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Show j NEW YEAR'S THOUGHTS. ; ! t ' Tlic oil year has passed and another new year tas dauTied upon the world. The mie order es-, es-, '-bb'shed by Providence eince time began" has ... ' marked the course of the old year. It will be repeat rd during thj present year. In the spring we shall tee the little seeds putting forth their buds and the lives their blossoms. Then comes summer, with its tliick foliage, which, in autumn, shall change ' varied and golden hues. AH these, i "'"'-S"3 will wind up in im with the eoW rid bar- ! Tcn nakHlifc-. of winr which wo :.ow f xperiohee. So does life experience its changes and vicissitudes Juring, the- ordinary span allotted by iVjovLdence to ':; each dividual." The springtime of life sees, ia 11,0 rlw the embryo' of what society will be in Xh futur(i- To a glunpse" of what th-futurc I ' k 3s wwssary to' enter the sacred preeincts I i " . .- ; V x . of the family home, where wc shall find the. social unit. What constitutes the family j GhrHrhit civilization answers MarriageV But ,inarri'age.Tn tho Christian sense must be holy, one 'and indissoluble indis-soluble ; inVall heathen nation's ;;it.f;' jjjsb three elements, and after the great gentile apdstasy in proportion s the human race receded from the order established by the Creator, so did sox-iety be- come corrupt through the extinction of the family. The modern world, at homo and abroad, with all its progress in the material world, no longer views marriage as a sacrament and indissoluble. De- prived of its 'sacramental character, and reduced j to a mere civil contract, which may be broken for j the most trivial cause, we see society gradually de-j de-j scending to the same level in which it was before i the dawn of Christianity. Our nation has long j since emerged from the .-pringtime iH-riod ot its Lnational existence. The thick" foliage of its suni-I suni-I mors power and greatness may be witnessed in dis-J dis-J taut lands now imder the protection and guidance, j of the stars au'd stripes. Uot does the nation, in its manhood,"greatiiess and power, preserve its love, j respeet aiid veneration for the family? Oh all ' sides we hoar the lemcntablc dirge of the decay : ; ojt the family. . The frequency of divorce has ren-: ren-: dtivd te home insecure and reduced tlw family almost ,to: uto. The tendency of young America, when' reaching the summer 'sunshine of nanhood. is not to be; restrained by any home innuenee. Their liberty must not be. curtailed by the four walls of 'a. house, nor the mutual love of two.be set uy. us tlie standard of family life. Hence the abandon- . ment of the natural law .as applied to the -. seasons j and which the Creator also intended for society. In the summertime of life nowhere do we find the thick foliage of a large family, who,, with their smiling faces, make heme happy and cement the mutual - love- of - their parents. Christianity -Cypresses the normal order of all tho. Creators ' I works, but that is substituted for the worship ot 1 Mammon; then the first link in the chain, namely, the family, which is essential to solidify and perpetuate per-petuate society. Is missing. Wise men see this, statesmen realize it, and in the heydey of our national na-tional existence, instead of .listening to the sweet music of love, peace and harmony, we hear the dis-i dis-i eordant iioie of discontent and dissatisfaction cv-erywhere. cv-erywhere. Without religious influence, law and order or-der are mere words, and can be preserved only through fear. The natural man who discards the supernatural cannot, like the brute creation, live tho natural life, but must fell below it.- The gent-' gent-' ilos. after thev apostatized, substituted for the wor-j wor-j ship of God the worship of the devil. Hence the Scriptures tell us truly that "all the gods of the ' heathen are devils." "Social corruption and" dc- j generaey followed them in their downward course, j and thougii ""civilized " and" enjoying - -plethoric -i wealth, their final dissolution came. ' We arc told ; history repeats itself, and whilst we. gaze from the high eminence wc have reached iu 19H back to ; ancient Tiome; the fate of that empire once in-Tineible, in-Tineible, is ah object lesson. . Nicholas F. Cooke, M. P., L.L. I)., a profesor. and practition.er in the Ilahneman Medical college, and .hospital in Chicago, in a work entitled "Satan-in' "Satan-in' Society,'7 sa,ys jn his opening chapter: "Some 'years ago, on the floor of tho senate chamber, V United States senator uttered language concerning." , the jinmoralitiej and crimes of the American people peo-ple to which the world listened with astonishment. A general affectation of incredulity, a disposition to ridicule the speeches xmd to anathematize the speaker were widely used to weaken the force and to neutralize the benefits of the expose "so" boldly proclaimed, but the conscience of , the nation, had , been awakened, the 'ball had been set in motion.'"' - Almost at the same moment the author of this 1 1- 1 1 - . 1 .1 l - - r .i ; uuok iiuii conceiveu.ine tqea pi exposing tne, vices . of the age and the consequent dangers which menace men-ace the natiwn." The author has done so and the result is appalling. He is not like those "who have cyes.-and..see...iiQl.'' lie sees .in .o.ur-inodcrit-SOiicJy a reproduction of ancient Greek and Roman paganism. pagan-ism. ; Ancient pagan civilization had descended lower in the scale of the mora) degradation of t(he family, but the "tendency is fix 'that directjoi "lind every year brings us closei: to-that inevitable goal. The author gives a detailed account of pagan; nations na-tions in their treatment" pf the' iiewJy-bofnbabe, and after deploring thc abominable practices of " sacrificing the child, he says': "TirQUtfli'the ' crime of abortion was known and practiced among all people of antiquity, we observe that the more eoni-monly eoni-monly -recognized mode of repressing too. rapid increase of population was by infanticide pure and, simple; and, for. ourselves, we must admit that, in comparison with the ancient nations, our model re-: public suffers; in this respect. Even the outright.' murder., of the lvewly-boru infant seems to us a loss hideous crime than its destruction whilst yet in the womb, but the "destruction by exposure is incomparably incom-parably less criminal, for it gives the child a certain cer-tain chance of being rescued, while the ante-natal murder does-not give the infant even the 'benefit of the doubt.""" " " More" varied than the golden hues of autumn are the changes which the" autumnal life of our national na-tional existence may bring forth. Already wc see how- the prevalence of divorce affects the family and reacts on the children, who are fast losing their love and reverence for their parents. The tendency in the social order is downwards, and in free America Amer-ica such tendencies are less restrained than elsewhere, else-where, because 1 hey are freer to run their natural course and will in the end reach the cold and barren bar-ren nakedness of winter. So it was with the an-1 an-1 eient Greece and Rome. Standing on the threshold of the new year, this subject should arrest the attention at-tention of (-very loyal lover of his country. The corruption' and degradation' of the family V not yet as universal as it was under the civilized nations na-tions of the old pagans. The remembrance of Christian civilization still hovers over us. its influence influ-ence btiU exerts beneficial effect, but gradually it is dying out: Each succeeding generation professes Iftss and is less restrained byits positive teaching than their fathers. Until the" family U 'restored to its primitive srate -there can be: no moral- reformation, reforma-tion, fad as nearljall are-mo'viug in the same'di-" rection and animated, with the same spirit they" will,go slill farther, from, the, rsourcc fountain of truth befprejany reactiosets in 'to buikj tip the" iamiiy and rehabilitate society.' '. '',,-. ',. |