Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-03

row.
when open in every household for family
reading. Reform has always been created
by it. In its name abuses of all kinds have
been perpetrated 1t has been quoted by
all sides in great moral controversies and ir
conflicts over the expansion of liberty, but
in the end the eternal truths which are
seen by the eye OF faith have invariably
conquered. We have seen in our own day
high-minded and patriotic men who would
suffer all sacrifices and court death for Their
country and it's liberties, and do the same
to keep alive the system of slavery. When
ever the Bible and its teachings are used tC
justify wrongs there can always be found a
dominant economic reason influencing the
mind. When the whole wealth of large
communities. all their industries and every.
thing which tends to make life easy. com:
Portable and self-respectful is dependent
upon any system however had, whether 1t
be slavery, or gambling, or immortality OF
other kinds, conscience becomes so numb or
perverted that the average mind will find
justification for continuance Of conditions
without which the people see nothing for
themselves but ruin and pauperism.
Effect of Revolution.
When however, a revolution with all its
attendant horrors of battle and burnings
and devastation and poverty clarifies the
intellectual and moral atmosphere, the
scales fall at once from the eyes of those
who have been deluded by the tremendous
pressure of their environment and necess1-
ties. There is no one today IN our country
among those who honestly sustained and
fought for the system of slavery who would
not fight with equal ardor and earnestness
to prevent it's re-establishment.
1t is a well-known fact, attested in many
instances in all countries that towns which
were models of sobriety and good citizen
ship have become the reverse, and for this
reason In their former state the children
received the inestimable blessings of home
teachings at their mothers knee from the
great book and the authority of the church
penetrated everywhere. AS they become
older without spiritual instruction they
cease to be susceptible and drift away from
the anchorage of a Christian home. In a
few years the whole atmosphere of those
places are changed. The liquor saloon in
it's worst form the pool room and gambling
house and every attractive form of debas-
ing morality are visible just to the extent
that the Bible has passed out of the life
of the youth.
England and United States.
Certainly the United States and Great
Britain are the freest countries in the
world and they are also the best governed.
In both of them popular suffrage controls
elections and manhood governs the state.
They increase in power in wealth and in
all that makes for happiness to the citizen
and his family because the government is
based upon the people, who are taught and
reared and fashioned and formed by the
Bible
The Pilgrim Fathers differed from all i'm
migrants or cOlonists. They were Well-to-
do people in their own country Many of
them had brilliant opportunities for ad-
vancement in the state and in the church.
but their study of sacred writ has evolved
an undying faith in civil and religious lib
erty. They abandoned every comfort, sac
r1f1ced every material interest and broke
every tender tie which binds people to home
and its association and to the memories of
the loved ones who have gone; braved the
terrors of the wilderness and of savages
that they might worship God according to
the dictates of their own conscience The
charter which they prepared and signed in
the cabin of the Mayfiower said that the
object of their coming was to create in
this new land a government of inst and
equal laws 1t was departure. It's inspira-
ton was not in the philosophers not in the
mysteries. not In strange cults, certainly
not IN their experience. 1t was built en-
tlreiy upon the book which was the most
sacred treasure OF every family in the COM
munfty. AS they look down from the other
world they see nation of 50, COO 600 of neo
pie, as an international power the fore
most and the strongest, as a people the
most prosperous.
NO one can study the lives of the mon
VINO served In the Continental Congress or
In the convention which formed the Constt-
tuition of the United States without being
overwhelmingly impressed with the stprn
and unbending religious sentiments which
characterized them. They did not hesitate
to question, criticise or even advise as to
the DEGREES of the government which thew
thought were against the rights of the neo
pie They cultivated spirit of sturdy re-
sistence to any exercise of arbitrary power
They found in the Bible text and authority
for the ideas which eventuated In the Dec
iaration of Independence. They discovered
the true line for the pulpit between politics
ana religion. There Is a phase Of politics
where morality is assailed where order and
law are in peril, where rights and liberties
are at stake, when the preachers duty is
very clear 1t Is necessary to the existence
OF free government that there should be DO
itical parties acting as checks upon each
other. With the ordinary advocacy or de-
tense of the financial, Industrial and eco
nomical policies the church has nothing to
do But when questions Of the highest mo-
ment to the home, to the family. to the
rising generation are to be settled at the
ballot box, then the church has everything
to do.
Fine Product Of Citizenship.
Zone Of the finest products of citizenship
OF any country was Abraham Lincoln He
had no advantages of school or college. He
educated himself under the most trying and
discouraging conditions. For many wears
and during the critical formative period of
character and mind the Bible was almost
his sole book for reading and instruction.
It's principles are to be seen in all his acts
and especially in those notable speeches and
inaugural addresses which have become
part Of the best patriotic literature of The
country. With malice toward none. with
charity for ALL was rule of conouct sell
dom practiced by those in power, but abso-
Iuteiy necessary IN mis- great position as the
executive of the United States during the
most tremendous civil war of modern times
and still it's President when the ma ssior. -