The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-29

| trating our first proposition rhat there are important points of, agreement be-
 tween the Gospel and our American life in respect to ethical candor and frank 1 ness let us formulate another main
 proposition which will be of use in in- terpreting not only these but many oth-
 CT facts of public and private life: There is no guarantee of moral integ-
 rity and spiritual health like a frank and open committal to the criticism and corrective of society.
 If the Spirit of God is in us we shall
 recognize the same Spirit there to
 chasten and encourage us. God speaks
 to us most by the mouth or the eye or the deed of our neighbor, therefore it
 behooves us not to shut ourselves away from Him, but to multiply Him, and encounter Him as often as we may, in neighborly relations.
 It is in secret that the hidden things of shame multiply like bacteria. It is in the open that they die. Modern plumbing is open and exposed for safe- ty There is security in the lighted streets, in the open tribunals, in the free platform and the free press. A morbid sensuousness may sometimes abuse the freedom, but healthful moral ity can bear an amazing deal of that kind of abuse. In fact, it generally fat tens on it, while 1t brings inflammation and death to it's authors. Slowly but surely the yellow journal Is eliminating itself before the gaze of American so- ciety, for 1t contains the clements of It's own dissolution. It does not tell the truth and so commend itself to every mans conscience in the sight of God.
 Slowly but surely the quack doctor, the shyster lawyer, the self-ordained clergyman, the scholar with fake de- grees and slippery craftsmen of every ilk are digging their own graves while they demonstrate their own need of burial.
 American ideals are violated when ever they become the exclusive proper ty of few. The intention is to take the whole people into the council, not alone for the wisdom they may give, but for the good they shall receive, and especially for the guarantee of safety which it furnishes. It is in harmony with this ideal that the new system of civil service is surely, and not so slow ly establishing itself in our country, as q means of safety and education by it's ethical openness. It carries with it the doom of the man who is in politics for what he can get out of it. And it will save the nation the shame of send ing incompetent men to represent 1t where there are difficult cases of diplo- macy that are likely to occur at any time, an edifying illustration of which we have just now in the well-meaning but as appears from reports the bung- ling of the case of Miss Stone.
 It is by object lessons chiefly, and by all the other agencies of education and conviction that our people must be led to love and obey this ideal of our Chris tian community, and to trust for it's health to the free winds of heaven, the Spirit of God, which as moral beings we must breathe or perish. We have to give thanks to God this year, thoughsin tears and anguish, for an overwhelm- ing object lesson in these very virtues When in the whole history of this coun- try has there been produced such a uni- versa and profund impression of the supreme worth of clean and open char acter as at the death of President Me-
 
 Kinley? Dredful as was the cost, may we not hope that the lesson in moral in- tegrity and spiritual. health has been worth all it cost? Especially is this true If now we have learned little bet ter to appreciate moral worth in it's na tural and normal place in the home, l the streets and the market place.
 Overshadowed as we are to-day by 1 that great cloud of witnesses who have | come up through the tribulation of mor- al struggle. from all nations and kin dreds and tongues and by our Ameri- l can addition to the roll of the heroes of | faith, from John Davenport to William | Mckinley, surrounded as we are here | by the sacred dust of the fathers and | by many tokens of strenuous faith and | moral striving on sea and land, who can refrain from lowing an uncovered head in devout Thanksgiving to Almighty Sod, in humble acknowledgment not 1nly for fruitful harvests and for pre- vailng health and peace, but also for he nearer approach of the reign and peace, but also for the nearer approach If the reign of God by his Spirit the fa of tho A merjcan npODle2