The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-05-16

By all We leave or do
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the white man'st burden
Have done with childish days
The llgntly-proffered laurel,
The easy, u~ngrudged praise.
Comes now to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with d~ear-bought wisdom.
The judgment Of your peers"
The Surrendered Birthright.
All the prophets from Isaiah down
to the writer Of today's editorial, have
the same summons of fidelity
to ones own divine mission. Israel
had a beautiful birthright, a holy her
ltage; she flung it away for the sake
Of the outgrOwn idols Of her neigh
bors, such as Abraha had turned his
back upon more than a thousand years
before. Just So. as the older nations
emerge from the thraldom of class
and caste distinction toward demo-
cracy, there is plainly noticeable in
the western continent, which may rev.
erently be called Gods new expert
ment station or laboratory, a tendency
to the creation Of these elsewhere dis
carded caste lines. No duty con-
fronts North America more severely
than that of fighting relentlessly for
it's sacred bequest Of democracy. There
is an American type-there is a Pc
cullar and divine reaSon for the eXiS-
tence Of this fresh civilization there
is a ~prOvidentia1 W~Orld-purpOse in the
erection on this lovely continent Of a
new order Of society This is the last
citadel of democracy; the last great
arena on which, seemingly, God
chooses to work out his precious prin-
ciple of a nation Of equals who Will
yield allegiance to him, and bear testf-
mony to his truth before the nations.
M fuIflment of this ideal is such a
high office Of patriotism that all mere
office-seeking, noney-grubbing, self
serving ambitions shrivel into con-
demned ignobleness alongside Of it.
Always, like the suspended sword
of Damocles, hangs the dread posi-
bility Of repeating lsraeIs blunder
and being discarded and punished.
The vineyard hat will not Dear fruit
will be laid wasteH The judgments Of
Jehovah are sure; never yet has NOR
tai might or majesty evaded or With
stood them.
For heather heart that puts her
In reeking tube and iron shard.
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to
guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word
Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord
A Sign of Decay.
High living is a sign Of low life.
Just as mental excitabillty indicates
a decay Of intellectual power, so social
and extremiSm-the mac
quest Of the unusual-are evidence OF
a waning vitality in society. Inc
resort to artificial stimulus is as GER
tain a token of weakness as the call
for the galvanic battery or oxygen
tank in the sick room is a sign OF eX-
IRENE danger. The prophet pointed
out to Israel the woes Of drunkenness
and of extrava gance and the oppres-
sion of the poo by the rich. Iha1
vav. always, in the long run, comes
disaster.
Nobody in his senses would pre-
scribe ascetcism for society,": that Is
a danger which nowhere portends.
Rut a measure of self-denial. includ-
ing abstinence from strong drink, IS
; surely a sign of social strength, equal
Nv with the remedying Of the oppres-
! sion OF the poor. The glst OF the IN
dictment of Isaiah is that they regard
not the work of the Lord'-they leave
God out Of account Surely 1t is Win
in the bounds CT moderation to say
hat this is the supreme offense pos
sihle to ChristendOm. l nave hearO
many and various charges against the
: British in India, but the worst anO
8 most f~ar-reaching Of all was that eS-
: pressed to me by a judge OF the mgr
t court. when he said: Most English
men in India disregard Christianity
! and their example is not such as e
I lead the natives to value reilglon
: their own. or any other
a That man was not talking missions
e he is a Brahmin, but the peril OF IN
e decline of the religious spirit in the
r East was clear to him. Graduali.
: there has grown up in my own MIN
the conviction, which Isaiah clearly
expressed concerning the Orient n
!. knew. hat the underlying problem O
. the grave and complex questions 0
: the East today, is this one of keeping
d the oncoming hosts of w~estern-edu