The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-09


well as by ignoring other laws, they are
undermining the very foundations OF
our Tree government and as to the vio-
latlon OF the Sabbath, it may be said !
NO Sabbath. no church. Let the sane
tity of Gods holy day be disregarded
and it is simply a question of time
when every law that would restrain
men in the pursuit of pleasure or of
business, will be considered as a relic
of barbarism
1.-THE same statement holds good with
regard to the social clubs which delb-
erately refuse to obey our Sunday liq-
quor laws. These men are fostering the
spirit of anarchy. Their professions of
patriotism and of religion are alike
hypocritical. No true patriot, whether
he be Jew or Christian, will trample
the law of the land underfoot And,
more than that, some of these men
those especially who pose as the model
conference.-the emancipated intellects
of our community-are obnoxious to
the charge of being accessory to the
guilt of the attempt upon the life of
our President. They have not, indeed,
approved or condoned that particular
deed; but theirs is the same spirit of
unbelief in the sanctity of law, and the
same unbelief of Divine Revelation that
inspired the mad act of the would-be
murderer of Mckinley.
Need for Reverence for God.
'And in order to this revival of rever-
ence for law there is needed a revival
of reverence for God. Men will not will
Ingly render unto Caesar the things
that are Caesars unless they are will
ing also to render unto God the things
that are Gods. Civil law roots itself
in the eternal principles of right con-
tanned in the Jurisprudence adopted by
| that ancient commonwealth of which
! God himself was King and head. The
! Christian religion bids men submit to
every ordinance of man for
the be Lords % t sake' K whether a IS
supreme, or unto governors as unto
them that are sent by him for the pun
ishment of evil-doers, and for the
| praise of them that do WELL Just in
| proportion as any community is Chris
! tian in sentiment it is law abiding.
| Recognition therefore, of Divine au-
thority, as underlying the law of our
land, is necessary in order to the pre-
servation of our free institutions.
II would urge upon you, then, the
| duty of reverence for the Bible. Be as
sured that this book, upon whose prin-
ciples every great modern common
wealth is founded, and which underlies
| the whole fabric of our modern civili-
cation, is not to be lightly dismissed
to the category of old wives fables.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom This is true morally, So
cially, politically. Reverence for Cod
regard for his will as embodied in this
Oldest of moral codes-is the very basis
of individual integrity of character. The
great infidels of the world have been
men who justified the commission of
almost every iniquity here forbidden.
Reverence for God must underly any
pure social system. Just in proportion
as we drift away from this book, we
drift toward free divorce, which is
free love and libertinism, and on to-
ward every other moral evil Reverence
for Gods law is the foundation of all
just and enlightened government
Uphold the Sabbath.
1.-THE church of God, so often de-
spised, deserves and demands the re-
srect of the people. She has ever been
the champion of the oppressed, and
throughout the ages has stood for the
| rights of the poor, the widowed and the
fatherless. And when workingmen al
| low themselves to be prejudiced against
the church by such shallow thinkers
and crazy theorists as the harlot from
whom Czolgosz derived his inspira-
ton, they are turning against the only
institution which can guide them to
abiding peace and prosperity. And,
further let me urge upon all the sane
tity of the Sabbath The day which the
| civil law makes day of rest, and
which the church elects as the day
when men and women and little chill
dren are to be called together for wor-
ship and for meditation upon God and
heaven and immortality, may not be
despised and desecrated at will with
out results that are awful in their
menace both to the individual and the
nation. Destroy this institution, and
you destroy the church of God, and all
its holy ordinances, and when the
| Church of God falls--if that were pos
sible-the very pillars which uphold
the state would be thrown down, and
anarchy will be the final result
for this world, and what, think
you, smust be the result in the world
to come?
Finally, if we would be sincere in
our sympathy for the heroic sufferer
who lies PROSTATE at Buffalo, blessed
by the prayers of nation-if we would
manifest the sincerity of our own
prayers in his behalf-let us seek to
emulate that Christian department
which has won for him the confidence
and the love of this great common
wealth. Let us revere the Blessed
Book in which he believes. and upon
which his noble character has been
formed; let us love the Sabbath as he
loves it, and attend upon it's services
as he has done. both in his public and
in his private life. Let us, by word and
deed as he has done seek to uphold
the truth of God visibly expressed in
the church and it's ordinances; and so
will we help to bring on the blessed
period dreamed of by prophet, sage and
poet, when
1.-The common sense of most shall hold
a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber,
lapt in universal law"