• •• trvT* <^ * ^^ "c- * lO-7-j «^0 J?^*. • ■o 5? "ti H6^ iffrnwidence in America OR : % The Problems of Self -Gov- ernment CLARENCE A. VINCENT, D. D. ^ PUBIJSHERS THE ALVORD-PETERS COMPANY NKW YORK, SANDUSKY, OHIO. ProvidenceinAmerica The "Problems of Setf-Go> ernment BY CLARENCE A. VINCENT, D. D. Minister First Congregational Church, Sandusky, Ohio. %X PUBLISHERS THE ALVORD-PETEBS COMPANY NEW YORK. SANDUSKY. O. TWO COPIES RECEIVED, Offlcfl of iij^ WAR 9 -> 1900 «»gl«t«f of Copyrights 5G209 COPYRIGHTED 1900 By C. a. VINCENT. 8KC0ND copy. ■Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." CONTENTS, I. THE SCRIPTURES AND NATIONAL I.IFE 7 II. PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA'S DISCOVERY 2J III. PROVIDENCE IN ITS PHYSIC AI, FEATURES ..... 40 IV. PROVIDENCE IN ITS SETTI.EMENT 58 V. PROVIDENCE IN ITS DEVEl ' that which I have committed unto him against that day, ' ' are examples of the as- surance that speaks forth from almost every page of the Scriptures. Through all the dark ages since Paul's day there have been choice souls who have heard these voices of cheer. Poets have sung of this care, martyrs in the hour of persecution and death have found strength in it, and the saints of all climes have amidst the turbulence of life walked in perfect peace because of it. Life without this confidence would be night with the stars gone. None the less sure is the teaching of the Scriptures upon God's care over nations. This we need to have clearly in mind before we study the history of our own nation. 1. The nature and character of God in- sure his care. He is omniscient, omni- present, omnipotent, immutable, just, holy, good, faithful, and "is love." Recreated the world and placed man upon it. He has. sent his Son to redeem it. Accepting the Bible outline of God's nature and character, we must accept the necessary ergo that he cares with perfect care for those persons and nations that do his will. 2. The purpose of God. He has found- rnn SCRIPTURES and nationai, i.ifk. 9 ed a kingdom upon the earth. This kingdom is to be world-wide — is to control the world's life. A kingdom means loyal subjects, but it means more — loyal subjects united in one effort and with a single aim. Thus we have nations whose purpose is the carrying out of God's purpose — the bringing of the uni- versal kingdom. He will not leave such a company to the destruction of wicked men, nor fail in the carrying out of his plans by neglecting those upon whom the consum- mation rests. We must not in our doubt charge upon the Lord what would be a libel upon finite character and wisdom. It is the instability of children and of weak-minded or immoral men that permits their plans to fail from neglect. 3. The promises of the Scriptures. The author of the thirty-third Psalm has a wide horizon. He calls upon the righteous to re- joice in the Lord. He created the heavens and the earth. He governs the world. All kings and nations, whether they obey him or not, are instruments in his hand. He gives special knowledge, protection, help and joy to his own chosen people. There- fore should they praise him. In this song he declares a great truth, whose application lO PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. is as wide as the world, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the peo- ple whom he hath chosen for his own in- heritance. ' ' And in another psalm he sings, "Happy is that people whose God is the Lord. ' ' The Lord said to Moses, speaking of the children of Israel, "Oh that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments al- ways, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever ! " ^ Before this the Lord had promised, " Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treas- ure to me from among all peoples: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."^ Any one with a concordance can multiply these promises. They all teach in general that God punishes those nations that com- mit sin, and b' esses those that do his will. National disaster is certain outside of God. National success is assured in him. 4. Special incidents. The promises are strengthened by recorded incidents of pun- ishment and favor. Israel's history is a 1 Deut. V :29. 2 Exodus XIX :5-6. TH]^ SCRIPTURES AND NATIONAI, IvIFE. 1 1 continual illustration that sin is a nation's ruin and righteousness its life. The greater part of the Old Testament Scriptures might be appended in witness of this assertion. The Red Sea, with its destruction to Pharaoh's army and its salvation to Moses' escap- ing slaves, the falling walls of Jericho, the forty years of wandering because of doubt, the victory of Gideon's band, and other al- most countless illustrations, are known to every Sunday-school scholar. This special providence includes the supply of temporal necessities, victory over enemies, escape from mean conditions and the opening of opportunities. The power of God is pledged to it, even to the performance of that which the world calls miraculous. 5. The leaders. God works through personality. Men look for armies ; God searches for a man. The wisdom and pur- pose of Jehovah are seen in nothing more plainly than in the leaders raised up and used. The Bible bristles with telling proofs of this. The lyord wants this enslaved race in Egypt to be a free people in Canaan. How shall it be accomplished? He calls Moses to the performance of the task. The names of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, 12 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA; Joshua, David, Daniel, and others stand for men divinely raised up, national movements begun and carried on by the will of God, and great results accomplished. The Scriptures teach clearly that God raises up men for leaders and fits them for their tasks, that he calls them to the place of responsibility, and that he furnishes to the faithful the wisdom and power needed for success. 6. Providence is clearly seen in the rev- elations given the nations. The Bible has the awe-inspiring scene of the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. Providence dis- closes itself in the way it was given. Amid thunders and lightnings and thick clouds, with the voice of trumpet, the mountains quaking and smoking, the Lord calls Moses to the top of the mountain and there reveals to him his will, the command- ments of the Lord. The commandments themselves give proof of their authorship. They summon the world to a new life. They call it from the wilderness of idolatry and selfishness up to the heights of an om- nipotent God and a world-wide brotherhood in God. A world that has never been able to realize in its life these requirements could never have given us theoe ideals. None but The scriptures and nationai, wfe. 13 •God can draw the outline of God. The New Testament adds its revelation. It declares, as we have said, that Christ has founded a universal, spiritual kingdom. He is its head. It is to control in time the world's life. Its two laws are the first and second commandments, as interpreted and illustrated by Christ. Each nation, then, is to be conducted in harmony with these laws. This requires the putting away of vice and lawlessness. It means a perfect industrial, intellectual, social, political, moral, and religious life. The best nation does not appreciate even yet the absolute perfection of this kingdom. Its outline was not drawn by human skill. A perfect king- dom means a perfect founder. A perfect founder is God. These revelations came in the fullness of time. The law was given at the earliest moment when Israel would receive it. Christ came, and his kingdom was set up in the fullness of time. So in all the coun- tries shall God appear, and some new appli- <:ation of his truth be made known, as men and nations are ready to respond. A king •once gave to the officer in command of a warship a number of sealed letters. One 14 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. was to be opened when he had reached a certain place. This told him where to sail. There another one could be opened. So point by point the journey was made and the work of the king revealed and carried on. Thus God deals with nations. One by one the seals that contain his will for them are broken, and the breaking of each is conditioned on their fidelity to instruc- tions given before. Why did God thus lead and bless Israel ? For Israel's sake. He wanted to make them strong, prosperous, happy, and right- eous. The Lord delights in a holy people. He would make every nation good. He saw in Israel special elements of hope. He revealed himself to them because he would give them unusual opportunities. " And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, say- ing, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me from among all peoples: THE SCRIPTURES AND NATIONAI. I.IFE. 15 for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me ?. kingdom of priests, and an holy na- tion. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. ' ' ' * ' Oh that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever ! ' ' "Ye shall walk in all the way which the lyord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall pos- sess. ' ' ^ " Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou lis- est up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for 1 Exodus XIX :3. 2 Deut. V :29-33. l6 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thy house, and upon thy gates. And it shall be, when the LK)rd thy God shall bring thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee; great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and cisterns hewn out, which thou" hewedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt eat and be full; then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ' ' ^ God aimed to make Israel a nation whose God is the Lord. Idolatry is death to na- tional life. It makes men superstitious. It breeds ignorance. It feeds vice. It re- moves the sense of responsibility. It is to all moral, social, educational, political, and religious life what -leprosy is to physical life. The worship of the true God is na- tional life. It gives a conscience. It fur- nishes lofty ideals. It is the source of cour- age. It stimulates intelligence. It gives a mission. All this God would do for Israel. iDeut. VI:M2. THE SCRIPTURES AND NATIONAI. WFE. 17 God had also the whole world in view. He was preparing Israel for a broader work than its own salvation and perfection. He wished to reveal himself in perfect love and mercy to the world. His purpose included the soul's redemption and the final perfec- tion of society. Israel's life was not to be a selfish one. In national as in individual existence, life is found by losing life for noble ends. God opens the Red Sea and gives succor and wisdom for the sake of the world. Every new grace added to the world's life was in God's thought when he blessed the Jewish people. God had Christ's coming and work in mind. He would fit this people for that supreme event and task. He blessed them, that later on the angels might sing the news of glad tidings, that the afflicted might have a physician, that the cross should come to the world's rescue and the tomb be robbed of its great terror. Israel was guided that Christ in becoming King of the Jews might also become King of the world. God gives the sunlight not only that the earth may be beautiful and fruitful, but also that man may be fed and delighted. So he shone upon Israel, not only for her life and beauty, but iS providence; in America. that through her the world should live and be clothed with the beauty of holiness. Nations, if they would be the subjects of God's special care, must meet certain con- ditions. So teach the Scriptures. They must be loyal to God. "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; the blessing, if ye shall hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: and the curse, if ye shall not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known. And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt set the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal. Are they not beyond Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites which dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh ? For ye are to pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. And ye shall observe to do THE SCRIPTURES AND NATIONAI^ I.IEE. 1 9 all the statutes and the judgments which I set before you this day."' A country's outlook is usually estimated by its mines, the number of its acres, its exports and imports, by the number and ef- ficiency of its schools and by its present moral and social conditions. These are, be- yond measure, determining forces. Still they are secondary. In loyalty to God rests its future. This was the condition implied when God covenanted with Abraham. It was clearly specified when the law was given. Israel's history from its beginning until now is a continued illustration of it. Genesis gives us the record of four oppor- tunities given the race, and the sad failure at each time through its disobedience. The first trial was made in Kden with Adam, and he disobeyed. The second was with Seth. This ended with the flood. Then, with Noah at the head, the Lord gives another opportunity. The confusion of tongues and the scattering of the people close this chap- ter. Finally Abram is called out and sep- arated unto the Lord as a peculiar treasure. For a time his posterity are loyal to God and are successful, then they become self- iDeut. XI:26-32. 