The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1903-12-10

TO permit every citizen to become law
unto himself. Governments could ex-.
ist only in name under such circum4
stances" Liberty not based uponmOr-
ulity is tyranny. Not only then must
we have laws whose deepest roots spring
fom morality, but those laws must be
ubeyed. The obedience to law and the
punishment of the lawbreaker Is divine.
Education, morality and religion have
given us a code of laws that are perhaps
not equaled on the globe. If we have
a government by the people and at the
same time have laws that are not what
they ought to be, 1t is prima facie evil
denee that the people are at fault.
In the hands Of the people our legis-
lation has been restricted until liberty
and protection have come to bless a
God-loving people; and for this do we
give thanks unto the God of glory and
praise the Almighty Father. Wethank
Him for life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. This we can not have un-
der the Greek idea, which Is to defy
person; neither under the Roman,
which Is law of individual. The Greeks
worshipped wisdom without seeing the
true. The Roman saw the abstract
truth and then created civil jurispru-
denee. But the American, purely
American, born on American soil, be-
gotten by the principles of Christianity,
gave the law Of liberty to man as man;
announced the ultimate authority of
both state and man liberty, the gift OF
divine will.
God by inspiration seems to have
made Paul the constitutional law
writer, because of which Christianity
has become historically, and by judicial
precedent, the common law Of our ma
tion. Hence we have our boasted re-
publican form of government, where
law is liberty and citizenship Is inde-
pendence. government where only
the people make it possible for its exist
ence. A government which can be
traced to Scandinavian origin, with
the principles deepening, broadening
and lengthening In the English-or, il
you please, the Saxon-cOmmOn wealth
of England. A country where the state
was the commonwealth. country
where its system of jurisprudence was
the common law, where the general
tribunal its common pleas; and where
finally in religious succession we find
the common prayer. A country with
constitution unwritten. But we praise
God today for our written constitution
We thank Him for the Declaration of
Independence. We thank Him for the
genius, the design and the form of our
government. We thank him that the
three departmeutments, legislative, ju-
dcial and executive, are essentially
Christian. We thank Him that we
recognize the fact that ''all men are Gre
ated equal"
Some one has said: Education is the
only sure foundation that can be de-
vised for the preservation Of freedom
and happiness" With that idea, the
American free-schOol system soon be-
gan to grow in favor with the people.
The common school, a. we understand
II and have II, unknown to the am
clients, is power for our development
aud protection. And rapidly are we
learning that the cultivation of the
head to the neglect of the heart is a
mistake. Studying the question careL
fully, we find that education and
Christianity go hand in hand. The
origin of the common school was in
the Christian church. The leaders in
the reformation saw its importancei
Martin Luther established free-school
system. 1t was no stranger to the
Scotch reform. 1t was in Switzerland
and not unknown in Prussia. But IN
these United States we have the COM
pletest and most successful free school