Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1897-05-13
THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT.

Bishop Potter, delivered last
Monday evening at the annual
supper referred to, and we invite
our readers to a careful perusal
and a thoughtful study of what
this eminent divine has to say:
and we venture the assertion that
few, if any, will agree with him
in the cline of policy" if we may
be excused for using the term, he
therein maps out.
1t would seem, as the New
York Sun says, that Bishop Pot
ter wants to stop the progress OF
civilization in the interest of the
"laboring classes" "Machinery,
he said, els doing away with in
telligence in lobor it is turning
the laboring man into an idiot"
If that is the case, of course
we must get rid of machinery,
for the "laboring classes COM
prise the vast majority Of man
kind, and if they are reduced to
idiocy the race will sink into a
condition far worse than the say
agery from which it has risen by
slow and painful stages. II, again,
we drive out machinery, we must
destroy all civilization, for the
distinctive feature Of civilization
as distinguished from savagery
is the substitution of machinery
for purely manual labor and the
development of science and IN
ventive genius to that end. We
must give up the use OF steam
power, of electricity, and all the
other forces of nature except hui
man physical strength.
With existing civilization, the
great aim of human endeavor IS
to make machinery do more and
more of the. labor of the world,
substituting its power for the
comparatively feeble strength OF
man and the brute animals. But
machinery, of course, can never
supersede the intelligence Of man.
That intelligence is required to
conceive and construct the ma
chfnerv and to run it. By les
SEEMING the cost and increasing the
variety of production it also
brings the fruits of civilization
within the reach Of everybody, so
that now the poorest enjoy luNu-
ries and obtain comforts which
we're denied to them before its
development.
Again, the Church OF which
Bishop Potter is a dignitary
teaches that this life is only a
probationary existence, a period
not measurable with the eternity
for which it is preparatory and
whose happiness or misery IS de-
termined here. "For our light
af1iction," wrote st. Paul to the
Corinthians, (which is but for a
moment, worketh for US a far
more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory; while we look not at the
things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen; for the
things which L seen are tempo
raj; but the things which I not
seen are eternal.
That is the basis of the Chris
tian faith; without it there is no
Christianity; and having it, the
early Christians and multltudes
of their successors submitted to
prosecutions and %tortures, with
the confidence that their earthly
trials would work out for them
an "eternal weight of glory IN
the life to come. They were trl-
vial incidents and accidents, OF
Importance only as tests OF the
faith of those who endured them,
and in educating them for their
reward of the everlasting life.
Hence the Gospel of Christ con-
stantly makes poverty and suffer
ing the avenue of approach to the
heavenly gates, and riches a bar
to admission through them.
Does Bishop Potter really be-
lieve this He and the school
of philanthropists to which he
belongs do not talk as if they be-
lieved it. They talk rather as II
this life was all, and the end of it
the end of all for mortal man.
What matters it how men sui
fer and are denied here SO long as
they win the reward of the life to
come? Nor does it require reli-
gious faith to recognize the pro-
found philosophic truth in this
view Of life. This life exists and
forever has existed with refer
ence to the life succeeding it.
One man sows, another man reap
eth. One generation makes way
for another, struggling to prepare
for it's coming; and thus the ages
roll on and the world goes on;
self-sacrifce, self-effacement al
ways.
That is the thought to which
the Church should lift men, in
stead of tanning their unreason-
ing and dangerous discomfort with
inevitable human conditions i'm