20 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. reliant and sink into the hopeless slavery of Egypt. Disloj^alty is rebellion. Rebellion against God is ruin. This rebellion may be wilful or neglectful. Ruin asks not how, but only requires the fact. This loyalty includes obedience to each new revelation. God makes known his way by steps. Sometimes beyond the step revealed a mountain seems to block the way and a chasm to j^awn. Loyalty takes the step and receives God's care. I once visit- ed a mine. The entrance was a horizontal and narrow way running a half mile into the hill. A guide led me, yet in the dark- ness I could not see him. One step could be dimly seen. In my timidity it seemed to me I was about to fall into some unseen pit. Only the voice of the guide could be heard, "Follow me and all will be well." Step by step I obeyed, and when the end was reached and I looked back I could see plainly the way through which I had come. There were pitfalls and protruding rocks, but in obeying the guide I was safe. So was it with Israel. Destruction often seemed to await them. Still God com- manded, * ' Speak unto the children of Israel that they move forward." When they The scriptures and NATIONAI, I^IFE. 21 obeyed, they were kept. When they re- belled, they were punished. At the mo- ment of action it was a matter of faith. At the end of each experience it was a mat- ter of clearest sight. The second condition required of Israel, if it would receive the special care of God, was that it should be free from sinful in- dulgences. The disobedience of Eden was for the sake of indulgence. Achan' s covet • ousness brought a severe defeat upon all Israel. Saul's desire 'or *ood and property led him to disobey God's command, and the Irord repented that he had made xSaul king over Israel. David sinned, and David and his people suffered. Whatsoever a nation sow- eth that shall it also leap. Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. Indulgence is dis- loyalty to God. At heart it is a traitor. lyCprosy appeared on the surface, but was a disease of the blood and meant the death ot the victim, unless God himself became the physician. National worldliness is a dis- ease of the nation's blood. None but the lyord of nations can cure it and turn death into life. The nation that is impure shall die. Purity, like dew to a plant, is a na- tion's nectar of life. Sodom and Gomorraq 22 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. are black monuments marking the end of a voluptuous people. The third scriptural condition which a nation must fulfil if it would receive the special care of God is that it engage heart- ily in the work to which he calls it. God's purpose looks forward to fulfilment in a perfect world. The vision of the Revelat^r as he sees a new heaven and earth is yet to be realized upon this earth. Men look at years and storms and wrecks, and cry, " What shall be the end? " God beholds the eternities, and answers, "A new heaven and a new earth." The nation that enters heartily into its part of this work has pledged to its protection and victory the power of God. Israel refuses to do its di- vinely appointed tasks, and Israel is over- come by its enemies. Denial of its mission meant Egyptian slavery. Denial of Christ and its work for him brought, as the Scrip- tures warned, national destruction and cen- turies, not yet ended, of individual heart- ache and shame. What might not Israel have been had she taken up the task im- posed. The refusal of a tree to respond, when the sunshines upon it and says, " Put forth thy leaf and blossom and fruit," is its THIS SCRIPTURES AND NATIONAI^ IJFK. 2^ own death warrant. A nation refusing the work to which God calls it becomes its own executioner. National service for human- ity in the name of God is assured life and divine care. It has all the strength of the cause which it champions. It has the greater strength of a pure heart and an un- selfish purpose, that saw the cause and led it to its support. This is likeness to God. This is God in the hearts of its citizens. This is assured national life. "For who that leans on His right arm Was ever yet forsaken ? What righteous cause can suffer harm If he its part has taken ? Though wild and loud, And dark the cloud, Behind its folds His hand upholds The calm sky of to-morrow." The aim in the following chapters is to re- call such facts of our national position and history as indicate the marked evidences of providential care and purpose in the estab- lishment and development of this nation, and to impress the supreme importance of its present problems and work. To do this exhaustively would require a large volume. 1 desire only to suggest in compact form 24 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. those things that iu themselves shall en- lighten and inspire the great host of those who are just taking up the responsibilities of citizenship. The careful student will find, I am sure, as great proof of divine purpose and aid in America's past and pres- ent as in Israel's marvelous history. God said, I am tired of kings, I suffer them no more; Up to my ear the morning brings The outrage of the poor. lyO ! I uncover the land Which I hid of old time in the west, As the sculptor uncovers the statue When he has wrought his best. I will have never a noble, No lineage counted great; Fishers and choppers and plowmen Shall constitute a state. And ye shall succor men; 'Tis nobleness to serve; Help them who cannot help again; Beware from right to swerve. — Ralph Waldo Emerson. II. PROVIDENCK IN ITS DISCOVERY. The child who sees the falling stars at night, or hears his father tell of the irregu- lar orbit of a comet, may think the universe is run by chance; but the astronomer who has studied the rotation of each heavenly body, the revolution of the planets around the sun, the relation of our solar system to other systems, and the lightning-like flight of all through space, sees a unity and har- mony that bespeak wisdom. The careless reader of history, seeing the ruins of nations and civilizations, might think this world the result of passion and chance; but the student, tracing causes to effects and effects to causes, surveying the movements of each age and the relation of the ages, sees in all the working out of a beneficent purpose, the unity and harmony that indicate om- nipotent wisdom. Paul is declaring this same fact when, in speaking of Christ's coming to the earth, he says, * ' When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son to redeem them that were under the law." At the earliest moment, then, when the world was 28 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. in such condition that Christ's coming would accomplish its purpose, God sent him forth on his errand of mercy. Each step of civilization forward has been the coming of the Son of God, in the fullness of the time, to redeem the world. The Ref- ormation came at the time when it would accomplish the work so much needed. The work of the Wesleys, and that of William Carey, was each the coming of Christ, in the fullness of the time, to redeem those un- der the law. Whittier evidently had this fact, as well as the swift flight of the centuries, in mind, when he wrote the first lines of his Cen- tennial Ode: "Our fathers' God ! from out whose hand The centuries fall like grains of sand." And the aged Bancroft, sending out the last volume of his history, and summing up the convictions to which his studies had brought him, was led to declare the same purport: "That the path of humanity is still fresh with the dews of morning, that the Redeemer of the nations liveth." We believe that a careful study of gen- eral history, as well as of the history of this nation, will disclose the same divine pur- PORVIDENCE IN ITS DISCOVREY. 29 pose and human necessity in the discovery of America. In the fullness of the time it came, at that moment when the progress of the world depended upon it. This appears clear when we study the condition of the old world. The tenth century was a time of great depression. Intellectually, Christendom was dead. The people at large were grossly ignorant and superstitious. The few trained in the schools had all intuition and love of the truth destroyed by pedantry and formality. * * The massive vengeance of the church hung over them, like a heavy sword sus- pended in the cloudy air. Superstition and stupidity hedged them in on every side, so that sorcery and magic seemed the only means of winning power over nature or in- sight into mysteries surrounding human life. The path from darkness to light was lost; thought was involved in allegory; the study of nature had been perverted into an inept system of grotesque and pious parable- mongering; the pursuit of truth had become a game of worldly dialectics. The other world, with its imagined heaven and hell, haunted the conscience like a nightmare. However sweet this world seemed, however JO PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. fair the flesh, both world and flesh were theoretically given over to the devil. It was not worth while to master and econo- mize the resources of this earth, to utilize the goods and ameliorate the evils of this life; while every one agreed, in theory at any rate, that the present was but a bad prelude to an infinitely worse or infinitely better future." ' The moral condition had reached its low- est point. Popes and rulers set the pace of immorality. It was the time when the famous trio of courtesans, Theodora and her daughters Theodora and Marzona, gov- erntd for years the pontificate7 bestowing it on their lovers or bastard sons. John XII. , who was raised to the papacy in 956, turned the pontifical palace into a vast school of prostitution. He was followed in ofiice by Benedict V., Benedict VI., and Boniface, who murdered his successor. Thus the record reads, until in 1033 Benedict IX., was raised by bribery to the ofiice. So vicious was he that the writers of that day blushed to tell the story of his vices. Gregory VI. purchased the office from him. The monasteries were the places of 1 Encyclopsjcdia Britannic*. PROVIDENCE IN ITS DISCOVERY. 3I all vices. Cattle were stabled in the basil- ica of the monastery of St. Paul. Priests played dice on the altar, and made up the order of worship with indecent songs, filthy jokes, and drunken revelries. These were the beginning of the priestly orgies of a later day in France and other lands. Dr. Storrs closes a review of this terrible cen- tury with these words : " It is certainly not too much to say that no other period has appeared surpassing that in the general gloom and fear of Christendom since the Son of God was crucified on Calvary. The earth again seemed to shiver, as under the cross; the heavens to be veiling themselves in eclipse, like that which of old had shrouded Jerusalem from the sixth hour to the ninth. It looked as if the gospel had failed; as if the church had wholly lost di- vine virtue amid the carnival of lust and blood; as if the wickedness of man had be- come too great to be longer endured; as if the history of the planet were about to be closed, might properly be closed, amid uni- versal dread and death. ' ' ^ I will not draw the picture in greater de- tail. The student can multiply the sicken- 1 Bernard of Clairvaux. Dr. Storrs, p. 66. 32 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. ing facts that only intensify the hint that I have given. Education was a hideous dummy; moral- ity an apple decayed at heart and rind; lib- erty's emblem a prison. But the reaction set in. 1 can no more than state the fact in the limits of this chapter. Education re- vived. Reformers arose who attacked the corruptions of church and society. The cru- sades showed a new spirit of life. Men were now restless not for dissipation, but under it. Society was more courageous. Moral forces were more respected. In the evening twilight of the eleventh century the ' * Angelus ' ' and ' ' Ave Maria ' ' were chimed forth to call the people to give thanks and to pray. They were really call- ing the world to a new life. These forces in- creased until the Renaissance, the revival of learning, and finally the Reformation, were accomplished. Men learned by the Refor- mation that the soul is free from the tyranny of earthly rulers; that personal faith alone saves; that churches have no power to con- demn; that every man is a priest unto God, and that each person must do his own thinking, make his own decisions, and bear his own responsibility. PROVIDKNCE IN ITS DISCOVERY. 33 The newly established state churches, though they were founded in a protest against the opposites of all these, were not willing to grant these privileges and rights to those under their control. The people were restless. Having once fought for lib- erty and won, they were not ready to suffer the same tyranny under another name. The next step in the progress of civiliza- tion must be the founding of a nation, where the principle established by the Ref- ormation shall be realized in laws and prac- tice. Established power was too strong in the countries of the old world to jdeld. There. must be a new land. Education, liberty, and faith will die without it. Hu- man nature would not have been equal to the struggle had there been no new land. An American writer declares, ' ' The discov- ery of America was necessary to the pres- ervation of human liberty — necessary to the securing of it. ' ' At this moment Columbus by his voyage set the world a-craze. Other daring navi- gators pursued. the search. America was at last discovered and opened to the oppressed. The old world countries, for many reasons, would rather rid their lands of these inde- 34 PROVIDEMCK IN AMERICA. pendent fanatics, if by thus doing they could gain new territory and gold, than to shut them in dungeons. They did both, little realizing that they were hastening on the destruction of their tyranny and open- ing a land that should furnish the world an example of intelligence and liberty. In the fullness of time it has come; at that mo- ment when it shall redeem them that are under the law of oppression, which is the law of intellectual and spiritual death. The general movement in all lands to- ward exploration is a significant fact. It is thus that great and providential moments come. The revival of learning seemed to begin in all lauds at the same general time. The Reformation held its course in England, France, Italy, Bohemia, and Germany in the same general way and to the same sea, though in different national channels, shut out from each other's view by mountain barriers. At this time, when the world must have a new continent, the minds of the daring in all lands were turned toward exploration. Spain, Portugal, England, Italy, France, and others, all thought that expeditions must be sent out. I see in this, as I do in all such universal movements, the providence; in its discovery. 