Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-01-28
WHAT GOD REIGNS?"
Evidently Not the God Who Di-
reefs the Moral Government of
the ('niycrSc

ENIdSntiy Not the God Who Di-
rccts the Moral Government of
the Universe.
The New York Evening Post is
keenly sarcastic over the message sent
by Hauna to the President, "God
reigns, and the Republican party yet
lives" Among other biting COM
ments on this stupid resurrection and
ignoble application of James A. Gar
fields Wall street speech, ON hearing
of the assassination of Lincoln, whose
opening words were, "God reigns and
the republic still lives" the Post says:
There has probably seldom been an
occasion in the United States with
which God, if the general estimate of
his character and attributes be the
true one, had less to do than with the
Hanna contest in Ohio. There has
seldom been an occasion in which, if
the general estimate of his character
and attributes be the true one, the
devil was more active, influential and
satisfied. There has seldom been an
occasion in which the vices and defects
in human character in which he most
delights, more abounded and were more
fruitful. Fraud, falsehood, corrup-
ton, bribery, treachery, indifference
to public interests, and to the character
of public men, were the leading
agencies in the struggle. The spectacle
was altogether one which must have
delighted the internal regions. Yet
when it was over, the message which
it inspired Hanna to send to the
President was. "God reigns, and the
Republican party still lives"
This incident, and the appointment
of Saylor, the exposed swindler, to the
consulship of Matanzas, Cuba, in spite
of the remonstrances Of all that is best
in Philadelphia, personally made to
the President, raises, in spite of us,
the question, What religion is it that
these men profess? They profess
some religion good deal. They are
diligcnt in their attendance at church !;
they have family prayer; they weep
tears of pious emotion when they
start from home to take office in
Washington. But what God is this
God whom they worship? 1t can
hardly be the Christian God, for the
struggle in Columbus was carried on
by instrumentalities which the Chris
tian God has condemned in the
strongest terms, at sundry times and
in divers manners. So that the God
whose reign it proves, according to
Hanna, must have been some other
deity. Moreover, the offenses of
which Saylor has been convicted are,
in all the Christian sacred books,
treated as excluding a man from all
fellowship in the Christian world, and
from the favor of Almighty God, un-
til he repents and makes restitution.
His ollense is considerably worse
than that of Ananias, and Sapphira.
They kept back what was their
own, by falsehood, but Saylor tried
to get what was not his, by falsehood.
Nevertheless. the President, who pre-
sumably wOrships the same God as
Hanna, has treated Saylor as if he
had committed no offense at all, and
was even more worthy of reward than
most citizens of the United States.
This considerably increases the puzzle.
1t will suggest irresistibly to every
child in our schools the inquiry, I'm.
der what theory of the unseen world
and Of the future life are the affairs OF
this nation conducted? Are we wor-
Shipping the same unseen power as our
fathers, and are we living under the
same code of morality? Or have we
gone back to some ancient god who
demanded worship only and cared
nothing about conduct?