The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-05-29

I ct CRY for reform lifted ~ Oppressed L.
boring men Is drowned out BY the vooilsrar
tion for anarchy. The criminals and the
vASabonds who range through our cities
talking about their rights, whsn their
first right IL the penitentiAry-if they
could be hushed up, and the downtrodden
laboripg men Of this country could be
heard, there would be more bread for
hungry children. In this land, riot and
bloodshed never gained any wages for the
people or gathered up any prosperity. In
this land the best weapon Is not the club,
not the. skillalah, not firearms, but the
ballot. Let not our oppressed laboring
mon be beguiled TO coming under the
bloody banner of nihilism. 1t will make
your taxos heavier, your wages smaller,
your table scantier, your children hun
grier, your suffering greater. Yet this
nihilism, with feet red Of slaughter, comes
forth and offers its hand for this republic.
Shall the banns be proclaimedP II SO,
whore shall the marriage altar be? and
who will be the officiating priestp and
what will be the musicp That altar will
havo to be white with bleached skulls, the
officiating priest must be a dripping as
snssin, the music must DO the snothered
groan Of mpltitudinous victims, the gar
lands must BIO twisted Of night shade, the
fruits must be apples Of Sodom, tho wine
must be the blood of st. Bartholomew
lnassac-e. No! 1t Is not to nihilism, the
sanguinary monster, that this land Is to
be married. ,,..-..
Inhdelity's Threat.
Another sutton for the hand Of this ma
ton Is infldelity. When the midnight ruff
fans despoiled the grave Of A. T. Stewart
In St. Marks churchyard everybody was
shocked; but infldelity proposes some
thing worse than that-tho robbing Of all
tho graves Of christendom Of the hope Of a
resurrection. 1t proposes to chisel out
from the tombstones Of your Christian
dead the words Asleep in Jesus" and
substitute the words, "Obliteration-an-
initiation" Infdelity proposes to take
tho letter from the worlds Father, invit-
ing the nations to virtue and happiness.
and tear 1t up into fragments 80 small
that you cannot read a word of 1t. 1t pro-
poses to take the consolation from the
brokenhearted, and the soothing pillow
from the dying Inf1delity proposes to
swear in the president of the United States,
and the supreme court, and the governors
Of states, and the witnesses In the court
room with their right hand on Paines
"Age of Reason" or Voltairss "Phi-
losophy Of History" 1t proposes to take
away from this country the book that
makes the difference between the United
States and tho kingdom Of Dahomey, be-
tween American civilization and Borne
sian cannibalism. If intidelity could de-
stroy tho Scriptures, 1t would In 900 years
turn the civilized nations back to semi
barbarism, and then from semibarbarism
into midnight savagery, until the morals
Of menagerie Of tigers, rattlesnakes and
chimpanzees would be better than tho
morals of tho shipwrecked human race.
The only impulse In the right direction
that this world has ever had has come from
the Bible. It was the mother Of Roman
law and of healthful Jurisprudence That
book has been the mother of all reforms
and all charitios-mother of English mag
no charta and American declaration Of in
dependence. Benjamin Franklin, holding
that holy book in his hand, stood before
an infldel club in Paris and read to them
out Of tho prophecies Of Habakkuk, and
the infdels, not knowing what book IL
was, declared Ii was the best poetry they
had ever heard. That book brought George |
Washington down on his knees in the
snow at Valley Forge, and led the dying |
Prince Albert to ask some ono to sing
"Rook of Ages"
I tell you that the worst attempted
crime of the century il the attempt to do
stroy this book. Yet infldelity, loathsome,
stonchful, leprous, pestiferous rotten
,<r ot,ho &c, lob
with the second death, to take tho hand
Of this republic. Itstretches 1t out through
seductive magazines, and through ~
oeum lectures, and through caricatures Of
religion. 1t asks for all that part Of the
continent already fully settled and the
two-thirds not yet occupied. 1t says:
"Give me all east Of the Mississippi, with
the keys of the church and with the Chris
tian printing presses. Then give me
Wyoming, give me Alaska, give me Mon
tana, give me Colorado, give me all the
states west of the Mississippi and will
take those places and keep them by right
Of possession long before the gospel can be
fully intrenohed
And this sutton presses his case appall-
ingly. Shall the banns Of that marriage
DO proclaimeda "No" say the home
Of the west, a martyr band
Of whom the world Is not worthy, toiling
amid fatigues and malaria and starvation.
mo. not II we can help it. By what we
and our children have suffered we forbid
the bnnns Of that marriagei" "No!" say
all patriotic voices. "Our institutions
were bought at too dear price and were
defended at too great q sacrifice to DO SO
Ihoaply surrendered" mop says the
God Of Bunker Hill and Independence
hall and Gettysburg. II did not start
this nation for such farce" "EoW cry
10000 voices "To infidelity this land
shall not be marriedp'
Pledged to Christ.
But there Is another sutton that presents
lis claim for the hand Of this republic.
He Is mentioned in the verse following
ny text where 1t says, "As the BRIDE
,room rejoiceth over the bride, SO shall
by God rejoice over thee" It is not my
lgure. 1t Is the figure Of the Bible. Christ
IS so desirous'to have this world love him
hat he stops at no humiliation Of smile.
10 compares his grace to spittle on the
yes Of the blind man. He compares him
'elf to o hen gathering the chickens, and
n my text he compares himself to "a sutton
Begging band in marriage. Does this
Christ, the King, deserve this land' Be.
lold Pilates hall and the insulting expec-
Grafton on the face of Christ. Behold the
Jalvarcan massacre and the awful hem
,rrhage of five wounds. Jacob served IA
cars for Rachel, but Christ, my Lord,
he King, suffered in torture 8S years to
vim the love of this world. As often prin-
osses OF their very birth are pledged In
reaty Of marriage to princes or kings of
arth, so this nation at its birth was
pledged to Christ for divine marriage.