35 working out of a purpose that includes all nations, and works for perfect personal and civil righteousness. Greed prompted many, but even the wickedness of men is overruled to work out the world's re- demption and the praise of God. Preceding these explorations, invention brought its necessary gifts. Foremost among these inventions was that of print- ing. The Chinese had practised this art twelve hundred years before. Its discovery in Germany in 1450 seems to have come in- dependently. Coster of Holland one day carved for his amusement some letters up- on a branch. He wrapped it in a piece of paper and fell asleep. It rained, and when he awoke the paper bore the impression of the letters. Gutenberg followed this with the invention of movable types, and in 1455 printed the Bible. The literature of the world was now within the rfeach of all. Tyrants might destroy the man, but his words would still live. In the next century came several printed editions of the Bible in England. The intellectual quickening which came through this invention cannot be fully appreciated. Accounts of travel and discoveries were in great demand. A 36 PKOVIDENCE IN AMERICA. n2w day had dawned. The invention and use of the mariner's compass and astrolabe were potent causes. When men could tell the points of the com- pass and the longitude and latitude of their course the sea was robbed of half of its terror. Copernicus came with his world- changing discovery. Bacon brought later his priceless gift. Providence was prepar- ing the world for some opportunity. The history of the different explorations is a continual illustration of our theme. The peculiar training of Columbus, his strange meeting with Juan Perez, the con- fessor of Queen Isabella, the queen's inter^ est, and the launching of the expedition are not mere accidents. The variations of the compass, leading Columbus to discover the island of San Salvador and not the main continent, changed the history of the new world. It was for Cabot, an Englishman, to lay claim to the main land. Bancroft says of the early period of exploration: "The character of the prevalent winds and currents was unknown. The possibility of making a direct passage was but gradually discovered. The imagined dangers were infinite, the real dangers from tempests and PROVIDENCE IN ITS DISCOVERY. 37 shipwreck, famine and mutinies, heat and cold, diseases known and unknown, were incalculable. The ships at first employed were generally of less than one hundred tons' burden; two of those of Columbus were without a deck; Frobisher sailed in a vessel of but twenty-five tons. Columbus was cast away twice, and once remained for eight months on an island, without any communication with the civilized world. Roberval, Parmenius, Gilbert— and how many others? — went down at sea; and such was the state of the art of navigation that intrepidity and skill were unavailing against the elements without the favor of Heaven." Whether it was better that England should have the right of discovery than Spain, can be judged by the vastly different conditions of those two countries today. Liberty is better than tyranny; schools than bull-fights. The breaking waves dashed hign On a stern and rock-bound coast, And the woods against a stormy sky Their giant branches tossed; And the heavy night hung dark The hills and waters o'er, When a band of exiles moored their bark On the wild New England shore. Not as the conqueror comes, They, the true-hearted, came; Not with the roll of the stirring drums, And the trumpet that sings of fame; Amidst the storm they sang, And the stars heard, and the sea; And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang To the anthem of the free. What sought they thus afar ? Bright jewels of the mine ? The wealth of seas, the spoils of war ? They sought a faith's pure shrine ! Ay, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod; They have left unstained what there they found- Freedom to worbhip God. — Felicia Henians. III. Soil and climate, as well as men and great principles, have had their part in producing America. This nation and its achievements could not have been without its peculiar phj'sical features. A study of these natural conditions will help us to understand our history and to appreciate in larger measure our responsibility and opportunity. The distance from New York to Chicago, as the crow flies, is about seven hundred and thirty miles. Yet this is scarcely more than one-fourth the width of our territory east and west. Its greatest length, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, on the parallel of 42°, is 2768 miles, and its greatest breadth, from Point Isabel, Texas, to the northern boundary near Pembina, Minne- sota, is 1650 miles. The total area is 2,308,866,560 acres, or 3,607,604 square miles. It equals nearly four times the com- bined territory of Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Greece, Den- 1. I am indebted in th© preparation of this chapter to "Our Country," chanter 2; tho census rcporti*, tho yearly Almanac, et<^ PROVIDENCE IN ITS PHYSIC AT, FEATURES. 4t mark, Portugal, Austria, and Ireland. It could be divided into sixty states, each as large as England and Wales. It is equal in area to eighteen states like Spain, to thirty- one like Italy, and fourteen like France. Two countries as large as China proper could be made out of it, and the remnants would form several countries like the smaller European states. The kingdom of Prussia, consisting of thirteen provinces, has an area of 136,050 square miles. Twenty-six countries of that size could be formed out of our territory. Japan, with its 39,000,000 of population, has an area of only 148,456 square miles. These figures can only suggest, like guide-boards, the direc- tion of a long way. To appreciate the dis- tance the traveler must go over roads lead- ing east and west, north and south, and see for himself. The European visiting our Fair, having traveled with a steed that out- ran the wind, when drawing near Chicago would often be seen studying, with an amazed expression, the guide to San Fran- cisco. A new idea had entered his mind. It needs to dawn in the mind of every American. To us much has been given. Excluding Alaska our territory is con- 42 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. tiguous. The empire of Great Britain is divided and scattered the world over. This is a significant fact, and gives us certain ad- vantages and power. Our territory is not only compact but also isolated. It is sepa- rated from the strong, old world nations by thousands of miles of sea. Until the recent improvements in water travel, we lived in a world by ourselves. The ocean was our army of defense. The bearing of these facts of territory up- on our national life need to be indicated be- fore we consider other national features. 1. The extent of our territory encour- ages a spirit of independence and catholicity. The ver}^ greatness of our area enlarges our conceptions of citizenship and of charity. The different local interests make men in- dependent and compel them to be broad in spirit. Had this continent to which our fathers came been small, and they crowded together with the same interests, their ideas of independence and liberty might have been as narrow as their land. 2. The isolated position has played an important part in our history. Had it not been thus shut off from the world, it would have been settled and over-run and fought PROVIDENCE IN ITS PHYSICAL FEATURES. 43 over, as old world countries were, before the time when the world must have a new land. This would have at least delayed the progress of the world's great causes many centuries, and would have been an unspeak- able calamity. 3. Had the separation been less, the in- terchange of ideas would have been such that our thinking and living would have been shaped by the old ideas and standards. Men had to do their thinking, under new and peculiar conditions, v/ith little knowl- edge of what the rest of the world thought or did. This was in itself a great advantage. I^ife under such conditions would by ne- cessity enlarge its horizon. Those who dared venture upon unknown seas and into a wild continent would not be slow in ex- ploring new lands of ideas. 4. This isolation has shaped our growth by checking the tide of immigration. Had this not been so, there would have been lit- tle opportunity for the colonists to adapt themselves to the new conditions. The ideas which they brought with them would have continued to control their conduct. The difficulties of travel, in keeping many from coming, gave to those here the neces- 44 PROVIDENCK IN AMERICA. sary factor of time to become adapted to the new conditions. 5. The old separation into classes would have remained had not the settlers been cut off from the rest of the world. With one common struggle for bread, with the same dangers threatening, and the same prob- lems for all, the man of noble family was brought into very close sympathy and living with his humble neighbor, who in turn soon had the delusion of divine rights torn away and saw that the man of position was made of the same stuff as himself. Hunger and common dangers create a democracy of spirit and effort. This condition was one of the forces that led to a representative government in this land. 6. Had we not been removed from the rest of the world, we would have been en- gaged, as they have been, in frequent wars with other countries. Thus would our time and strength have been expended for that which is not bread. We have not been compelled to keep a large standing army. Our resources, material and moral, have been given to the building of a nation that represents in its spirit and ideals those prin- PROVIDENCE IN ITS PHYSICAL. FEATURES. 45 ciples that work toward the redemption of the world. 7. These natural conditions have brought another happy result. Had we been engaged in broils with other lands, our territory would undoubtedly have been divided and many of the leading powers would be now controlling portions of it. It is possible that our civil war might have furnished such an opportunity. In suffer- ing this, America would have been removed from the nations, and the part it has played would never have been. Liberty might yet be languishing in dungeons. With the advantages of extent and loca- tion of territory are almost unlimited min- eral resources. The value of the coal mined during 1894 at the place of production was $184,721,871; of lime $28,375,000; of stbne $34,332,916; of salt $5,396,956, and of nat- ural gas $1 1 ,990,000. The metals speak for themselves. The value of the aluminum mined in 1894 was $490,560. The copper mined was valued at $35,179,997 in 1893, and at $33,540,489 in 1894. "^^^ output of gold for 1893 was $35, 955, 000, and for 1894 $39,761,205; of silver $47,311,000 for 1893, and $31,403,531 for 1894, while pig ironfor 46 ROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. the years 1893-4 was valued at $93,888,300 and $71,966,364. The total mineral prod- uct of the United States reached the sum of $615,887,108 in 1893, and $553,362,996 in 1894. ^^^ falling off in 1894 is owing to the approach of hard times. One-half the world's product of gold and silver is in the United States. Mulhall estimates the area in square miles of the coal-fields of the world as follows : China and Japan, 200,000 ; United States, 194,000 ; India, 35,000 ; Rus- sia, 27,000 ; Great Britain, 9000 ; Germany, 3600; France, 1800; Belgium, Spain, and other countries, 1400. Total, 471,800. Statistics could be multiplied to show the inexhaustible resources under our soil. Dr. Strong forcibly says, "Iron ore is to-day mined in twenty-three of our states. A number of them could supply the world's demand. Our coal measures are simply in- exhaustible. English coal-pits, already deep, are being deepened, so that the cost of coal mining in Great Britain is presum- ably increasing, while we have coal enough near the surface to supply us for centuries. When storing away the fuel for the ages, God knew the place and work to which he had appointed us, and gave us twenty times PROVIDENCK IN ITS PHYSlCAIv FEATURES. 47 as much of this concrete power as to all the peoples of Europe. ' ' And the resources of the mines are out- rivaled by the products of the soil. The figures are astounding. The total acreage, yield, and value of farm products for 1894 was as follows: Acres. Bushels. Value. Wheat.. .34,882,436 460,267,416 $225,902,025 Corn .... 62,582,269 1,212,770,052 554,719,162 Oats.. . .27,023,553 662,086,928 214,816,920 Rye .... 1,944,780 26,727,615 13,394,476 Buckwheat. 789,232 12,668,200 7,040,238 Potatoes . . 2,737,973 170,787,338 91,527,787 Hay. . . . 48,321,272 54,874,408 468,578,321 Barley.. . 