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Show NO RELIGION MEANS I NO GOVERNMENT I No Government. Barbarous or Civilized, j Has Existed Without Some Religious Belief World Reformers Give Truths Mingled With Errors Error Is Never I Harmless Their "Proposed Changes All Utopian Only God Could Create a I Mew Order Anarchical Principles Are Plausibly Presented Good and Evil Ac-i Ac-i cording to Modern Reformers The Former Luxury and Wealth, the Latter . j Poverty Wealth and Poverty Relative Terms Impossible to Draw a Line, j Separating the Rich and Poor Poverty j No Evil, Nor Source of Evil. In directing attention to the necessity of reli gion for ilie permanency ;unl perpetuation of any -Muntn's liitlioujil life and existence we simply concluded con-cluded from past experience ami all the evidence avc have historically or otherwise that no government, govern-ment, harharotis or civilized, has ever existed without with-out religion. The subject. 10 all who have their country's best interests at heart, is an important ; and serious one. and that for two reasons (1) be cause of the indifference to, and alarming decay of all forms of religious beliefs, and (2) because of 1 1 io insidious, skillful and fascinating attempts at . world reform without religion. The theories of our social reformers addressed to man's natural desires and wishes contain certain truths; but truths mingled min-gled with error when God is ruled out of the uni-Aerse. uni-Aerse. 1 low" to unravel the "web of cohistery and. disintangle the thread of truth from the bundle of errors which underlie the modern world reform-nier reform-nier theories is a serious and difficult question. It may he true, and is to a certain degree, that "error is harmless where truth is free to combat it." but error clothed in modern dress and which promises all who adopt its principles an entrance to the happy land of Caiman, will naturally and logically .lead lo disordi r. dissolution and decay in society. .Modern reformers propose to change the entire or-, der of the past, lift up humanity to a higher plane, do away with religion and all moral restraint and responsibility lo dol. 1 hey propose to change the entire order of things socially, religiously, commercially commer-cially and politically by hurrying the past in the grave of oblivion and introducing a new order which will renovate ihe face of the earth and lhe social relations of humanity. A stupendous undertaking under-taking is this ambitious desire of amelioration, yet one that has been tried in the past, but always resulted re-sulted in complete lailure. Man may. by his ambition am-bition and adroitness, sophisteiy and honeyed words, arouse the sympathy and enlist the moral and physical support of many followers, but he can never establish a new order. Coxey and his army were a failure. All avIio adopt the principles of anarchy in their world reform schemes, may. if MiJhVieiitly strong, destroy the old order, but they j can never create a new order which alone is the Avork of God who is the Creator of all things. The promoters of the n w evangel, who discard I religion, ami if not openly, at least in llieir actions. ' disown God. will, if successful, obtain for llieir fel- low beings all the earlhly happiness they desire, i This being their sole object and aim in life, viz., I to live ami be happy, why not unite and press their demands to secure their destiny which ends with I death. To attain this end religion must disappear. --oeial and commercial relations must be changed, civil laws must be readjusted, and all that is evil I in our present system must be effaced in order that I -hf. good--, which they purpose to establish, may ! be attained. Very plausible and well calculated 1 is this platfonn to Avin the synipalhy of Ihe masses. I Whoso sympathizes Ai;h or encourages evil and re- I ta:d- lhe good is no friend of humanity. Here a j very important question suggests itself, viz., what j -s -.,,1. jmkI av!i:i1 is g om : On the supposition that j Men's destiny -s confined lo his present li:v. cvij would be for the new Avorld reformers anything. -hat would interfere with earthly happiness, i. e.. 1 luxurious living -and the indalgancc of the animal j propensities, whilst the good, by inverse reasoning. A-.-nu'.d consist in the possession of the means which I a re essential for the fulfillment of their destiny. I From ibis it folhnvs that the only evil, man has to I ontend against is poverty and that Avealth is the line and only good. With poverty as an evil is a-I a-I oeiated labor which may not be congenial to man's I training or conformable to the bent of his inclina-1 inclina-1 -liens. What proof do those. Avho allege that poy- ,.:.,y js the great evil of the day, gi-o that such it ! i-.'' Doth Avealth and poverty are rdatiAC terms. Tli" man Avith robust health, free and independent ! spirit, ever ready lo share in the living issues of the I ,;,y. ihough down t zero in the financial scale, does. I nl.'t 'con-ider himself a pauper, whilst John P. 1 Rockefeller, if by a stroke of misfortune he Avas 3 T.'du-ed from the billion to the million mark, would. consider himself poor. Where, then, are Ave t0 '! ,i,..MV ,1K. Uno between Avealth and poverty What I limit shall be. placed on man's possessions to rank i him with lhe poor, and to enable him by the ac-i ac-i uisition of an -xtra dollar to pass over to the i camp of the wealthy' This is important to know as the extra dollar mean lhe removal of what I world reformers term evil atid the acquiring of j (Continued on Fage 5.) ! : 1 .. -1 . w iwiwim iiu nil mi m njx.mi .mi. ii m Hi i " ' MO RELIGION MEANS N0 GOVERNMENT (Continued from Page 1.) good, i. e., the transition from poverty to wealth made possible by one dollar evil is changed into good. A Rev. Greenfield traveling in Spain, a? noticed editorially in last week's issue, was scandalized scan-dalized at the poverty and dirt which met his sane- timonious eyes in that country. But if these poor j people were content and satisfied with what they j possessed, wherein were the poorer than the itiner- ant preacher whose wants require him to travel luxuriously in foreign lands and whose artificial i wants will increase in proportion to the increase of j his wealth? Mr. Greenfield in Spain would not agree with the Good Master who said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," nor with the wisdom of the poet who said. "Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt. Since riches point to misery and contempt." But passing over the preacher's worldly and unchristian un-christian criticism we return to our world reformers reform-ers who make poverty the only evil which must be eombattod. and ask them after they have drawn the line of demarkation between wealth and poverty, how prove that poverty is an evil? An appeal to the history of the past will show that many rich and powerful men gave up their entire possessions, sold what they had and gave it to the needy. Did they exchange good for evil? Rockefeller, Carnegie Carne-gie and Co. in parting with their millions for.phil- ', anthropic purposes must be choosing evil for good. No person would even think them guilty of such folly. Then how or why conclude that poverty is j the only evil and wealth the only good? Our wise I philosophers may say that without wealth there j can be no pleasure, where there is no pleasure there is discontent which leads to crime and vice. But others equally wise tell us that "A man of pleasure is a man of pains." Can it Vie proven that Dives was less free from crime and vice than Lazarus, who begged for the crumbs that fell from his table? They who study the history of both will agree with the wisdom of Shakespeare's words, "My poverty, but not my will, consents. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will." Then the charges of crime and vice against the poor are, when sifted, more applicable to the rich. The assumption that poverty is the only evil is only the product of deranged brains who fail to study the problems of life and want to usurp the power of God. "Poor and content is rich, and rich enough. F. D. |