The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-08-22

Not many more divisions of public
school money will be made-not
many more friars and monks and
nuns will usurp the public educa-
tion-not many more impudent Irish
flags will float from city halls
not many more news boys will be
beaten and mobbed for serving an
nti-Roman press before the slow go
ing Yankee voters will feel the straws
tickle their heels; and then over
pious politicians will soon wonder
who hit them last. Organized relig-
ious politics must be met by organ
lied moral politics. And in this war
of ballots, civilization will be too
much for Rome. Civilization will
win.
Bullet us not uncharitably con-
denim men by classes. Honor to
whom honor is due every time and
everywhere. When my brother,
Father Hagan, does that which is
good and praiseworthy for the town,
as l have personal observation that
he does, he shall have no hand quick
er than my hand, and no brotherly
word quicker than my word. Yet
the brutal outrages stimulated by
the arrogant insolence of his mother
church, make the hot blood leap to
my finger tips. Still there comes the
pacifying injunction,-Be ye angry
and sin not-as to individual excep-
tions.
Favorable City Influences.
But what now as to the drift OF
people into great and small cities?
Here, too, there are cheering antago-
tistic forces to the undertow of sin.
A rich stream of good blood perpetu-
ally flows into the cities from the
smaller towns and the country. The
country common schools ripen the
best patricians which the land af-
fords. Neither are they the young
men only who fill up the emptied
seats of occupation in the town. The
youths and sires, maids and mothers,
of all ages, carry to the city the we'll
fixed principles of the purer subur-
ban and rustic air. By this method
kindly Providence dilutes the
deadly moral miasmas of the me-
tropolis, as the sweet breeze from
clover fields and apple blossoms an
nuls the stencil of battle fields, The
city so catches wholesome, odorous
breath and lives again,
Then, too, the educational infu-
ences of the city grow more and
more mighty as the ages 20 by. Con
slider their great universities, col
leges, professional and common
schools and Institutes and seminaries
in nameless varieties. The morali-
ties of the Christian religion are FL
tered through all of these.
Amusements
Then, too, we hear too much about
the wicked side and not enough
about the good side of city amuse-
ments. The clergy have not need to
preach in favor of amusements, be-
cause human nature is already suffi
GENTLY tilted to that side. But why
should the clergy not be just? Some
of the grandest lessons of elevated,
tender, and beautiful life are
preached from the stage.
History, poetry, art, music and
sympathy are the blossoms from the
garden soil of its training and skill.
So, too, the civility and orderliness
of the place lend an air of refine
ment and stimulate the good man
ners which belong to civilization.
Really, | would rather son would FILL
himself with the manners and moral
tiles of what is strictly first class up
on the stage, than to be stuffed so
full of maudlin fanaticism that he
can neither tell the truth in business
nor sleep nights. Dissipation is
sin in more than one direction. And
while we rail at theaters without ex
ception, it is not to be forgotten that
a becrazed and overweight pietism
often breaks forth in more democrat
izing scenes than are permitted in a
low grade of theaters. The clergy
who rail the loudest at amusements
may wisely considerable lives in
glass houses.
Fraternities.
We ought also to consider the
moral fertility of the fraternities,
unions, associations and uncountable
orders of men banded together in the
city for purposes of beneficence and
fraternal good will and helpfulness.
We think that the church going life
among men is small. But there is
substratum of silent church work in
its benevolent and practical aspect,