3,170,602 61,400,465 27,134,127 The amount of wheat produced in the period of 1 850- 1 894 is 5,581,293,134 bush- els. For 1893 the value of the corn crop was $591,625,627; wheat, $313,171,381; oats, $187,576,092. After feeding our 64,- 000,000 inhabitants, there was exported from the crop of 1893, 30, 2 11., 1 54 bushels of corn, 88,415,230 bushels of wheat, and 5,750,266 bushels of oats. The export from the yield of wheat of 1892 was 117,121,109 bushels. This immense yield has been from a comparatively small acreage. The total acreage of wheat, corn, oats, rye, buck- wheat, potatoes, and hay for 1894 (see above table) was 181,652,117. 48 PRUVIDKNCK IN AMERICA. The arable land in this country will exceed, I am sure, 1,800,000 square miles. Japan, with a population of 39,000,000, has a total area of 148,456 square miles. Sev- eral of her many islands are little more than bare rocks. Volcanoes and hills are fre- quent. China proper has not more than one-half the arable land of the United States, and yet her population, which is largely rural, is estimated from 350;00o,ooo to 400,000,000. Dr. Strong estimates, on the basis of 1,500,000 square miles of land thoroughly cultivated, that our agricultural products would sustain a population of i ,012,000,000. The influence of the resources of the soil upon our life is traceable. It means that this nation is independent of support of other lands, that its commercial future is assured, that here there will be money and power with which to work out the problenis of society, and that it will always have an influential voice in the deliberations of the nations. The amount of arable land makes us a nation of farmers. This is a significant fact. It is an assurance that the citizens will be persons of physical strength and PROVIDKNCEJ IN ITS PHYSICAI, FKATURES. 49 health. This is necessary for national greatness. This insures to us, as a people, intellect- ual strength and health. It is a proverb among us that our great men have come up to their positions of leadership from the farm. The eifect upon the mind of the close contact and struggle with the soil is marked. The writer asked a class in one of our public schools to name twenty per- sons whose lives had helped to shape this country for good. Out of those named, six- teen were born and spent their early years upon the farm. Moral, as well as physical and intellectual, results are dependent upon the fact that we are an agricultural people. There is some- thing in the close contact with the soil, in the every-day association with nature, that gives men moral fiber. The cities in every state are its weakness, its strength is the country. Illinois' safety is in that part of its territory outside of its great metropolis. The rural population of New York is its hope. ' * The vast reserve vital forces of the rural districts supply the physical, mental, and moral nourishment without w hich our 50 PROVIDKNCH IN AMERICA. great city populations would hopelessly de- generate. ' ' The study of present day reforms in the light of these suggestions will give to the careful student many instructive facts. Before the time comes that our pop- ulation is dense, while yet we have this great advantage, we must so rid our land of its internal enemies and strengthen it in its moral life that it can stand the stress of fut- ure storms. The record of the acquirement of vast stretches of our territory is luminous with the rays of providence. The rehearsal of the history of Oregon, California, or Loui- siana would of itself make a book. The parts which Marcus Whitman, General Fre- mont and others played in this great na- tional drama are thrilling when reviewed on the printed page. A large part of the west belonged first to Spain by right of ex- ploration, then came into the control of France, then into joint ownership of Eng- land and America, and at last we acquired full title. Marked as it is with the scars of human selfishness, yet in all this history the purpose of wisdom, the overruling hand of God, can be clearlv traced. Disastrous to PROVIDENCE IN ITS PHYSICAL FEATURES. 51 the United States and to tke world would it have been, if another nation had ruled the Avest. Climate has breathed into our other pos- sibilities the breath of life. The United States lies in the temperate zone. If the greatest length had been from north to south, the climate would have been different over nearly half the country. While it lies within the temperate zone, it extends far enough north and south to have an almost inclusive vegetation. This varied climate makes us comparatively independent of the products of other lands. This gives a cer- tain independence in matters of character and conduct that is necessary to the highest national development. A temperate climate has an invigorating effect upon tempera- ment. Open your atlas and history of the old world and contrast the achievements of countries in reference to climate. Princi- ples, then climate, determine the course of nations. Scotland and England have had both, and note the results. The mountain whites were true to the Union. Those in the valley below sought to disrupt it. The changes of seasons that follow so rapidly upon each other in the temperate zone make 5-2 PROVIDENCE IX AMERICA. a people quicker in mind and more able to adapt itself to the demands of new problems and opporttinities. The nations in the tem- perate zone, if they are true to their climatic advantages, will be leaders in the march of civilization. Added to America's territory, resources, and climate are her mountain systems. The giant, undisturbed peaks, the leaping torrents, the roaring winds, the clear, life- giving air, the broad horizon, and the im- pressive silences, are in themselves makers of men. ' ' They proclaim The everlasting creed of Hberty. That creed is written on the untrampled snow, Thundered by torrents which no power can hold. Save that of God, when he sends forth his cold, And breathed by winds that through the free heavens blow." The Scots, the Switz, the mountain whites, the New Englanders, and the other mountain dwellers of our land, will not fail, if properly taught, to be peoples of courage and moral vis'ons. The air they breathe is charged with freedom. The vegetation may be scant, but the crop of manhood is large and well developed. In all the threat- ening storms that shall come to this nation, PR0VIDP:NCK IX ITS PHVSICAI. FKATURES. 53 we shall expect to hear from its mountains the words of Tell: ' ' Blow on ! This is the land of liberty ! ' ' and they will give the valle3'S below the breath of physical and moral health. Flowing between these mountain systems are gift-bearing rivers. The Mississippi drains an area of 1,226,600 square miles. The greatest length of this system is over 4000 miles. The Columbia, the most of whose course is in the United States, is over 1200 miles in length. The Hudson and the Connecticut in the east, and the unnumbered others throughout our land, are all benefactors. Their influence upon our history is easily traced, though not thoroughly appreciated. They multiply the fertility and productiveness of the soil. Their valleys are known as the gardens of America. They minister to the health of our people. Who can estimate the sanitary value of the Hudson to the dwellers along its course, especially to the great cities at its mouth ? Some have asserted that a large part of the valley of the Mississippi in the south would be uninhabitable were it not for the invigorating and purifying effect of the river. The rivers were necessary to the 54 pRoviDKNCK IN amp;rica. growth of manufacturing. In the days \vhen electricity's mission was to frighten, we should have been helpless had it not been for the rivers. In this way they stim- ulated invention. With the power of a Niagara running to waste, man will not vStop thinking until it does his bidding. The blockade of the Mississippi during the Re- bellion proved that this country can never be divided. This great river, with its arms reaching out and inclosing a continent in itself, is an assurance that this nation shall always be ' ' one and indissoluble. ' ' Com- merce thus joins its voice with liberty to de- mand the preservation of the Union. Many of these lessons are suggested again as we study the influence of the great fresh- water lakes. Were it not for them the gathering of such populations as now cen- ter in Chicago, Cleveland, and Buffalo, for purely sanitary reasons, would be impossi- ble. They are becoming more and more the territory where the manufactories cen- ter. This systern of lakes, as the great equalizer of freight rates between the east and the west, has assisted in the develop- ment of the whole land. And l:as not this inland sea given to the rROYIDENCK IN ITS THYSICAI. FEATURES. 55 dwellers on its shores something of its bold- ness, its breadth of horizon, and its inde- pendence ? The .time is not far distant when the ocean steamers will come to these cities with the treasures of all lands and climes. Looking at the physical features of Amer- ica we are led to believe with Goodrich that ' ' the Infinite Mind has prepared this country for some notable progress in the history of the race' ' ; to understand now one cause of what Mr. Bryce calls the hopeful- ness of the American people; and to exclaim with Matthew Arnold, "America holds the uture." O God, beneath thy guiding hand Our exiled fathers crossed the sea, And when they trod the wintry strand With prayer and psalm they worshiped thee. Thou heardst, well pleased, the song, the prayer- Thy blessing came ; and still its power Shall onward through all ages bear The memory of that holy hour. What change ! through pathless wilds no more The fierce and naked savage roams ; Sweet praise, along the cultured shore, Breaks from ten thousand happy homes. Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God Came with those exiles o'er the waves. And where their pilgrim feet have trod The God they trusted guards their graves. And here thy name, O God of love, Their children's children shall adore, Till these eternal hills remove, And spring adorns the earth no more. — Leonard Bacon. IV. PROVIDENCE IN ITS SETTLEMENT. What America will be in itself and to the world depends more upon those that settled it than upon its natural features. Ideas and principles shape civilization more than air and acres.. All nations were struggling to win Amer- ica. They had different ideas, and hence varying civilizations. The one that settles America will give to this land its peculiar characteristics. England at last won. She established in 1607 the colony at Jamestown, and in 1620 the one at Plymouth. The Dutch settled New York, but never pressed their claims to success. The French grasped Quebec. The Spaniards explored the islands along the southern coast, and found- ed St. Augustine and Santa Fe. We cannot go over the bitter strug- gles of these nations to gain this new land. England at last secured a foot- hold that gave her the control of New Eng- land and south to Florida. The French and Indian wars gave England the un- known wastes stretching westward. Is PROVIDENCE IN ITS SETTI.EMENT. 59 it an advantage to civilization to have the Anglo-Saxon occupy the temperate zone of this great country and give shape to its life ? He who gives time and study to the peoples that sought to settle this country and to shape its life will be impressed with the peculiar fitness of this race in character and ideas to mold a new civilization that should represent the best things in liberty and righteousness. It is an industrious and thrifty race. The industry and thrift of the English peo- ple have become proverbial. These qualities have in a peculiar way marked the Anglo-Saxon in America. John Fiske writes of the population of New England : ' ' The emigration was pre-emi- nent for its respectability. lyike the best part of the emigration to Virginia, it con- sisted largely of country squires and yeo- men. The men who followed Winthrop were thrifty and prosperous in their old homes, from which their devotion to an idea made them voluntary exiles. They attached so much importance to regular in- dustry and decorous behavior that for a long time the needy and shiftless people who usually trouble in new colonies were 6o PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. not tolerated among them. ' ' ^ The same is true of the Plymouth Colony and of the Dutch that settled New York. No other nations have, through all their history, rivaled the early settlers in these two char- acteristics. This fact speaks volumes for the mo«al as well as commercial future of any country. " A lazy man is of no more use than a dead man, and he takes up more room." A company of shiftless men can never found and build a progressive nation. The Anglo-Saxon race has always been pe- culiarly energetic. It was formed by the welding together of a daring, hardy race with a solid, courageous one. In America it has had the daring of the Spaniard plus the steadiness of the Englishman and the brilliancy of the Frenchman. Endurance has always been one of its characteristics. ' ' Never give up ' ' has been the watchword. Alfred the Great, coming forth from his hiding-place in the marsh, the nobles and the Great Charter, Cromwell and his Ironsides, the Independents, Wash- ington at Valley Forge, Grant in the Wil- derness, are illustrations selected from Anglo-Saxon history, which bristles with 1 " The Beginnings of New England," p. 141. PROVIDENCE IN ITS SKTTl^EMENT. 