Milford chronicle., 1903-05-15

back TO the Edenic state. Now by Law
there is only one husband for one wifi
rnd one wife for one husband. 1t ha
! zone back to the ideal condition Got
first ordained, which the psalmist de
Fcribed when lie wrote, "God settetl
the solitary in families" Such beins
the social condition among the civilized
races, l believe we are one and al
ready to grant that no class of mer
are more willing to recognize their re
sponsibillty to God than those who
conscientiously try to fulfill their re
spOnsibiltics in family life.
Intolerance OverthrOwn.
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 a bitter struggle! 1t was
not won in a day, a 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. Tile fight for emancipation went
on among the cracking flames of burn
| ing Rome. 1t clutched by their throats
| the man eating monsters that leaped
I into the Roman Coliseum. 1t defied
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
his 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 well as
of John Huss 1t fought its battle un-
til at last the opened Bible was placed
in the hand of the common people and
every man was free to worship God ac-
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 Torque- |
mazda headed the inquisitlon and .
Charles IX. was drunk with human /
blood and Bloody Mary" signed the /
death warrant Of over 300 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 executioner's
ax or the slave masters lash
The Bible is full of the gospel invita-
tions ito come" Come. for ali things
are now ready. Come. come. comeP
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
Come with defying sin on your lipsw
Come as Il trembling murderer is led
10 the scaffOld or to incarceration for ,
ife" Thus we find that the second I
great onward movement for the worlds !
redemption was taken when bigOtry's ,
'warthy limbs were manacled, when (
he kissing tongue of persecution was I
titled and when religious liberty could (
lift up her smiling face toward the \
leayens and stretch forth her white a
lands to lead, as well as to protect. a /
rec human race.
The World In sympathy. v
The next great onward movement for t
he worlds redemption is to be found
n the commercial supremacy which
as brought all the five continents and
he islands Of the sea into sympathetic Fl
ouch. There was time when man II
lrely Travelled 100 miles from the place %
there he was born. His grave was n
ug only a short distance from where n
ne tree was planted out of which his ri
radle was cut. The world was not ?,
My divided into nations, but the ma II
ons into distinct and antagonistic ~
ans. The Scotchman born in the III
ighlands could not understand the di- II
Iect Of the lowlandcrs. But now ev- 7,
=
ne blood all nations that dwell upon n,
le face of the earth The American h,
lilors "Yo, heave" is heard by the h,
harris of Tarshish. The East Indian T.
erchantmen and the ships for China ic
nd Japan and the Philippines and o,
ustralia and New Zealand follow each r
her through the Suez canal. The in
ilrOads of Brazil and the steamship r
les Of Chile and Buenos Ayres and In
ape Town are owned by foreign cap n,
Al. The Russian warships are being p,
tilt I'm the American shipyards. \ m
eat international war is becoming
ore and more an impossibility be- M
use the Turkish mortgages are held bo
Paris. Berlin and London and Wall no
rect. and the foreign capitalists must A,
Sc or fall together. W,
But from spiritual standpoint why oil
we say that a great battle was won 80
cause commercialism has brought all ,,e