Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-07-18

as God is righteous. holy as God is
holy
1t follows from all these things that
President Garfields contention is most
Just when he insists that the supreme
need of our country is producing
enough good people to keep US going"
We have enough people of one sort and
another; we have enough bright people.
But we need more downright good peo-s
pie Are we sowing for such "a crop?
1t is to be feared that we are not
We are trying to devise all sorts of
political machinery and social devices
to secure our well-being without the
pains of personal and popular virtue.
But nothing that can be invented in the
form of machinery on the outside of us
can substitute the virtue which should
be firmly established within us. Re-
calls and referendums, direct primaries
and "trust-busting'' statutes, commits
sion governments and peace treaties.
not one, nor all of these things, how
ever good they may be, can save us
when our faith is dead and our virtue
persisted. The reformers are working
on the mere surface of things. But
something more than superficial refor-
nations are required. righteousness
must be enthroned in the hearts of the
people, and this cannot be done unless
God is feared and loved by men. There
is nothing commanding in abstract
righteousness. Goodness speaks with
authority only when it comes to us with
the voice of God. National virtue can
not be expected from a defaulted faith
and a bankrupt religion Blessed is,
the nation whose God is the Lord and
none other is thus blessed.
Wherefore the plain men, of un-
swerving principle and unfaltering pie
ty who are seeking to revive religion
in the land, are the men from whose
tlabors we may hope most. Tney are
not such seen about capitols and coun
Gil chambers, they do not hurry from
their pulpits to the newspapers to hand
! in reports of their sermons and print
self-praise Of their extraordinary abili-
ties; but they keep alive such faith as
is among US by constantly leading those
who will follow them into the very
presence of the Eternal King Without
such men our Christianity would per-
ish utterly, and when Christianity shall
have persisted from among us all our
institutions will have died with it.
| Commenting upon DIR. Garfield's ad-
Dress Harper's Weekly, a periodical
which can hardly be charged with cant
or Puritanism. says:
1.-The indispensable need of the country is
good people. Without enough OF them we
shall be in trouble. We have sufficient
educational apparatus to produce efficiency,
but what of the spirit that is to direct
and control that efficiency? That is the
concern of religion. and 1t may properly
/ be impressed upon all these graduating
youths that 1T is the most important con-
In sight,
Continuing the editor of the Weekly
goes on to saw:
Back of all our institutions is the
| Christian religion. 1t has been mistaught
mispractised, hobbled. strait-jacketed. and
perverted much of the time going on two
thousand years; nevertheless it has done
the world enormous good. shaped and in
spired millions Of beneficial lives, and con-
stitutes now by far the most important
fact In the whole treasury of human
| knowledge. It is the very brains OF our
civilization. Our politics are only sound
as they accord with. Its spirit. Civiliza-
ton. IL II Is to go forward, must go for
ward in harmony with that spirit. There
important for these likely young men Just
getting out of college to get some com
prehension and some appreciation of the
religion of Christ, and discern, however
imperfectly. what it is and what IT is
not -
Few will be found to deny these ar
firmations. but will many be found to
accept them with all their practical re-
quirements? Will our legislators in their
Legislature on behalf of education take
account OF the special value or the
educational institutions as in which re-
ligion, as well as intellectual culture. Is
fostered and enforced? VIII all our
people turn away from pursuing the
various picturesque schemes of reform
which delude them and in the emo
| inevitably disappoint them, and pursue
goodness as the supreme. good? VIII
the men who assume to lead the people
forgets their personal ambitions long
enough to preach the gospel of goodness
as our only deliverance? If they have
intellectual ability enough to lead the
people wisely and well, they are oblig-
ed to know that there is no other hope
for us; let them teach what they know
is true. and have done with Their ingen-
ious devices to secure political we'll
being without popular virtue. Let
them above all things set an example of