6l examples ot grit, grip, and pluck. Others have marked the Puritan's en- thusiasm and practical common sense. As he pored over his Bible and drank of its in- spiration and caught a view of its perfect ideals, as he looked over the earth and saw its evils and the growth of the kingdom of heaven, his soul was thrilled, and he saw his place in the struggle and entered into it with all the depths of his stern nature aroused. He lived in that region which Whipple describes as "a region of spiritual ideas and spiritual persons, where youth is perpetual, where ecstasy is no transient mood but a permanent condition, and where dwell the awful forces which radiate immortal life into the will." From these elements that mark in a pe- culiar degree the history of this race that shaped America we learn that it lias been a race of unusual intelligence and depth of character. What it is has always been more effective than what it has done. Its controlling influence has been that noble- ness of which one of its poets sings: "Better not be at all Than not be noble." * * In all history , ' ' says John Fiske, ' ' there 62 PKOVIDENCK IN AMERICA. has been no other instance of colonization so exclusively effected by picked and chosen men. The colonists knew this and were proud of it, as well they might be. It was the simple truth that was spoken by William Stoughton when he said, in his election ser- mon of 1688, ' God sifted a whole nation that he might send choice grain into the wilderness.' '' ^ Many sought this country for commercial ends, but it was left for stern men of principles to settle it. " How dis- tinctly did Providence say, as colony after colony came to this virgin land, ' I have not chosen 3'ou.' Thus passed the greedy throngs who thought to claim this magnifi- cent inheritance, only to be whelmed by the surges of disaster. " 1 Why, then, should we wonder at what they have wrought ? It is only another illus- tration' of the power of manhood. "One ruddy drop of manly blood the raging sea outweighs. ' ' We must look deeper than this to under- stand the Anglo-Saxon. Character is, in great measure, the result of principles. Great principles produce great character, and selfish motives are the source of weak- 1 '* The Bejfinnini?? of New EngLand," p. 143. 2JeBBeD. Peck, D.D., "History of the Great Republic " PROVIDENCE IN ITS SETTI.EMENT. 63 ness. The character of the early settlers of America was based upon the fundamental principles of all abiding civilization. 1 . The real principle was living faith in Christ. It swept awa}^ all dependence upon formalities. It branded as fraud the sale of indulgences. It brought the soul into per- sonal relationship with Christ for its salva- tion and into daily communion with him for its life. 2. The formal principle was the supreme authority of the Scriptures as a rule of faith and practice. This cast aside the tradition and decisions of past ages as unequal to the Scriptures. Thus the world was directed to a common and never-changing source of light and authority. It was a return, as was Protestantism, from human authority to the authority of the Scriptures. 3. The social principle was the forming of a community of which Christ is the indi- vidual head and of which all the members are priests unto God. Kvery man thus must be the final court of appeal as to what the Scriptures teach and what God asks of him. No company of men, however high in ecclesiastical circles or learned, has the right to force its interpretations of the 64 PROVIDKNCE IN AMERICA. Scriptures or the will of God upon another. ^ Dr. Schaff puts it tersely, in speaking of Romanism and Protestantism, " Roman- ism throws Mary and the saints between Christ and the believer; Protestantism goes directly to the Saviour. ' ' ^ Understanding the motives that actuated the builders of America, we are prepared to appreciate the type of civilization that has come from these beginnings. The Anglo- Saxon has always, in a crude way, repre- sented civil liberty. Under the influences of the Reformation he has been made free and the messenger of freedom. Dr. Strong wrote in 1885, " Nearly all of the civil lib- erty of the world is enjoyed by Anglo-Sax- ons: the English, the British colonists, and the people of the United States. To some, like the Swiss, it is permitted by the suffer- ance of their neighbors; others, like the French, have experimented with it; but in modern times the peoples whose love of liberty has won it and whose genius for self- government has preserved it have been Anglo-Saxon." ' 1 See Dr. Hftgenbach— Tkeol. Studien. N. Kritiken, Jan., 1854, art. 1. 2Christian Intelligencer, Jan. 14, 1869. 3 " Our Country," p. 208. PROVIDENCE IN ITS SETTLEMENT. 65 Such a race is of necessity an intelligent one. He who weighs the truth for him- self, who walks with God in personal com- munion, who reads and understands the Scriptures, and who wages war upon tyran- nies old and strong, is a man of thought. Men do not stumble blindly into such courses of life. The Anglo-Saxon thinks, and so he builds schools and colleges. Al- fred founded schools and taught fundamen- tal principles in them, and England is the fruitage. The founders of our nation estab- lished schools where great principles were taught, and America is the result. ' ' According to that [Puritan] theory it was absolutely essential that every one should be taught from early childhood how to read and understand the Bible. So much instruction as this was assumed to be a sacred duty which the community owed to every child from within its jurisdiction? " " From these basic principles of Anglo-Saxon character by necessity came the town meet- ing, the independent and scholarly ministry, and the free discussion of public questions that was carried on in the family, neighbor- hood, and community. Such principles will 2 "TheBegininngs of New England," John Fiske. p. 151 66 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. give what we find the Anglo-Saxon has had, a spiritual and evangelistic type of Chris- tianity. We see this in the history of Eng- land and America. We see this in the sim- ple ideas of church membership, in the multiplied and varied activities of the Christians of Anglo-Saxon lands, contrasted with others, and in the amount given for the support of missions. Dr. Strong states that, the year the Congregationalists of the United States gave one dollar and thirty- seven cents per capita to foreign missions, the members of the German state church gave only three-quarters of a cent per mem- ber for the same work. ^ To-day a multitude in the United States — in every city and hamlet they are found — are living in per- sonal communion with Christ, and are pray- ing and living and giving for the world- wide success of pure Christianity. The bearing of these facts upon the world's progress toward perfect freedom and righteousness appears more clearly when we consider the principles of the other nations that sought to settle this country, and the results of those ideas as they have born fruit in this and other lands. 1 "Our Country," p. 209. PROVIDENCE IN ITS SETTLEMENT. 67 The Spaniard and the Frenchman each sought to bring this newly discovered land under the dominion of his country, and to give it his peculiar type of civilization. These nations are based upon certain simi- lar ideas. They may be in general and yet truly characterized as the opposites of the p/inciples and ideas which we have de- scribed above. 1. In religious life they insist upon the necessity of every person becoming a mem- ber of a certain division of the Christian church. This church is called the channel of grace. Christ is where the Roman church is; thus membership in a visible or- ganization really takes the place of personal faith. 2. Tradition, decisions of councils, and the power of the church are first, and the Scriptures second. The pope decides what the teachings of the Scriptures are. 3. No member has the right to decide what the Scriptures teach. He must take the decisions of the ecclesiastical head. The right of private interpretation and judgment is denied. The type of civilization coming from such controlling ideas will be different than that 68 PROVIDENCB IN AMERICA. flowing from the principles of Anglo-Saxon life. Theory and history here testify with one voice. The masses of the people of these nations have had in the past no liber- ty. Unlimited monarchies have reigned. The struggle in Italy, Spain, and France to attain religious toleration has been a terrific one. In this conflict the ecclesiastical power has opposed anything like catholicity in the treatment of other faiths. The Anglo-Saxon has sometimes been a bigot and has persecuted, but it has come from the narrowness of the age and from imperfect human nature, and was opposed to the principles he professed. The basic principles of the Anglo-Saxon faith mean in their natural results civil and religious freedom. The basic ideas of the faith of the other nations that sought control of this land, when ripened to their natural fruit- age, mean civil and religious tyranny. And, if the common people have no free responsibilities in church and state, there will never be among them any wide intel- ligence. Ignorance is the essential to a civil or religious absolute monarchy. Monarchy and the town meeting do not live under the same roof. So in these coun- PROVIDENCE IN ITS SETTLEMENT. 69 tries under consideration there has been no effort on the part of the authorities to fur- nish schools for the people. The Scriptures have been kept from the body of the people. The per cent of illiteracy is great. The colleges, except for the candidates for the clergy, are few. Under the pressure of out- side civilization and the stern necessity for national self-preservation, these states have in recent times insisted upon schools, and non-sectarian schools, and have made nota- ble advances. It has been done in spite of their religious theories. Another natural and lamentable out- growth of such theories will be a sensual and non-evangelistic type of Christianity, or a falling away into infidelity. These we find in a marked way in these countries. Images and pictures and beads, confes- sions to priests, and penance are prominent factors in the religious worship and life. Thus idolatry abounds, for it is none the less disobedient to the first commandment to worship saints and Mary the mother of Jesus, and to bow before images and trust to the intercession of a human priest, than it is to bow before the crocodile and to wor- ship Osiris. yo PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. To one who believes that God intends this world to enjoy sometime perfect civil and religious freedom, and its inhabitants to live righteously and in daily communion with himself, and its different divisions of the church to work together in unity of spirit, each true to conscience and with the broadest charity, the possession of Amer- ica by the Anglo-Saxon means much. He sees in this fact not only the freedom of America to-day but its perfect freedom to- morrow, and the influence that this people shall have in the emancipation of the world. He sees in all this the beneficent purpose of God, and he is glad. Our fathers' God ! from out whose hand The centuries fall like grains of sand, We meet to-day, united, free. And loyal to our land and thee, To thank thee for the era done, % And trust thee for the opening one. Here, where of old, by thy design, The fathers spake that word of thine Whose echo is the glad refrain Of rended bolt and falling chain, To grace our festal time, from all The zones of earth our guests we call. For art and labor met in truce, For beauty made the bride of use, We thank thee ; but, withal, we crave The austere virtues strong to save, The honor proof to place or gold, The manhood never bought nor sold. Oh, make thou us, through centuries long, In peace secure, in justice strong ; Around our gift of freedom draw The safeguards of thy righteous law; And, cast in some diviner mold, I/et the new cycle shame the old ! •^John Green leaf Whtttier. PROVIDENCE IN ITS DEVELOPMENT. The statement is credited to Mr. Glad- stone that the first fifty years of the present century outran all the preceding centuries in achievement, and that this period was surpassed by the next quarter of a century, and this by the ten years from 1875 to 1885. The common facts of history are proof of this assertion. If all the inventions of the last century were to be destroyed, we would be back again to primitive ways of living and working. The farmer would be using the sickle, and the housewife would be lim- ited in utensils, and living in a home bare of pictures, books, furnace, piano, and other things considered necessities to-day. The manufactories would nearly all be closed. The traveler would be slowly pressing his way over muddy roads by team. The mes- sages of love and business would be creep- ing along by ' 'pony express. ' ' The nations would be separated by weeks of ocean. The educational ruin would be appalling. The colleges — the most of them — would not qe at work. The public libraries would be 74 I'KOVIDENCE IN AMERICA. gone. The books out of which to form them would be ashes. The unnumbered associations whose aim is the enhghtenment of the people would be unorganized. Morally we w^ould have back the clank- ing chain of the slave and the fetters of many an evil which the last century has either broken or raised up a company pledged to its destruction. The careless observer can see that the de- struction of the distinctly religious achieve- ments of the last century would turn the world a long way back. The most of those organizations of the church through which its purpose reaches out to win the world and bless the needy have come within the century or nearly so. While visiting the "White City" at Chicago one day, the alarm of fire was heard. The thought flashed through my mind that these ex- hibits had had their natal hour in the cen- tury in which the Fair is held, and that if a fire had power to destroy these products of a hundred years and all they represent we would have little to exhibit. It is a pleasure to give in this chapter the bare out- line of America's achievements since the time when the early settlers commenced to PROVIDENCE IN ITS DEVEIvOPMENT. 