The McCook tribune., 1897-06-18

came 10 WneeiS, ana levers, ana Snalts
and shuttles-forces that fly the air. or
swim the sea, or cleave the mountain,
until the earth Jars, and roars. and
rings, and craekles, and booms with
strange mechanism, and ships with
nostrils of hot steam and yokes Of fire.
draw the continents together.
l say nothing against heaithful Gu
riosity. May it have other Leyden
jars. and other electric batteries. and
other voltaic piles, and other magnify
ing-glasses, with which to storm the
barred castles of the natural world un-
til it shall surrender its last secret.
We thank God for the geological Gu
riosity of Professor Hitchcock, and the
mechanical curiosity of Liebig, and the
geological curiosity of Cuvier, and the
inventive curiosity of Edison; but We
must admit that unhealthful and irreg-
ular inquisitiveness has rushed thou
sands and tens of thousands into ruin.
Eve just tasted the fruit. She was
curious to find out how it tasted, and
that curiosity blasted her and blasted
all nations. So there are clergymen IN
this day inspired by unhealthful in
quisitiveness who have tried to look
through the keyhole of Gods mystic
rieS-mysteries that were barred and
bolted from all human inspection, and
they have wrenched their whole moral
nature out of joint by trying to pluck
l. hniT onn
or have come out on limbs of the tree
from which they have tumbled into
ruin without remedy A thousand trees
of religious knowledge from which we
may eat and get advantage; but from
certain trees of mystery how many
have plucked their ruin. Election,
free agency, trinity, resurrectlon-ln
the discussion of these subjects hum
dreds and thousands of people ruin the
soul. There are men who actually
have been kept out of the kingdom Of
heaven because they could not under
stand who Melehisedec was not,
Oh, how many have been destroyed
by an unhealthful inquisitiveness, 1t
is seen in all directions. There are
those who stand with the eye-stare and
mouth-gape of curiosity. They are the
first to hear a falsehood, build it an
other story high and two wings to it.
About other peoples apparel, about
other peoples business, about other
peoples financial condition. about 9TH
er peoples affairs, they are over
,,ion r,ioco nf crnc=iYN
stops at their door, and they fatten and
luxuriate in the endless round of the
great world of tittle-tattle. They in
vite and sumptuously entertain at their
house Colonel Twaddle and Esquire
Chitchat and Governor Smalltalk.
Whoever hath an innuendo, whoever
hath a scandal, whoever hath valua-
BILE secret, let him come and sacrifice
it to this Goddess of Splutter. Thou
sands of Adams and Ewes do nothing
but eat fruit that does not belong to
them. Men quite well known as math-
ematicians failing in this computation
of moral algebra: good sense plus good
breeding, minus curiosity, equals mind
ing your own affairs!
Observe also in this subject how re-
pelling sin is when appended to great
attractiveness. Since Ewes death there
has been no such perfection of woman
hood. You could not suggest an at
tractiveness to the body or suggest any
refinement to the manner. You could
add no gracefulness to the gait, no lus-
tire to the eye, no sweetness 10 the
voice. A perfect God made her a per-
feet woman, to be the companion of a
man in a perfect home, and her entire
nature vibrated in accord with the
beauty and song of Paradise But she
rebelled against Gods government,
and with the same hand with which |
she plucked the fruit she launched up
on the world the crimes, the wars, the !
tumults that have set the universe a.
wailing.
a terrible offset to all her attractive |
ness. We are not surprised when we
find men and women naturally vulgar |
going into transgression. We expect |
that people who live in the ditch shall !
have the manners of the ditch; but |
how shocking when we find sin ap- |
pended to superior education and to the
refnements of social life, The accom-
plishments of Mary Queen of Scots
make her patronage of Darnley, the |
profiigate, the more appalling. The
genius of Catharine II. Of Russia only
sets forth in more powerful contrast
ler unappeasable ambition. The trans
ations from the Greek and the Latin
by Elizabeth, and her wonderful quail
ications for a queen, make the more
disgusting her capriciousness Of af-
ection and her holiness of temper.
The greatness of Byron's mind makes
he more alarming the Byron's sensual
ty.
Let no one think that refinement Of
manner or exquisiteness of taste or
superiority of education can in any
wise apologize for ill-temper, for an
l.; g.