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Show INDIVIDUAL MANHOOD. It is the settled theory of the courts that' ignorance of the law furnishes no excuse (or its violation. Every citizen is supposed to be familiar with the laws. Any other theory would offer a premium for ignorance nr;d render lawlessness the rule rather than the exception. All just laws are . founded upon public' morals, which in turn 0nd their origin in the golden precepts, so ancient that they are met at the first dawn of recorded history. Wo cannot conceive of the rudest to telligenco, possessing the powers :of reason and reflection, whose experi ence in the most primitive communities commu-nities did not soon lead to .the acknowledgment of a certain code pf ethics that would be deemed necessary ' lor the harmonious -movement of that society, no- matter how limited it might be. The foundation foun-dation of the code may be traced to the parental condition. The afleo-tion afleo-tion of the mother for her ofisprini: is in itself an instinct that under the direction of reason and education might ripen into all the graces and virtues that adorn the human race. Springing out of and correlative with this relation are the love of husband and wife, the conception of home and family, the necessity of the protection protec-tion of these. Baored relations in com munities. the alliance of kindred peo ple in great states and nations hence tho birth of patriotism and the demand (or the highest exercise of the intellect in war and peace, bringing to the front great generals and statesmen. states-men. When the soldier sanK hioiself into a tyrant and the statesman put on lordly aim, claiming the prerogatives preroga-tives of life and death over the people, tho church stepped forward and raised the banner of religion between the masses aM their oppressors, setting up certain landmarks, which came to . be recoguized by rulers and people. ' Although the churob-often proved a tyrant greater than that which Bhe supplanted, and seoiued .to be incapable incap-able of advance beyond the establishment establish-ment o( the mysteries ol the faith, rather holding the world bound to hei limited interpretation of those mysteries mys-teries -than suffering the genius ol human intellect to throw upon them the new ngnt ui., """" pariding revelation, still in the days of conquest and rapine, when rude barbarism threatened the genius of European civilization, the church set certain bounds' to the mad ambition of despots, interposed a protecting arm toward ponton, and modified the aggressive and brutal characteristics of society by appeals to the terrors ol the future which were hold in the grasp of the priesthood. Coming down through the centuries, cen-turies, it is found that every element in the domain of nature yields to the superior knowledge and power of civilized man. Every development ol the natural laws and their application to bis needs enlargo his achievements and strengthen his hold upon the '' secret springs of the universe. Such marvels have followed the discovery of the laws of force, light, heat and electricity, that little surprise is now felt at the announcement of the most wonderful adaptations of these forces, . .. and it is seen how illimiuble are tue powers put in operation by the great creative agency, and that many of them are eapable of being employed hy man when his mind shall be brought into harmony with these universal uni-versal laws. The only thing in niture that seems to bid defiance to the power of man is man himself. Chris-tianity Chris-tianity ha, bean for eighteen hundred yeara laboring to convert him to the "true faith," but the preponderance j of heathenism and paganism through-; out the world ie still appalling. Since Chrietiaoity became a power it has scarcely ever ceased to attempt toj( convert the stupid and Btuhborn ; unbeliever by the art of war, and even now the great nation of northern Europe id attempting aomethin of tbia character. But comparatively little permanent prop,reid has been made of lale centuries with the heathen either by the bullet or by preaching. The devotees of each faith regard their religion ag the only truth adapted to their condition and wants. In viow of the. cjbI of these eflbrta foreign miasionB, raQJUDy ILiUSl. Ul tun - I I have greatly languished of late. and it has become a serious question 1 whether the converaion of the few heathen recorded may not prove too ( costly an enterprise to be continued indefinitely, especially during the existing busincaa depression. In the meantime the roligion which recognizes the individuality of the man aa the unit of moral power and virtue, cornea Blowly into notice aa the saving principlo of the world. With-1 out recognition and intelligent ex preasion our churches are the mere sepulchres of the ideas of past generations, genera-tions, factories for the formulation ot blind creeds and seets,devoid of living faith and works. As a nation the United States of late years has suffered her individual character to be swallowed up iu the . ideaB and practices of European na tions until she has almost IobI her E identity. ThiB generation has been running in a groove according to cer- ( tain fashions set hy the dominant power at Washington, until the states and the people have lost themselves in the necessity of conforming to a pattern of citizenship made to order, but devoid of Americanism to which we are entitled. The manly independence of those who founded tho republic has been lost in the effeminacy of a politica1 creed, to which conformity was demanded de-manded under peril ol disfranchisement; disfranchise-ment; the spirit of the American re volution had been frittered away in a demand for devotion to tho false god of a Union cemented by force, which time has discovered to be a mockery and a fraud. The government which recoguizes to the fullest exteut the intelligent individuality in-dividuality of its people; the church which allows its creeds and doctrineB to be permeated with the minds and souls of its members, will bo the coming com-ing state and church. The generation genera-tion which combines the highest independence inde-pendence of individual thought and .action with the purest moral code, will become a nation of rulers; the man who respects bis own identity of l-bought, who refuses to bow to any god, political or religious, set up for worship by his fellow man either in the market place or at tho altar, who is at once superior to and obedient to law, because his moral status is higher than human law can be, is a just, free man, fit to feast with the gods or to rule the world. |