The new age. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1896-1905, 1906-08-25

Registrar Of United States Treasury,
Makes Notable Address at Young
Peoples Congress in Washington,
d. c., August 2.
At the session late yesterday after
noon w. t. Vernon, registrar of the
United States treasury, delivered an
address on the theme, THE Work of
the Negro Minister in the Solution of
Pending Problems" in the course of
which he said, in part:
For more than nineteen centuries
the gospel of the Nazarene has been
proclaimed to erring mankind, and
the best hearts and best brains of the
world have been given to its foster
ing. | take up no pessimistic strain
rather cite unvaTnished truth when
/ say that there are wrongs to be
righted that shall yet call for the
supreme efforts of the good, the pure
and holy
I'VE believe the pulpit is calculated
to be, as ever, one of the greatest
forces in social progress. No one
doubts the work to be done. Further
more, we know it will not be done
of itself. The law of cause and effect
inexorably require effort for the ac-
complishment of results.
"An intelligent diagnosis of the con-
dition affecting society as a body has
revealed a mortuary list doubly in
creased because of disregard of the
laws of health, and the promoters of
public morals and human rectitude
are astounded to find our great cities
incubators of crime. The disclosures
thus manifested can but arouse to
activity those desiring betterment
in the condition of mankind.
Against such condition and results
our present leaders must battle.
Rectifying of Ills.
THE causes that lead to a rectify-
ing of humanity's ills must be the re-
suit of a growth of sentiment having
it's hopes centered in the words, And
l. if be lifted up from the earth will
draw all men unto me-.
81 observe here that the greatest
efforts for reform socially, for the
betterment of the oppressed of earth,
have come from efforts to put in force
the teachings of Him who died to
make men holy.
Twas the golden rule that turned
humanitys batteries on slavery and
wiped the tears of four million slaves
from their faces. 1t will be the golden
rule in force, when it comes, which
will make the whitest man and the
blacklist man of America shake hands
and say. Verify, all we are brethren
Daniel Webster once said, Where
have the life-giving waters of civil
zation ever sprung up, save in the
track of Christian ministry? Further
he said: I contend that no literary
efforts, no adjudications, no constitu-
tional discussions, nothing that has
ever been done or said in favor of the
great interest of universal man. has
done this country more credit at home
and abroad than our body of clergy
men
Application of Laws.
''The supposition that laws external
ly applied can rectify i'll is decidedly
erroneous. Laws can be repressive in
the case of the criminally inclined,
but nothing can be substituted for the
creation within of a clean heart the
lifting up of soul out of the quag-
mire of low thoughts and vicious
aims. To this end all are bending
energies to the confronting of the
mind of the individual to the better
things of life, to the planting within
of a hope of greatness-the result of
goodness. We have learned this, that
men can only be made wise and strong
from internal causes working outward
in accordance with an awakened con-
science
"Out of the effectual effort for i'm
provement has come the acknowledg-
ment that God gives men certain in
alienable rights-life, liberty. and the
pursuit of happiness-and that the
man who overrides or usurps these is
worse than a thief and a murderer.
Christ taught the duty of man to man.
To this more and more we must come.
The sea-born gale, the rolling plain
for hundreds of years have brought
the echo of the tocsin of war-but
the wars of this latter day have not
been for the sport and jest of kindly
murderers. They are the results of
some dispute as relates to the liber
ties of people who would no longer
be enslaved.
ITO train out of the lower self to
the higher self. to rise out of the ig-
noble into the noble, to direct Alright
the ever-growing mind, to make bet
ter the ever-evolving soul, to put to
work the idle hand, directed by the
enlightened brain inspired to nobler
deeds by an illumined spirit-'tis that
which makes man, no matter what the
race or color, Gods noblest work
manship and earth's all"