The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-05-14

GOWu To blDle LI11eS we unu Iudt Aura
ham was not only the husband Of Sa-
rah, but also the father of lshmael by
his handmaiden Hagar. David and Solo
mon were the husbands of many wives.
But now the condition of society is all
changed. The marital status has gone
back to the Edenic state. Now by law
there is only one husband for one wife
and one wife for one husband. 1t has
gone back to the ideal condition God
first ordained. which the psalmist de-
scribed when he wrote, God setteth
the solitary in families" Such being
the social condition among the civilized
races, l believe we are one and all
ready to grant that no class Of men
are more willing to recognize their re-
sponsibility to God than those who
conscientiously try to fulfill their re-
sponsibilities in family life.
Intolerance Overthrow.
The next great battle for the world s
redemption was fought and won when
the frowning walls Of religious in
tolerance were battered down and the
torture dungeons of the dark ages were
forever opened to the purifying light
All. the battle for religious liberty was
a long and bitter struggle! 1t was
not won in a day, decade, a genera
ton or a century. 1t fought its way
through the flying stones and the
bloody swords and the spears and the
martyrdoms of Christians of apostolic
times. The fight for emancipation went
on among the cracking flames of burn
ing Rome. 1t clutched by their threats
into the Roman Coliseum. 1t defcd
the lowering looks and the blasphe-
nous oaths of the mobs that gathered
in the Florentine square of beautiful
Italy to see Savonarola die. 1t suffered
all the agonies which Fox recorded in
mis- History of the Lives and Suffer
ings and Triumphant Deaths of the
Primitive as Well as the Protestant
Martyrs" 1t steeled the backbone of
lion hearted Martin Luther as we'll as
of John Huss. 1t fought it's battle IN
til at last the opened Bible was placed
in the hand Of the common people and
every man was free to worship God &C
cording to the dictates Of his con-
science, whether in the Christian
church, the Jewish temple or the Mo-
hammedan mosque.
No man can be said to worship God
in sincerity and truth unless he bows
before the mercy seat under the i'm
pulse of free will When Tongue
mazda headed the inquisition and
Charles TX. was drunk with human
blood and Bloody Mary" signed the
death warrant of over 800 martyrs and
Charlemagne forcibly drove the people
of his kingdom into the rivers, where.
like struggling cattle, the priests bap-
tiZed them by the wholesale, fear may
have made the frightened men and
women bow and profess Christ, but
fear never yet made a true Christian.
You cannot terrorize a man into the
kingdom of God with the executoner's
ak or the slave masters lash.
The Bible is full of the gospel invita-
tons ito come" 'tCome. for all things
are now ready. Come, come, come"
But upon no page of the Bible can you
find anywhere the words written:
''Come to Christ against your Will"
Come with hate in your hearth
s'Come with defying sin on your lips"
"Come as a trembling murderer is led
to the scaffold or to incarceration for
lifeT' Thus we find that the second
rrao4 oprua.fI n, oyor, ont for tho p-orI5,s
redemption was taken when bigotry's
swarthy limbs were manacled, when
the Kissing tongue of persecution was
stilled and when religious liberty could
lift up her smiling face toward the
heavens and stretch forth her white
hands to lead. as well as TO protect,
free human race
The World In Sympathy. "
The next great onward movement for
the worlds redemption is to be found
In the commercial supremacy which
has brought all the five continents and
the islands of the sea into sympathetic
touch. There was a time when a man
rarely travelled 100 miles from the place
where he was born. His grave was
dug only short distance from where
the tree was planted out of which his
cradle was cut. The world was not
only divided into nations, but the ma
tons into distinct and antagonistic
clans. The Scotchman born in the
highlands could not understand the d.
alect of the lowlanders. But now ev-
erywhere commercialism is making of
one blood all nations that dwell upon
the face of the earth. The American
sailors ''Yo. heavew is heard by the
wharfs Of Tarshish. The East Indian
and the ships for China
and Japan and the Philippines and
Australia and New Zealand follow each
other through the Suez canal. The
railroads of Brazil and the steamship
lines of Chile and Buenos Ayres and
Cape Town are owned by foreign cap
ital. The Russian warships are being
built in the American shipyards. A
great international war is becoming
more and more an impossibility be-