The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-11-23

out it's contradictions Time was
when we led forth those whose re-
figious views differed from our own
and gave them a sample of ante-mor-
tenn creation. 1t was hard on the vic
tim. but it was necessary in order
to protect our own pet theories from
the onslaughts of the hereto.
A little later the stake, as an aux
ilary TO the progress OF the true
faith, was abolished, and the here
tics were merely banished or impris-
oned. As we grew less certain of
our own opinions. the onward move
ment was steady, until at last we
stood in the full and radiant morn
ing of religious freedom.
Today it is the universal senti-
ment that man must be left free to
work out his own salvation. We may
advise, we may demonstrate, but few
indeed would dare to assume the
responsibility of bringing to bear any
unusual pressure to fix upon another
ones own religious opinions. The
broadcast freedom of will and belief
and action is encouraged by the
leaders in the religious movement.
Along intellectual lines the pro-
gress of the race has been no less
marked Socrates was forced to
drink the fatal hemlock. To-day the
man who discovered affinities
rooms abroad in security, and he of
the soul-kiss'' is unmolested.
Gallileo was denied the privilege
of publishing his theories, yet today
we listen without concern to the man
who has communicated with Mars.
Along the lines of religion and
science men are taught to develop
their own theories, opinions and be-
liefs. Would any of us go back to
the time when our opinions and
ideas were inherited like property,
and when individual acquisitions of
knowledge were regarded with the
same suspicion and punished with
even greater severity than an Illegal
acquisition of money?
Not on your favorite hobby.
Witness the Chinese. All the races
of the world would have the Chinese
habit of thought but for the free
dom which has been won, not with
out reverses and the occasional re-
lapse.
With freedom of thought, both in
tellectual and spiritual, has come the
strength which freedom alone can
give, and the progress and develop
ment of which freedom is the SUI
preme inspiration.
But what of the morals of men?
Can we boast of the same pro-
gress? In many quarters of the coun-
try there is an insistent demand that
we have our morals ready-made
tied mp in neat package, labeled
ndHult Will anu pun lllo
our waiting hands.
Temptation cannot be eradicated
in this earthly world. Humanity
must go on SHINING and suffering, in
spite of the we'll meant efforts of
the reformers. And it is the eternal
truth that moral strength never
comes through the removal of temp
taton, but through resistance of
temptation.
AS the forest oak is to the hot
house palm, so is the man who has
VIGOROUSLY met temptation in the
open field to the clustered weakling
who shrinks from the combat.
The oak is all the stronger for the
storms it has resisted and the shocks
which it has withstood. Mans moral
fiber is made strong and lasting and
serviceable by contact with evil, and
he energies from each conflict more
able to resist the next onslaught.
There will be those in every war
who will fall by the way. Without
the terrible examples the world
would still be wandering in circle,
without conception of the right or
the wrong. We know virtue only by
contrast with vice
All in all, moral freedom is the
principle to which we must cling, If
we earn the ultimate triumph, -
Fort Worth Star.