Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-01-21
Excellent Sentiments.
From Brann's Iconoclast.1

Love is the most sacred word ever
framed by celestial lips. It's the law
of life, the harmony of heaven, the
breath of which the universe was born,
the divine essence increate of the ever
living God. But love is like all other
sweet things-unless you get the very
best brand it sours awful easy.
-
Fashionable mothers commit their
children to the care of serving-maids
while they sail out to soirees and recep-
tIons-put their babes on a bottle while
they swing around the social circle. No
wonder their sons grow up sap-heads,
as destitute Of backbone as a banana,
as deficient in moral force as Il firkin of
fish. Think of an infant Napoleon
nursing rubber nozzle, Of rearing a
Brutus on patent baby food, of bringing
a Hannibal up by hand You can't
do it,
Even our religion is ofttimes a Hum
bug, else why is it that the good Chris
tan woman-who says her prayers as
regularly as she looks under the bed for
burglaIs-says to the caller whom she
cordially detests, II am delighted to
see you;" when she's wondering why
tie meddlesome old gad-about don't
stay at home when she's not wanted
elsewhere? Why is it that when a good
brother puts a fve-dollar bill in the
cOntrlbutlon-boxh he flashes it up so all
may see the figures, but when he drops
nickel in the slot to get little grace
he let's not his right hand know what
his left hand doeth? Why is it that
when you strike a devout deacon for
the loan of ten dollars he will swear by
all the gods he hasn't got it, when his
pockets are fairly bursting with big
bills? If his religion is not hypocrisy
if he is not a Hum5ug-Why doesn't he
tell you in plain United States that he
would rather have Uncle Sans promise
to pay than yours? Oh, people are be-
coming such incorrigible liars that I've
about quit trying to borrow money.
~
Too many people presume that they
are full of the grace Of God when they
are only bilious; that they are pious be-
cause they dislike to see other people
enjoy themselves; that they are Chris
tians because they conform to certain
creeds, just as many menimagine them
selves honest because they obey the
laws of the land-for the purpose of
keeping out Of the penitentiary. They
put up long prayers on Sunday; that's
piety. They bamboozle green gosling
out of his birthright on Monday; that's
business. They have one face with
which to confront the Lord and another
with which to beguile their brethren.
They even acquire two voices-a brisk
business accent and Sunday whine
that would make a cub-wolf climb
tree. [ am always suspicious of a mans
pIety when it makes him look as tho
| he had cut throat or scuttled ship
and was praying for Communication Of
the death sentence. [ could never I'M
derstand why man who can read his
title clear to mansions in the skies
who holds lien on a corner-lot in the
New Jerusalem-shold allow that fact to
| hurt him.
~
Truth and only truth is eternal. 1t
was not born and it cannot die. 1t may
be obscured by the clouds of falsehood,
or buried in the debris of british ignor-
ance, but it can never be destroyed. 1t
exists in every atom, lives in every
flower and flames in every star. When
the heavens and the earth shall pass
away and the universe return to cosmic
dust, divine truth alone will stand I'M
scathed amid the crash of matter and
the wreck Of worlds.
Falsehood is an anonymous monster.
conceived in the brain of knaves and
brought forth by the breath of fools.
It's moral pestilence, miasmic vapor
that passes, like blast from hell over
the face of the world, and is gone for
ever. 1t may leave death in it's wake
and disaster dire; it may place on the
brow of purity the brand of the courte-
san and cover the hero with the stigma
of the coward; it may wreck hopes and
ruin homes, cause blood to flow and
hearts to break; it may pollute the altar
and disgrace the throne. corrupt the
courts and curse the land, but the lie
cannot live forever, and when it's dead
and damned there's none SO poor as to
do it reverence