75 work out the problems of the race in this new land under new conditions. The steam engine, the telegraph, the tel- ephone, the many lines of railroads, the wide use of the printing-press and the tele- scope, the microscope, the reaper, have all come during the nineteenth century. They have wrought revolutions. They have touched the world as with a magician's wand. They have been to it like the warm showers to the slumbering earth in the springtime. They have destroyed all iso- lation. We are neighbors. Railroads carry us to distant states as hoises once carried us to contiguous neighborhoods. Telegraph and telephone have brought the different parts of the earth together, and we " speak to each other over the back fence. " It is more and more impossible for oppression to live. Evil deeds come to the light. The Turk is eventually doomed, because the Ar- menian is our neighbor and the deeds of death are open to the world. Invention has enriched the life of every one. There are false prophets that curse machinery as the arch enemy of the poor and weak. It is their benefactor. It has visited the farm and the cold floors are covered with carpets, j6 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. the bare walls are hung with pictures, the organ and piano add their songs, books and magazines come as messengers of light, the rough, unwieldly plow, the drag (a limb of some generous tree), the sickle, the flail, with the long hours of severe toil, are gone, and in their stead machinery with horse or steam power does the work. Invention has brought its gifts to the hospital and the home of sickness and driven out much of the pain. It has placed within the hands of the sailor a chart and compass, and has robbed the sea of much of its terror. A quarter of a century ago only the rich could ride; now the poor man saves his money by using the car. It has shortened the hours of labor and given the laborer leisure for rest and study. It has brought to the poor man the literature and art of all ages. Wages are higher, necessities and luxuries are cheaper, and the opportunities for improvement are multiplied. The educational improvement is equ?lly marked. The opportunities for securing an education are increased. The public school system has come, and a course of study as thorough as the college course of a century ago is within reach of every one. Acade- AMERICA IN ITS DEVE1.0PMENT. 77 mies abound. Colleges have sprung up in profusion. Machinery has made it possible for the father to spare his boys to the col- lege. Kindergartens are taking the chil- dren and training the faculties from the be- ginning in the natural way. Reading cir- cles and clubs, assemblies and lecture courses, correspondence schools, university extension instruction, are ministering an- gels. Physical culture aims to furnish a healthy body for the trained mind. The aim is, nationally, that every child shall be thus trained. History and the science of government is now a part of the public school curriculum. In the colleges the study of sociology and of the English ver- sion of the Bible have a recognized and im- portant place. The improvement in the methods of teaching is as marked as the im- provement in the studies taught and the multiplication of schools. The old way of putting all children through the same hop- per, to be ground up in the same mill and to come out the same brand of flour, has passed away. The personality of the child is taken into account. The aim is to edu- cate, to lead out the pupil. Education has come to be a growth, and not a process of 78 PROVIDENCK IN AM£;R1CA. manufacture. The moral development has kept pace with the material and intellectual. Amer- ica has established three things for liberty. First, that the right to tax implies that the one taxed has the right of representation. It took a long and terrible war to bring this principle its proper recognition. The world has the example of one nation insist- ing successfully that the right of imposing taxes rests with the people and not with kings and outside nations. Second, that a people can found a representative govern- ment that is equal to all the emergencies of a century — including strife — and that faces with confidence the difficulties of the fut- ure. Third, that freedom and rights are not conditioned upon race peculiarities. None are slaves, but all are free. It takes only a word to enumerate these changes, but they hold in them continent and world des- tinies. So we call the earth's mighty waters " ocean," though none can fully ap- preciate its influence upon climate and life. These achievements alone would make the century a notable one. Had the United States won no other moral victories than these during all her history she would have AMERICA IN ITS DEVEI^OPMENT. 79 accomplished a work incomputably helpful. But other gains have been made. The growth in temperance sentiment is significant. There are those living who can remem-ber the first temperance pledge ever urged upon the people. In substance it was a promise not to drink certain liquors except at the time of the raising of build- ings, the washing of sheep, and upon cer- tain national holidays. This expressed the advanced sentiment of the day. It was bit- terly opposed as a cast-iron pledge. To-day total abstinence is an accepted fact among temperance workers. The battle has won this position and swept on to other heights. The accepted ideal of the reformers of to- day is the prohibition of the liquor traffic. Men differ as to the method, some urg- ing a third party, some a non-partisan Jeague, and others other methods, but all are agreed that the saloon must go. It was a great achievement when a small number of agitators, though they differed in method, w^ere agreed upon the destruction of slavery. This ideal meant a future realization. This ideal of the temperance forces means in the future a country freed from the saloon as an institution. 8o PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. This change of sentiment is seen in the attitude of the church toward the evil. Fifty years ago ministers took stimu- lants before entering the pulpit, and few thought anything of it. Saloon keepers and brewers were often in good standing in the churches, and even at a later date promi- nent members of churches rented their prop- erty for saloon purposes. In some of the divisions of the Christian church those are not now admitted to membership who have even in a remote way any connection with the liquor business, and the ministers al- mOvSt to a man are total abstainers. This position of a part of the church is prophetic of great results. When the church grap- ples in earnest with this curse the victory will not be long in coming. The moral development of this country in its political life is clearly seen. While cor- ruption is wide-spread and the patriot is anxious for his country, still there are signs of promise on the horizon. Books are com- ing from the press. The best of the daily press is gathering and puttiing into every citizen's hand the facts of corruption. Good citizenship clubs are studying muni- cipal questions and trying to free the cities AMERICA IN ITS DKVKI^OPMKNT. 8l from corrupt rule. Pulpits are thundering away against demagogues and boodle alder- men. The citizens at large are coming to appreciate this evil and the dangers arising from it. Agitation is going on in a multi- tude of ways. Agitation is to the health of nations what the opening of windows is to dark and unhealthy rooms. The religious development of this coun- try has kept pace with the material, intel- lectual, and moral advance. I do not care to record the statistics that so abundantly prove this statement. Dr. Dorchester and the last census reports are ready witnesses. There has been an advance of which figures cannot speak. I . Christ has become the center of the religious thought and life. A half century ago, as Dr. Fairbairn points out, a minister's library consisted of books upon apologetics, theism, design, the attributes of God, proof of the resurrection, the formation of the canon, and the credibility of the gospel his- tory. Calvinism and Arminianism, the di- vine origin of the episcopacy, and the dif- ferent church creeds, would have many volumes representing them on the shelves. To-day it is different. The scholarship of 82 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. to-day dwells upon the person of Christ. The great works of theology in the last few years bear such titles as these : "The Gospel for an Age of Doubt," "The Christ of To-day," "The Place of Christ in Modern Theology." This change finds a striking illustration in the questions asked by a conservative church of thOvSe who wish to become members on con- fession of faith. ( I ) "Do you accept Christ, the only begotten Son of God, as your per- sonal Saviour? " (2) "Do you promise to be loyal to him in all the relationships of life ? " (3) "Do you promise to be loyal to his work as carried on by this church so long as you are a member ? ' ' 2 . With this change in the thought of the church has come a new purpose to minister to the world. The mind of Christ has been more the mind of his people. A quarter of a century ago you could easily enumerate the organizations that aimed to reach the overlooked. To-day the cities are dotted with missions, social settlements, barracks, Sunday schools, kindergartens, nurseries, and other institutions that exist for the sole purpose of helping the weak and the de- graded. The open churches are becoming AMERICA IN ITS DEVELOPMENT. 83 a large army. Their doors are open during the entire week, and their aim is to minis- ter in Christ's name and spirit to the physi- cal, mental, moral, social, and religious needs of the community. 3. A new doctrine of wealth is finding- a place in the thought and preaching of the church. It is insisting that money must be honestly obtained and unselfishly used. The new gospel of wealth has come to stay, and, though too few seem to heed its mes- sage, yet its power is growing. 4. With a clearer view of Christ has come a growing unity among his followers. The different religious bodies unite in many forms of service and often in worship. This spirit is seen in the establishment of new churches by the different denominational boards. A church united in spirit is a victorious church. The gates of hell can- not prevail against it. If we were to look for special providences in the development of America, the illustra- tions would be many and striking. That the religious ideas and spirit of the Pil- grims, and not the narrower ideas and spirit of the Puritans and the colony in the south, gave shape to the religious thought and 84 PROVIDENCl': IN A ^[ ERICA. temper of this nation, is an illustration of the purpose of God. In the foundilig of many colleges of this land we see the overruling hand of God. Whether Oberlin should admit all races and both sexes hung upon the decision of one man, and he opposed their admission. Prayer, united and long continued, was the new force that entered in and shaped the re- sult. In the locating and founding on the part of the American Missionary Associa- tion and others of the schools in the south are distinct evidences of providential care. One of the best evidences of this providence is the organization of the American Mis- sionary Association itself. Between the years of 1650 and 1800 very few immigrants landed on these shores. Had it been differ- ent, this country could never have wrought out the great problems which were upon it for solution. John Fiske, in "The Begin- nings of New England," tells how in the early history of Massachusetts the legisla- ture divided into two bodies over a foolish lawsuit as to the possession of a pig. Out of similarly insignificant things have come great and beneficent results. It is another illustration of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people. Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! Sail on, O Union, strong and great ' Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! We know what Master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, .and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were shaped the anchors of thy hope ! Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 'Tis of the wave, and not the rock ; 'Tis but the flapping of the sail. And not a lent made by the gale ! In spite of rock and tempest's roar, In spite ot false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears. Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee, — are all with thee ! — Henry Wadswortk /.oHn^/ellou'. VI. PROVIDENCE IN ITS CRITIC AI^ PERIODS. The cathedral of Dom has made the city of Cologne famous. Each century has added a gift of labor and sacrifice toward its completion. A multitude of hands have wrought to realize the plans of Gerhard von Rile. So has the temple of liberty and righteousness been building during the cen- turies. Each century has brought some priceless gift of hand and brain and heart. A multitude have wrought to realize the perfect plan of God. The great struggles of America are not isolated facts, but are near of kin to the historic battles of freedom. The careful student finds in the critical periods of Amer- ica's history many indications of this pur- pose. On Nov. 1 1 -2 1 the occupants of the Mayflozvc) drew up a covenant and signed it as the basis of their relationship in the new country. It had in it the germs of a republic: " In the name of God, amen. We whose names are vinder- written, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, 88 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. King James, by the grace of God of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, King, De- fender of the faith, etc. ' ' Having vndertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith, and honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the Northerne parts of VIRGINIA, doe by these presents solemnly & mutually in the presence of God and one of another, cove- nant and combine our selues together into a civill body politike, for our better order- ing and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by vertue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such iust and equall Lawes, Ordinances, acts, constitu- tions, offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony: vnto which we promise al due submission and obedience. ' ' Here we have in this covenant a recog- nition of the fundamental principles of a democracy: (i) That the allegiance of every person is primarily to God, and not to a king; (2) the recognition of the duty and privilege of every person to have part in the organization and conduct of the state. This is a distinct step forward in the history PROVIDENCE IN ITS CRlTlCAt PERIODS. 