Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-07-18
The Supreme Need of Enough
Good People to Keep Us Going
By BISHOP ". A. oANDLnR.

President GARFIELD, Of Williams Cob
lege. at the recent commencement of
that institution, delivered an address
Grafton by all who love our country.
1t is one of the most noteworthy adj
dresses of the year.
/ The point of the address is simple
demand for goodness among the people
as our only reliable hope for political
well-being. Referring to various devices
of the political reforms, such as direct
primaries, referendums, commission gov
eminent for cities, etc, he Is reported
as saying, These laws may be we'll
| enough-some. of them--but at best they
only concern our political machinery;
but what the welfare and fate Of the
country, our government, and all depends
| on is raising and training enough good
people to keep US going" This is simple
enough, but just because it is simple
4 we are liable to regard 1t as of small
| Importance. We overvalue complicated
political machinery and undervalue the
/ only power that can make any political
machinery efficient, viz, the moral char
acter of the people. A genuinely vir-
tuous people will get on well under most
| any sort of government, and a bad peo-
pie will first defile and then destroy
| the best government that human wisdom
| can conceive.
President Garfield is further reported
| as saying that as a nation We are no
longer religious but merely moral, and
/ that If we continue to move in the same
direction we will presently rebel against
morals, just as many have already re-
belled against religion. This a most
/ important matter to consider. Liberal
ism In doctrine ends always in licentious-
ness in life. We can not cut the roots
Of faith without whitening the leaves of
morality which spring from religion.
A year or more ago there appeared In a
| popular magazine series of articles
which showed how sertain instructors
in a number of the great universities
had first repudiated the teachings of
| Christianity and then proceeded to as
| sail fundamental moralities. The writer
| was denounced as a ''muck-raker," but
to his specific charges no straight Tor
ward and unequivocal denial was ever
made, and it is fact OF which have
knowledge that some of his charges
were absolutely correct in every partic-
ular Men who imagine that they are
| called upon to attack the settled truths
| of religion easily acquire the disposition
| to assail all fixed truths and to SUD
vert the most necessary supports OF the
social system They become more eager
to appear independent than to be true
more jealous for freedom Of opinion tnan
for soundness Of opinion This vaingio-
rious spirit has been altogether TOO prev
alent in the land during the last decade
Our country is new country, and being
cut off from older lands with their hab-
its Of conservatism, its greatest peril Is
redicalism Our people become adven-
turous in thought from seeing so much
adventurousness In daily life. They &C
quire a fondness for novelties and run
eagerly after the picturesque and SEN
sational They love to be startled. But
about that wholesome goodness, upon
which government and society must rest
in order to be permanent, there is moth
| ing sensational. 1t is serious, solemn, 1
and sublime in all it's aspects. A piquant
presentation of it Is PROCLAMATION of It,
A morpid appetite of an individual or a
nation for the sensational leads to
frivolousness of mind wholly incapable
of approaching such moral worth. The
tickle Athenians fell into such state of
mind to their utter undoing. St Luke
tells us in tie Acts of the Apostles that
they spent their time in nothing else,
but either to tell or to hear some new
thing ACTS, xvii: 21). Being possessed
with a mania for the new they lost all
| interest in the true, and when Paul came
| among them with the eternal gospel
their request to him revealed their shall
lowness of soul: May we know what
this NEW doctrine, whereof thou speak
est, is?' When once it was communi-
Gated to them, and the sensation of
hearing the new thing was passed, they
were ready to mock the great Apostle as
a mere babbler who had ceased to be en-
pertaining. This was the most natural
result in the world. Men who use the
proclamation of truth as a diversion soon
come to treat all truth as a toy, and
when the newness is worn off the toy
they toss it aside and call for some
other novelty. But essential truth is and
must be in its very nature commonplace.
1t is like the commonplace air. the
commonplace sun, the commonplace
earth, and the commonplace armament.
| If it were otherwise, IL would be unat-
tainable by the common people who fill
the world. 1t is vastly more important,
therefore to cause people to reverence
as inviolable well-known truth than to
set them searching for novelties in NOR
ais and religion. The Ten Command
ments, which cover all the outward fea-
lures of virtuous living, were proclaimed
at Sinai with the most sublime nantes
tations of the divine glory yet among
them there was not so much as one prin-
ciple unknown to Israel before. God
sought to inspire by all the impressive
sights and sounds of the Mount the most
abiding reverence for everyday goodness.
Respect lor these familiar principles of 4
virtue underlies all greatness in person
al and national life, and disregard of
them leads to all disastrous defeats of
men and nations. Emerson said most
limpressively, II look upon the simple
and childish virtues of veracity and hon.
esty as the root of all that is sublime
| in character. To the same purpose
spoke Charles Kingsley, when he de-
clared, THE first an last business of
every human being, whatever his sta
ton, party, cree, capacities, tastes or
duties is morality; virtue, virtue always
virtue. Nothing that man will ever in
vent will absolve him from the necessity
of being good as God is good, righteous