News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1910-12-14
SGapEGoar Reform !
A SERMON PREACHED IN THE CONGREGATIONAL
CHURCH At JOHNSON, DEC. An, 1910
BY REV. }. X. FULLER.

"And Aaron shall Jay both his hands
upon the head of the live goat, and con-
fess over him all the lniquities OF the
children of Israel, and all their trans
gre.sions in all their sins, pdtt1ng them
upon the head of the goat, and shall
send him away by the hand OF fit man
into the wilderness"
We are all agreed in believing that
mankind are in very imperfect coudi.
ton; that civil life, educational life and
religious life, bear testimony to crude
state of affairs. 1t is not my chief pur-
pose, however, this morning, TO dwell
upon existing evils, but rather to speak
of some of the methods by which macy
people propose to rid themselves of
these imperfect and ofJtimes indecent
conditions There are many kinds of
Ieformers in this world, mostly sluctr
we trust, but often so faulty thomsBlyrs
and unwise in thelr methods a to n It
only fail of correcting abuses, bat ac'u-
ally making them worse, almost incura-
BILE. There are moral and spiritual CON-
ditions with us which are the result of
unwlse and ignorant reformers. One
kind of reformer makes you think of the
dog barking at the mpon, another sees
IN the evils that aii1ict society chance
to make himself heard, aud perhaps ad.
mired, and possibly supported. Some
soc ard feel the woeful conditions and
rush at them like John Brown with his |
musket, or Roosevelt with his Big
Stick Others see the evil and the dan
gers to mankind, Vet are aim and seek |
TO remedy Conditions by constructive !
measures, going back to fundamental
principles, getting at the causes and .
attacking them rather than effects
Que of the first things that any re-
former should do is to first sit down !
and count The cost that is, choose his
tools, his weapons like the man in
Scripture, wishing 20 build d high
tower, or the man who was going 10
war with len thousand men against him
who was coming to meet him with
twenty thousand men.
But there is one Kind of attempted re-
form i'll particular that | wish To hold
up TO light at this time. 1t might as
well be called scapegoat reform. This
kind of reform has been used quite ex-
tensively i'll civil and religious life
general characteristic of the Teformer
who attempts this kind of reform is the
confidence with which he points, as he
thinks, to the exact cause OF the Trouble,
always foreign to himself and the pre-
else panacea for the same. Is there any
trouble with the body polite, anything
out of plumb in the educational world
anything wrong in religious matters
he knows just what causes the difficulty, i
just who is to blame, and what the SOW.
ereign cure-all. His remedy is that
described in our text, and so he has
authority for his reform meas.
1res. This reminds one of the saying:
'In religion what damned error but
;ome sober brow will bless it and approve
It with text" This kind of reforlner {
and this kind of reform is prevalent the {
wide world over.
In Ireland the landlords aud the land.
ord system is the scapegost of the Irish
people but the real trouble is the ina
)illty of the Irishman to rule himself.
and his love for fight. In Russia the i
Gar is the scapegoat, and again and l
again the people have sent him away by
1
troubles do not cease. In our own ma s
ion we have seen this kind of reform {
RED. Abraham Lincoln, James A. Gar !
ield, William Mckinley were all sent /
away as scapegoats. The scspegoat c
heory of reform, when carried to its |
INIT, bearing its legitimate fruit, is the l
,owardly assault of the assassin. Jesus y
christ was the scapegoat of the Jewish :
church, and the Christian church has c
helped to perpetuate this superstition i
md folly of Judaism. Who is the a
out on the Pacifi coast ? The 2
Japanese aud the Chinese. Why They L
i've cheaper and work cheaper, and SO :
he American hoodlums want TO drive 7
hem back to their native land willing =
o plunge the nations in war. L
Recently we have seen great political C
'arty, with much to its credit, strug- u
ling to its feet, rubbing Its eyes, after e
he cyclone struck in November, dill. q