89 of representative government. Such seeds when grown to fruitage bear representative rights, representative governments, and race freedom. Following out these principles John Carver is chosen governor. These men were forerunners of the American na- tion. How is it that this smah company, when all nations are empires and mankind looks at kings as divine, sees visions and dreams dreams ? To speak of this as one of the accidents of history is to think as the fool thinketh. To trace the development of these new principles during the next century would be impossible within the limits of this vol- ume. George Bancroft and John Fiske have done this with the powers of genius. The royal governors were trying to conduct the affairs of the colonies according to the standard and spirit of England. But life here was different. The freedom of the mother country had enlarged its vision. As a result the people objected to many of the measures of the government. They maintained in New Hampshire that as freeborn Englishmen they had the right to choose their representatives. In Massa- chusetts a thirty years' controversy was PROVIDENCK IN AMERICA. waged iu regard to the governor's salary., Exaggerated reports were made to the lords of trade, and England came to consider th^ colonists as lawless. They attempted to limit the powers of the settlers. The lords of trade sought to bring about a union of all the colonists which would destroy local self- government. The leaders in America fa- vored a union, but insisted upon local self- government. The people were probably^ opposed to any union. In 1754 the Albany plan was formulated. It was the child of Franklin's mind. Public opinion was rwt yet ready for such a government. The, French and Indian wars turned the atten- tion for a time into other channels. Then came the " Writ of Assistance," and the ar- gument of James Otis against this law before the court made so great an impression upon the people that the scene in the court-room has since been remembered, and not un- justly, as the opening scene in the Ameri- can revolution. In 1761 the power to re- move the chief justice of New York was placed in the hands ot the crown. In 1762 the assembly of Massachusetts refused to pay the sum of four hundred pounds, which expense Governor Bernard had incurred PROVIDENCE IN ITS CRITICAI, PERIODS. 91 without the assent of the assembly. In 1765 the stamp act was passed. America was indignant, church bells were tolled, flags were at half-mast, the act was reprint- ed with a death's head as its coat of arms. Virginia under the lead of Patrick Henry drew up those indignant resolutions that declared that ' * the taxation of the people by themselves or by persons chosen by them- selves to represent them is the distinguish- ing characteristic of British freedom, with- out which the ancient constitution cannot exist." Representatives of New York, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Pennsyl- vania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Rhode Island met and for- mulated a set of resolutions addressed to the king and parliament. The effigy of Oliver was burned on Fort Hill. Boxes of stamps were destroyed. England, seeing that the law could not be enforced, considered the advisability of repealing it. The debate in the House of Commons was a bitter one. It was at this time that Pitt championed the cause of America. He insisted that the principle for which the Americans were contending was the heart of English liberty. ** America," said he, "if she fell, would 92 PROVIDENCK IN AMERICA. fall like the stroug man, with his arms around the pillars of the constitution." The act was repealed and the declaratory act was passed. America's joy knew no bounds. Then came the infamous policy of Charles Townsend and of George the III. The petition of the Massachusetts assembly enraged the king. The legislature of Mas- sachusetts was ordered to rescind it. Otis replied, " Let Britain rescind her meas- ure, or the colonies are lost to her forever." Citizens were seized and compelled to labor as seamen. The struggle continued to de- velop. The Boston massacre made the colonists more determined. The commit- tees of correspondence were established, and brought the colonists nearer together. George III. asserted at this time the ob- noxious tea-tax law. The Boston Tea Party convened. Mr. Fiske calls it ' ' the colossal event," and says, "For the quiet sublimity of reasonable but dauntless moral purpose the heroic annals of Greece and Rome can show us no greater scene than that which the Old South Meeting House witnessed on the day when the tea was de- stroyed." England responded with the Boston Port bill, the regulating act, and PROVIDENCE IN ITS CRITICAI, PERIODS. 93 Other unjust measures. Massachusetts de- fied the regulating act. The Boston Port bill rallied all the colonies to the support of Massachusetts. Preparations for the de- fense of their rights were made by the col- onists. Concord, I^exington, and Bunker Hill soon followed. The second Continent- al Congress convened and appointed Washington commander-in-chief. He drove the British from Boston. Events multiplied rapidly, and discussion went on which led to the Declaration of Independence on the fourth of July, 1776. The long years of strife that followed are familiar to every school child. The victory was as great as it was seemingly impossible. The moral sweep of the war and of the events which preceded it is clearly seen. The French and Indian wars had prepared the colonists for the struggle. England had been compelled by the complications at home to leave the responsibilities of those early struggles to the colonies. It seemed a calamity at the time, but proved a wise teacher. Providence is seen in the clearness with which the leaders in America saw the prin- ciples at issue and the methods by which 94 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. they were to be established. Washington, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and others seemed almost omniscient. When the Bos- ton port was closed Franklin wrote that perhaps it might be well to pay for the tea destroyed. Gadsden with clear insight and rugged diction advised, "Don't pay an ounce of the damned tea." The wife of John Adams wrote him after the insulting proclamation of George III., "This intelli- gence will make a plain path for you though a dangerous one. I could not join to-day in the petition of our worthy pastor for a reconciliation between our no longer parent state, but tyrant state, and these colonies. Let us separate: they are unworthy to be our brethren. Instead of supplications, as formerly, for their prosperity and happiness, let us beseech the Almighty to blast their counsels and bring to naught all their de- vices." The causes are clearly the causes of God. They are the lineal descendants of the Re- naissance, the Reformation, and the gospel of Christ. They are the ancestors of every reform of this advancing generation. The time had come when these truths must win a foothold in the hostile world. Imperish- PROVIDENCE IN ITS CRITICAI, PERIODS. 95 able ideas were breaking up through the crust of civilization. The power of the colonies was beyond the power of their numbers and resources. They were only a handful. They had few resources. They were untrained in military warfare. General Gage offered to put down the whole rebellion with four regiments. Kngland looked at the colonists as a set of unruly children who needed only to be spanked to become submissive. She did not appreciate the strength of an aroused moral sentiment. She failed to take ac- count of the conquering power of the truth. Back of the colonists was the truth. Back of the truth is God. Numbers count but little. Fidelity, wisdom, and sacrifice meet the conditions. The unity of the people is a significant fact. General Gage declared to the king that the other colonists would not support Massachusetts in her foolish undertaking. The colonies had been jealous of each other, but when the critical moment came they stood as one. It was the only hope of all. That all should see this and respond is as much the leading of providence as the giv- ins: of the Ten Commandments. Had th€ 96 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. Declaration of Independence come before it did, it would not have been received; had it come later it would have passed the time of greatest influence. Immediately following the revolution came the period of great depression. The Articles of Confederation gave Congress lit- tle power. It could enforce nothing. It could not levy taxes to pay the heavy debt incurred by the war. The colonies were jealous of each other. Public opinion fa- vored the independence of each state. Men refused to pay their taxes and threatened to overturn the government. Washington said, " We are one nation to-day and thir- teen to-morrow. ' ' It seemed that all of the results of the war were to avail nothing. John Fiske writes, " It is not too much to say that a period of five years following the peace of 1783 was the most critical moment of all the history of the American people." The worst hardships of the war were due largely to the absence of a centralized gov- ernment. Now that the common struggle was over, the old jealousies broke out again. At this critical time, through the foresight of Washington and others, a convention was called in Philadelphia to revise the Articles PROVIDENCE IN ITS CRITICAI. PERIODS. 97 of Confederation. The destiny of America was at stake. To have given the world at this time a representative nation meant more to the world than any other fact of its history except the coming of Christ. Had several small nations been formed, the whole history of America since that time would have been a record of petty strifes, which would have ended in Europe securing our territory. A nation was founded that was able to stand the storm of 1861-65. Mr. Gladstone called the work of our federal con- vention ' ' the finest specimen of construc- tive statesmanship that the world has ever seen. ' ' He also says, * ' The American con- stitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." Few amendments have been made. It seems to be forever settled that this government is one and indissoluble. And when we consider the long weeks of seemingly hopeless discussion, until Wash- ington wrote that he wished he had had nothing to do with the convention, as noth- ing would be accomplished, we see the work- ings of Providence. The constitution of the United States is as much the gift of God as the commandments on the tables of stone. 98 providence; in America. Different plans were presented, but at last like a flash of light the form which we now have dawned upon the mind of one of the leaders. Men do not of themselves sudden- ly shake off ideas and principles that have been held sacred for generations. The time had come when a new principle of national life must take root in the world. Providence appears in the adoption of the constitution by the different states. It is true in general that the colonies were against the constitution. In spite of the in- fluence of the leaders it often seemed in some of the states that it would be rejected. The fact that Washington favored it was the deciding influence with many. For weeks Hamilton argued and plead for the constitution before the convention at Pough- keepsie. To the surprise of many the states at last entered into the contract. The framers of the constitution appre- ciated their dependence upon God. At the opening of the convention, Franklin, who cannot be charged with an over-abundance of piety, reverently suggested that it be opened with prayer. Washington in a crit- ical time of the convention closed an im- pressive address with these words, ' ' The provide;nce: in its critical, periods. 