Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-07-02

Services of a pleasing patriotic nature
were held yesterday in a number of
the local churches in honor of the
glorious Fourth, the day the
declaration of our independence
was adopted. In each instance large
congregation was present and special
music, including the national airs, were
rendered for the occasion.
Rev. Charles NJ Oliphant, pastor of
the First Christian Church, preached
last evening upon the subject, "Our
National Trust" and his remarks were
very appreciably received by those
present. He dwelt upon our trusts of
religious freedom, our trust of terri
tory and our trust of population, and
spoke of how we may be true to the
trusts.
In his opening remarks the minister
dwelt upon the trust of religious free
dom, impressing his hearers with the
thought that it is the power internal
and external to make the best for our
selves and that he did not mean
trust of liberation. In defining this
trust he said that it meant the right to
render fealty to God according to the
dictates of educated consciousness.
This was the freedom contemplated by
the forefathers OF this country and
there is to be no State church, no
blighting of ecclesiasticism and no civil
disability.
He next took UP the trust of territory
and pointed out the advantages Of our
resources. We have an area of three
million square miles, not including
Alaska, said Rev. Mr.. Oliphant, and
one and a half millions is arabic
land The production of this country
is immense. Crops, after feeding fifty
thousand cattle in 1879, furnished
more than two hundred and eighty
three thousand bushels of grain for ex-
port. Edward Atkinson says that we
could easily support one hundred mil
lion people without increasing the area
of a single farm. Agricultural re-
sources fully developed would feed
one billion souls. Gladstone once said
that at no distant future the United
States will be the richest country on
the globe.
Another point which the reverend
gentleman very clearly developed was
the trust of population. He estimated
hot box III o;c
pie in the United States, and that chief
among the perils to be considered is
immigration, which is caused by the
attractive influences of our country,
the expellent influences of the old
country and the facilities for travel.
For every one inhabitant in this coun-
try in 1897 the land was capable of
sustaining twenty. 1t is quite differ
ent in other countries. In England
only one person in twenty is an owner
of land; in Scotland only one in TWEEN
ty-five; in Ireland only one in seventy
nine. More than three-ffths of the
United Kingdom is in possession of
landlords, each of whom owns more
than one thousand acres of land.
He also pointed out the advantages
or the puonc school system in America
and commented upon the Characters
tics of various countries, serving to
explain their expellent force, which is
one of me principal causes or immigra-
ton. He next exhorted his hearers
especially against the periIs of wealth
and intemperance, and in conclusion
very carefully developed the point that
we can be true to these trusts by diffu-
sion of liberty, intelligence, property
and conscientiousness by the proper
observance of the Lords day; by OPP
posing the liquor traffic; by good
Christian citizenship and by aggres-
siye evangelism.