
odists claim Wesley. They can only make
their claims good by doing the works of their
founders. The Salvation Army and Booth
and the apostles.
The Republicans claim Lincoln, and the
Democrats claim Jefferson, as political ances-
tors Do any or all of those bodies follow i'll
the footsteps of their fathers? Only little
bit. How many Peters are there i'll the Cath
oic church, or Luthers in the Lutheran church,
or KnoXes in the Presbyterian church, or Yves
leys in the Methodist church? The Salvation
Army beats all in reaching out and down after
the poor, miserable, battered waits who have
been cast upon the ocean of time to breast the
waves of sin and adverse influences which they
have as little power to control as they have
power to control the waves of the Atlantic
ocean.
Cleveland Democracy favors the Jeffersonian
article as little as the Pharisees favored Abra-
ham and Moses There is not point of re-
semblance in modern Republicansm to Lin
coin Peter Luther, Knox, Wesley and Booth
have God for their father So of Lincoln and
fare of the human race.
God is the author of all good principles, and
in so far as men embrace good principles God
is their father and in so far as they fail, God
is not their father. So of churches and polit-
ical parties. This generation will be Judged
by its works, and just now, Pharisasm is as
cendant We don't mean to say that all church
people are hypocrites, nor that the voters of
parties are all dishonest. Far from it. The
great mass of Jews in Jesus day were sincere
and humble worshpers of Jehovah. The great
mass Of the common people in church or state
ale sincere. We arraign leaders, and yet not
all leaders, The rulers in Jerusalem had a
Nckodemus The churches have their pous
and humble priests and preachers. Democracy
has it's Tillmans and Republicanism has its
Tellers, but their counsel and influence count
for nought in shaping the action of their re-
spective bodies.
To be Independent is the need of the hour
It is always safe to lave God for our father
anywhere and everywhere. What care we for
Peter or Knox, or Lincoln, or Jetferson? If
God is our father, then those men are our ia
TIERS If God is not our father, neither is Pc
ter, nor Lincoln nor Wesley, nor Jefferson.
TO be independent is like Luther and Jefferson,
and it is to be God-like. Jesus was independ-
ent-taught new doctrnes-practiced new man
ners-attacked old errors. Booth lines up old
principles, under new banner and i'll new
FORMS His attack is directed against an old
enemy What cares he for Abraham when
God is his father?
A new party OH old principles, directed
against an old enemy, is the need of the hour.
Populisn fills the bill in its aims. The fight
is against the enemy of human rights and hui
man happiness. AS Peter and Luther fought
sin, and as Booth now fights sin, so Populism
renews a conflict begun away back i'll the dark