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Show 37° William A. Phillips. nation. Its Chf l.S tl' :ln'lt y const.i tutes. trh ~e • loc•k s• of the young Samson Tll e e ld et . Ad·.-u n· ' 111 ht:; lnpobtan treaty, ven- t d to· recommen d U::.>. b Y the a -sertion that the government ure . S _ , ·of the Umted tate::> wa::> I 11 110 se. nse founde. d on the "Chris- tian relt. gw. n ; , b 11 t 1 . O't'atuitous a~sertwn was not true. liS 0 c , h Cl 1 . t' "sum o f t h e "'· 1I ole commandments was t c corner stonnes osf the .."t l.men. can Republic. It is t.r ue we have wi"th in our borders "lh·"o rmom·s m, ·' md niac homctamsm, anu e• ven Bud- dln.s m wi. th regul ·U I. (a~ nd very irrcror ular) pagamsm. B..u t these 'a re mere b arnacl c:·s stich"n <Yo. o. n. th.e grea, t bod.y . poltt.JC. . They are no pat- t of American c1v1ltzatwn. The fot me1 1a an u leer on t l1 e b o dY Politic ' and the latter .m erely serve to keep the Cl1 .m fse of C<a liforni'a ' and other Onentals- not t•o mentw. n t 11 C I na ·m ns _a'- di tinct people. I do not .d eem 1t necessary to say tl lat any violent step to put down ellhcr o. f the c heat1 1 em· sms wou Id only be a violence to our own Chr.i s-t . 't But I will sHy that if we are ever to be a great natiOn tam Y· ' . . . . . f . rr. hereafter the protesting, pun tame Chn~ttalllty o pt oot ess t kee'p the lead and infuse jts life-blood through every mu.s f' tl t'on ' This true rclirrious element I·S J· ts l'f' vem o 1e na 1 • o . . 1 e. It will naturally rise over all paganisms because It ls better. But there is one idolatry that. makes it tremble already-the nioloch of selfishness. ~fen again dance l'OUnu the Gulden Calf. . B t as I have remarked, we have a sort of chaos of freo u ' . . bl thinking. The conservative Catholic says it is the. I~enta. e tendency of Protestantism. The truth is, th~t opmwns, :tke society, are in a transition state. The fountams of the gt eat deep of thought have been broken up, (so long sealed ove~ by despoti rm;,) and the flood is on the ea~·th; ~~e storm~ ttY to drive it auout, but the currents seck the1r legttJmate ch<mnels. 1\tian, like a prisoner long confined to a dark dungeon, on being ushered m. to t l1 e g 1o n·o us 1·t g1 1 t o f . day ' gam. bol.s a'nt d cuts fantastic figures in the :fir::;t exultatiOn of h1s hbei ~· Do not fear all this wilderness of opinion. Do not fear this Willian1 A. Phillips. 371 Atheism. 'Vhy, we see that the man who scoff::; at revelation, in the next moment embrace" spirit rapping, and has unshaken confidence in the inspiration of a mahogany taulc. He who will not believe in a revealed God, is fain to pu t up with an unknown one- nn jdol of his own ma nuf~1 ct urc. Ah, the religious instinct lives and breathes forever. I t. may be perverted- it cannot be slain. L et us not forget tha t it is the grand purpo,e of our type of humanity to drive th e~c clouds aside,- to work con tnntly and earnestly for tbat true religion of the henrt, without which all 1ifc is a mockery. Chri. tianity has given u · a social ~ys tem based on the . um of all the commandment ·. "'\Vhatever ye would that men should do unto you, do yc even 80 unto them." The Declaration of Indepcndcnre sets forth a politi<'al prcaC'hment of the same doctrine. This is the Ark of the CoYenHnt that hns blessed us with out· great civilization. The question j , Shall we continue to b<'lieve it? I:; progrc~siYe humanity capable of jndcfinite realization. 'Vhy, nations crumble and decay for want of a purpo ·e. We have one ; shall we throw it away? 'Vill the prophets of this creed be the prophet· of the age? 'Vill the nation that has grown grent in its yonth and its poverty, in the years of its power nntl luxury, throw this sacred Ark of the Covenant before the hrine of .:Moloch? '\Vhat an age of wealth and luxur.v ours has bccorne ! The mechanic arts bewiluer us. 'Ve are arrha t at })rorrress. A 0 0 perfect hail storm of improvement have pelted poor conser-vatism. There is machinery for, and a patent way of doiug e\ery thing, from a calculating mnchinc to a contrivance for papering pin". In the electric telegraph (Jove seems to have handed his thunderbolts as peaceful me~scngcr:; to man. It used to be proverbial that "a shadow had no substance;" but the camera of the dagucrrian catches up the momentary shadow, and chains it as a real substnnce forever. Are we sure that even thought may not be caught up, as it fl oats from the brain of the dreamer unuttered, and, thus arrested, |
