Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1907-10-17
j. ,. sPURcEoN, President.

IN gypsy camp. Our eyes fill with
tears and our blood runs hot with in
d1gnation as we read of such unphil-
osophical and unscientific manage
ment of children. We can understand
such conditions as they exist among
among the chill SHOWS and under the
benighted civilization Of Russia. But
here they appeal, even though they
are infrequent But w1lile our pulses
beat faster over the sins of a gypsy
camp we are strangely unresponsive
TO the piercing walls of the multi
tudes OF our own children-no, not
our own-to the walls of the multi
tudes of our neighbors' children, who.
day by day, in land Of freedom and
Christian enlightenment, are crushed
in the mechanism of our modern
commercial system. We have ears
and hearts and ready hands to help
the misery Of the Chinaman who
cries out against the greed of "most
Christian England" as she forces the
the curse Of opium upon an unwilling
nation. But we seem hardly to hear
the call Of the throngs whose lives
IN America are wrecked because of
the unholy traffic in alcoholic bever-
ages that to-day is permitted to exist
by and with the consent and suffrage
of the adult membership of the
Church of Jesus Christ. And Just
SO long as we mourn over gypsies and
wax indignant over the wickedness of
the English people, the while we wax
our ears against the call of our chill
dren IN the homeland for help and
chance to live as God meant they
should we are, to say the least, So
| cially hypocritical. And no man may
deny the count.
America is hypocritical N her atti-
tude toward government. 1t is the
fashion to declaim about the vices of
Babylon, the rottenness of ancient
Rome, the sins of Philip the second, :,
the crimes of modern Russia, the ra-
I pacity of>European nations. We are
astounded that the civil corruption
of any nation could be so totally in
decent as to consign sailors to be sent
to death inside Of ill-equipped and
still more lily handled men of war.
We thank God that we do not live
| under an autocracy that is as con-
| which holds the reins of Russian gov
| ernment. And yet, wide-awake as we
are to the criminalities Of the bureau
u dClC SOtSI "a Lu0 ttuSSldn
Gar. we are but half-awake to the
realities of the existing corruption all
around us. For the fact is that in the
face Of our history, our inheritance,
our opportunities, our Christian in
fuences, we are sorry spectacle to
the nations. We glory that we have
no autocracy of birth. But by our
own consent we have allowed to reign
over us as greedy set Of political
pirates as ever sunk ship. Their
| only distinction is that they are able
to fool most OF the people most Of
the time. The governmental condi-
tions exiGtant In nearly every hamlet
and city in the United States OF Amer
lea are go absolutely disgraceful that
we ought to be ashamed. Our polit-
ical dictators, with few, and they lus-
trOus, exceptions, do as they please
with the sublimest self-conf1dence i'm
aginable. And SO long as we are
grieved over the examples of govern
mental maladministration, ancient
and modern, with which we are fa-
miliar, and refuse to secure the puri-
f1cation Of our own political affairs,
and neglect to procure the political
execution of our political thugs aud
thieves and highbinders, whom we
/ have allowed to reign over us, we are
hypocritfcal in our assumption of gov
, ernmental virtue. And no man may
deny the count.
America is hypocritical intellectual
ly. We rejoice in the heritage Of in
tellectual freedom which is ours. We
give God praise that man may think
his thoughts after God here without