Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-07-02
SAFEGUARDS OF MORALITY.
Ono OF the Things for Which We Should
BE Devoutly Thankful

BE Devoutly Thankful.
Among the things for which Chris
tians thank God, one class of mercies is
forgotten, The circumstances of our
lives which have tended 10 keep us fl ON
open sin. from crimes against human
law, are seldom estimated at their real
worth. We are TOO apt 70 think that we
are by nature incapable of committing
any of these gross sins, and that what
God has done for us through His Son
is to save us from ingratitude to Him,
from unbelief, from selfshness. But
at times there come storms that sweep
away the conventionalities and COM
placencies of ordinary life, and the glare
of the lightning reveals dark CULTS of
iniquity just beside our pathway where
better men have fallen; and between
our rocky path and the abyss appears
the wall which has kept our feet from
slipping when we knew it not. Then we
eXclaim: Thou has beset me behind
and before, and laid Thine hand upon
me-" Phillips Brooks once wrote a SER
mon on the text Lord, is itI?" He pic
tured the scene at the table when our
Lord spoke of one that should betray
Him; bow each man looking into his
own heart. beheld there unsupported
possibilities of evil, and cried out IN sud-
den fear. Such moments come to most
of us with painful shock, but some
times we look back on them afterwards
as turning points in our Christian life.
1t is common to depreciate all virtue
hi a1, h.
the highest; but we cannot honestly
ignore the fact that much of our ordi-
nary commonplace good conduct
which keeps us out of states prison, and
renders us indifferent to the police-is
q matter of habit. of environment, rath-
er than of any hardly-won struggle
against temptation. But though neither
the Christian nor any other man is en-
titled to credit for a negative virtue so
easily preserved, we fail to understand
the merciful, plan of God if we do not
sometimes consider the complex web of
relations by which we are guarded from
unnumbered perils.
The chief safeguard of morality
among the great masses of people,
Christian and not Christian, is heredity
and early environment. If heredity is
responsible for many criminal ten
denotes, and appetites, for weak wills
and distorted consciences, how is it
that we fail to see that it is also respon-
sible for much of the moral fiber of man
kind? The good deeds of our forefa-
theirs have been loft inferred with their
bones,' but the lines craven upon their
characters can be traced from genera
ton to generation.
Other safeguards of morality grow
out of the social relations. Among them
are the restraints of the family, of the
state, of public opinion. In the family
the life of each is so bound up with the
life of others that there arises a sort of
social conscience; what one would not
hesitate to do if isolated from such ties,
he finds to be no temptation, or at most
slight one, when he considers the well
fare of those near to him. This is not
conscious altruism, but rather the nor
NAL, almost involuntary habit of a
social being. When he violates it we
call him inhuman. The penalties of
civil governments also have their place
among the safeguards of morality, per-
haps to a larger extent than is.common-
ly believed. But more effectual safe
guard against open wrong-doing is the
fear of public opinion, which moves the
individual through what we sometimes
call his self-respect, meaning his desire
that others should respect him. The
true self-respect, however, is a much
higher motive. which in the Christian
becomes merged in the highest motive
of all.
1t is a profound error to separate
ethics and religion. These safeguards
of morality, and others which might be
named, are part of the merciful pro-
visions of God for the welfare of man
kind. That they have proved INSULT
cient to keep men from sin is to be at
tributed to human freedom; but that
they continue to preserve the world
from moral disintegration, and serve as
constant protection to those strug-
Cling toward Righteousness, is a cause
for deep thankfulness.-Chi Stand
ard
Impotence is fire that scorches
the soul.-Chicago Standard.