The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-11-05

science? What is it that fosters and
serves in the human soul the deep
abiding of righteousness that
We call conscience? / answer: Relig-
ion, the subsection Of man to God:
Fear God and keep His command
ments: for this is all man."
God set aside, matter remains. The
Judgments of God cast into oblivion
there remain only such rewards and
punishment as. are derived from mat
ter. With matter alone before men,
the aim of human existence is to
grasp as much of it as opportunity
allows, to wrest from it as much en-
joyment as it is able to produce. Sue
cess in the chase is a virtue; failure
In the chase is vice and sin. Make
matter the all in alphabetically the
trend of the individual and of society
list oWard that state of barbarism
where might is right, where pleasure
is the coveted goal, where the loss of
pleasure is the misery Of despair.
Philosophers of a Goddess. world are
at hand with their cobweb theories of
private and social righteousness, only
to reveal in the impotence of those
theories the abyss Of woe they open
beneath our feet when they tell us
that we may in safety close the portals
of the skies n look to sole earth
for salvation. They extol the beauty
Of righteousness; it is pointing to the
rose of the garden at the approach OF
the hurricane to speak Of the beauty
of virtue, while the mao instincts Of
passion are lighting within the heart
their acrid fires. They exhort us to
take into heed the welfare of human
society, the welfare of humanity yet
unborn. But what care does the indi-
vidual, quivering in the violence of
temptation, for society, for humanity
present or future? To some protago-
nists of unbelief, humanity that of to-
day or that of tomorrow has slight
worth. To Mr.. Spencer it is a bubble"
a dull 1eaden-hued thing" to Sir
James Stephen it is a stupid, ignorant,
half-beast of a creature" 1t is GER
tainly all this, or less still, to the in
dividual or to the crowd in wild search
for possession and enjoyment. inca
pable Of attaining either except by
breaking through the barriers of or
dinarily accepted morality. Will the
appeal be the commands n the pro-
hibition of human legislation? Then
the effort is to win In skilful defiance
of the law, to take up arms against
the law, to seize in hand the law-mak-
ing power and compel it to erase it's
prohibitions and alter its mandates.
The imparting and the wide diffusion
of knowledge will be evoked. Here is
one Of the most deceptive fallacies Of
modern times. It is assumed that the
mere knowledge of the laws Of nature
Men do not go to church. Whittier
then are We drifting? The answer is
unavoidable: To q world without
God; a world of human life that is
gloomy and. chaotie,s as the, world of
matter should be were the sun in the
armament hidden never again to shed
over 1t rays of light and warmth.
1t is not easy as vet to understand
the perlls toward which the forgetful-
ness Of God is precipitating the mod
ern world, because we are still breath
ing the influences, living off the habits,
created around us by the recognition
of the Sovereign Master, to which hui
mainly has been SO long welded, by
which it has been so deeply fashioned
into forms from which the decline is
slow. The tree of the forest bears
itself upright and green, long after
poisonous germs have begun to gnaw
the roots and deteriorate the sap. With
time, however, the decay gians trunk
and branches, and the tree falls, the
sport of the passing wind.
Men do not go to church; they leave
God out Of thought and action, with
tllG Iildtr "lLl1lkl tAiClAi S2l-
science withers n dies.
Conscience is that sense of right
eousness which has been set in our
souls by the adjust Master of the
universe. Conscience Isl the hottest, the
noblest thing in a Without 1t man
were little better than the brute which
knows no other impulse than selfish
instinct, no other purpose than selfish
pleasure. Conscience it is that Wrests
the individual ma from the slavery of
passion: conscience it is. that guards
the social organism from degradation
and ruin.
OF the absolute need of conscience in
self and in fellow men, none there are
who doubt. OF the fatal Ills to follow
from the loss of conscience, all make
willing confession. Whence. then, the
upbuilding of conscience? What is it
that fosters and serves in the human
soul the deep abiding sense of right
eousness that we call conscience? I
answer: Religion, the subsection OF
man to God; Fear God and keep His
commandments; for this lis all mar"
God set aside, matter remains. The
judgments OF God cast into oblivion
there remains only such rewards and
punishments as are derived from mat
ter. With matter alone before men,
the aim of human existence lis to grasp
as much of liz as opportunity allows, to.
Wrest from 1t as much enjoyment ais
ldt is able 10 produce. Success I'M
the chase is virtue; failure in the
chase is vice and sin. Make mattel
the all in aIE-ineluctabIy the trend OIL
the individual and Of society is tor