99 event is in the hand of God. ' ' Israel's God was the God of our fathers. We had in America from the adoption of the constitution the strange anomaly of a free government in which there was a race of slaves. We can see now as some did then that this condition of things could not forever endure. Jefferson and Washington saw the danger, and would have been glad if the constitution had forbidden it. Slav- ery had extended itself until at the break- ing out of the war it claimed everything. Compromises were made but no sooner made than broken. Here and there a person ap- preciated the danger and uttered a protest. The first reformers were hunted, their prop- erty destroyed, and sometimes they them- selves shot down. The cause of freedom seemed a hopeless one. When in the city of Boston sentiment was such that the lives of anti slavery agitators were not safe, and in Illinois men were shot down, and in many townships a single agitator was tarred and feathered, the hope of the slave was dim. In the House of Representatives hardy old Ben Wade and Joshua R. Giddings could not speak their opinions except at the muzzle of revolvers, and Charles Sumner lOO PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. must receive as the reward of his protest a brutal attack. Against these overwhelming odds the agitation went on. The king- dom of heaven cometh without obser- vation. At last an uprising of the people came. The impossible was accomplished. In the purpose of God the time had come when an illustration of the strength of free government was to be given, and when a race was to be set free. A man like Garri- son was no less called of God than Moses. The issues at stake were such that we may know that God was at work. The in- terests of commerce, of education, of morals, and of religion need a nation of the extent and principles of the United States in which to accomplish their mission. Had the Union been destroyed in i860 the cause of liberty would have been set back many cen- turies. Had it been possible to preserve the Union and keep slavery, oppression would have intrenched itself anew. The same wisdom seen in the Declaration of Independence appears in the Emancipa- tion Proclamation. Men urged that it be made before it was, others felt that it came too soon, but, judged by the results, Henry Ward Beecher waiJs ght in urging it and PROVIDENCK IN ITS CRITICAL PERIODS. lOI Abraham Lincoln was right in sending it forth at the time it appeared. It was oue of those pivotal moments on which turns the future. The power to see the supreme mo- ment is the gift of God. The place of faith in this great struggle is clearly seen. It was the heart of the anti- slavery movement. It sustained the people during the terrible years of the war. ' ' The American nation never could have gone through the war, with its terrible drain upon sympathy, treasure, and blood, if there had not been lodged in the national heart the conviction that the whole tragic movement concerned the Almighty. That conviction gave solemnity to the national purpose, and an infinite sanctity to the sacrifice through which the country was redeemed." When the tidings of Lincoln's assassina- tion reached the world Dr. Cuyler was at Fortress Monroe. The poor negro women had draped their huckster tables in black, and one of them said, "Yes, sah; Father Linkum's dead. They killed our best friend, but God be libin' yet. Dey can't kill him; I'se sure of dat." ^ The leadings of Providence are seen in the 1 ♦* Abraham Lincoln." T. Y. Crowell & Co., p. 126. IO« PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. growth of harmony between the Federal and Confederate. Gradually the spirit of bitter- ness which was so intense at the close of the war has worn away. The spirit of brother- hood which Christ himself possessed and illustrated is gradually infolding society as the atmosphere infolds the earth. Nothing encouraged the dying Grant more than the expressions of sympathy so hearty and spontaneous that came to him from the south. ^ It was to him a prophecy of peace. It is the earth taking up the song of heaven, " Peace on earth, goodwill toward men." r'Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant." Vol. II. p. 553. God give us men ! A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands — Men whom the love of office cannot kill ; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy ; Men who possess opinions and a will ; Men who have honor ; men who will not lie ; Men who can stand before a demagogue And damn his treacherous flatteries without wink- ing ! Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty and in private thinking — For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, Their large professions, and their little deeds, Mingle in selfish strife, lo ! Freedom weeps. Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps .' — Jo^iah Gilbert Holland. VII. PROVIDENCK IN AMERICA'S LEADERS. History centers around its great person- alities. Cyrus molded the sixth century before the Christian era. Philip and Alex- ander gave the world the Macedonian em- pire. Alfred the Great laid the foundation of England. Cromwell was the life of the Commonwealth. No man can measure Glad- stone's influence upon this century of England's life. Bismarck welded many nations into united Germany. As Mr. Bryce points out, "Perhaps no form of govern- ment so needs great leaders as democracy." America has had such leaders. In almost every colony sent out there were men of marked personality. John Endicott, Gov. Winthrop, Roger Williams, Elder Brewster, Miles Standish, John Alden, William Penn, and many others were leaders. Some one has said that every one of revolutionary days was a leader. The conditions of life made him so. Certain it is that those who gathered in the Constitutional Convention were men of creative minds. History re- cords that no nation has ever had so many Io6 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. intelligent and unselfish leaders as America during its brief life. Appreciating now the causes which have been dependent upon its life, we are able to discern the Providence that gave us such giants in those days. Providence is seen also in the time these men appeared. Moses was ready when the Ivord wished a leader. Joshua had been prepared to take command when Moses laid down his work. God thus raises up lead- ers to suit the needs. America furnishes striking illustrations of this purpose. With- out a leader like Washington the achieve- ments of the first years could not have been. The power of this man united the colonies in opposition to England, and kept the army together and hopeful during that long and unequal struggle. It was his in- fluence more than others that led to the Constitutional Convention, and kept it to- gether during the weeks of seemingly fruit- less debate. Again it was Washington's approval of the constitution that led many of the colonies to accept it, and it was the confidence men had in him that made the opening years of our national life auspi- cious. Every colony had its leaders. Pat- trick Henry in Virginia first uttered the PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA'S I^EADERS. 107 Startling cry, " Give us liberty, or give us death. ' ' It was a distinct step forward in the struggles of representative rights. Hamilton was ready with his financial sys tern at the time when public credit was chaos. Later, Lovejoy and Garrison, Phil- lips and Beecher, aroused and led the thought of the continent to overwhelm slavery at the time when this nation must become either all slave or all free. It is not an accident that there had come up from the lowly walks of life a man with the spirit and wisdom of I^incoln to guide this nation during the storms of civil strife. And he must be blind who sees in the com- ing of a leader like Grant the accident of chance, and not the purpose of intelligence. Not only in the number of leaders which America has had, and in the time which they appeared, is Providence seen, but also in the make-up of the leaders. They have been men of rare mold. They were men of principle. They asked not what is pleasant, but what is right. When General Gage sent Colonel Fenton to Samuel Adams, promising him great gifts if he would re- cede from his position against the Port bill, he arose in indignation and replied, "Sir, Io8 PROVIDENCK IN AMERICA. I trUvSt I have loug since made my peace with the King of kings. No personal con- sideration shall induce me to abandon the righteous cause of my country. Tell Gov- ernor Gage it is the advice of Samuel Adams to him to insult no longer the feelings of an exasperated people. " In 1774, at the first Colonial Congress held in Philadelphia, the same rugged old statesman answered those who urged the following of policy instead of principle : ** I should advise persisting in our struggle for liberty though it was re- vealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perish, and only one of a thousand should survive and retain his liberty. One such freeman must possess more virtue and enjoy more happiness than a thousand slaves ; and let him prop- agate his life and transmit to them what he has so nobly preserved." The citizens of Boston voted to abstain from the use of tea because of the principle at stake. After the Boston massacre the proposition was made by those representing England to re- move the 29th regiment and to keep the 14th. The great crowd that packed the Old South Church and the streets near by answered the proposition with the mighty PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA'S LEADERS- IO9 shout, " Both regiments or none." Scarce- ly a leader in all of America's history, whatever his imperfections may have been, that has not been a man that followed prin- ciple. The greatest power of Washington rested in his character. Wendell Phillips dedicating his life to the truth is an example of American leader- ship. "O lyord," he prayed after listen- ing to Lyman Beecher, * ' so take possescion of me that it shall be natural for me to love the good, and strive for it, and to hate the evil and to fight it." That nation will be great whose leaders are men of noble char- acter. " When all have done their utmost, surely he Hath given the best who gives a character Erect and constant, which not any shock Of loosened elements, nor the forceful sea Of flowing or of ebbing fates, can stir From its deep bases in the living rock Of ancient manhood's sweet security. And this he gave, serenely far from pride As baseness, boon with prosperous stars allied, Part of what nobler seed shall in our loins abide. " The leaders of the past have been un- selfish. They brought their property, time, life, and love to their country's causes. Robert Morris at one time gave his own no PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. personal note for $1,400,000 that the Revo- lution might be carried on. When John Hancock was the presiding officer of Con- gress a letter was received from Washing- ton urging that Boston be bombarded. It was known that Mr. Hancock's property was nearly all in Boston, and the body re- solved itself into a committee of the whole that he might speak freely. "It is true, sir," said he, " that nearly all my property in the world is in houses and other real estate in the town of Boston ; but if the expulsion of the British army from it, and the liberty of our country, require their being burned to ashes, issue the order for that purpose immediately." Suppose that when the attempt was made to make Wash- ington the absolute ruler of this country he had been a Napoleon; its whole history would have been different. There was more than a grave humor in the remark made at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, ' ' We must all hang together, or we shall hang sepa- rately." It was the united gift of these mighty leaders of themselves to the cause. Garrison made of himself, in becoming an abolitionist, a hated and hunted outcast. PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA'S IvEADERS. HI lyovejoy gave his life as his contribution to the cause. No country was ever freed from evils and enriched with national graces except by the sacrifice of heroic souls. Some one must stand alone and cry out against oppression and injustice. Some one must give the world the command, "For- ward, march." Character giving itself unselfishly has made our leaders great. Men of a thousand shifts and wiles, look here ! See one straight forward conscience put in pawn To win a world ; see the obedient sphere By bravery's simple gravitation drawn ! " Our leaders have possessed a simplicity and common sense which has enabled them to adapt their plans to the different demands of our life. They have had no false ideas about social position. They have trusted to hard-headed sense and vigorous effort for success. Washington comes forth from the farm, does his work, and returns to its sol- itude. The embattled farmers are more than the trained Britons. When Beecher meets the audiences of England they are his insulting enemies ; when he leaves them they are the friends of the Union. The first citizens of Boston are a mob when the young Phillips flings his first sentence at 112 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. them ; they are patriots again wheii he leaves Faneuil Hall. The wide extent of our territory, the great prairies, the mountains and streams, the unlimited forests, have given to us as a people a simplicity and readiness to adapt ourselves to new conditions. Washington is typical of many. He was a good farm- er, a great general, a wise presiding offi- cer of the world's greatest convention, and a successful president. We ask not whence a man comes, but what he is. We are con- cerned not with his ancestry, but with his character and brains. We ask not bril- liancy, but a simple fidelity to duty, which in itself is greatness. " The longer on this earth we live And weigh the various quaHties of men, The more we feel the high, stern-featured beauty Of plain devotedness to duty, Steadfast and still, nor paid with mortal ])raise, But finding amplest recompense For life's ungarlanded expense In work done squarely and un wasted days." The leaders of this land have been men of faith. They h?.ve drawn their inspira- tion not from themselves, but from God. The Independent movement in England out of which grew America originated in a PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA'S I^EADERS. I 13 religious life quickened by new study of the Scriptures. The last thing that was done as the little band of pilgrims entered the Mayflower was to hold a prayer meeting on the shore. Amid the discouragements at Valley Forge, Washington was found upon his knees, his cheeks wet with tears, be- seeching the help of God. When Sickles was wounded and Mr. Lincoln called upon him, the general asked the president how he felt during the Gettysburg campaign about its outcome. Mr. Lincoln expressed himself as having no fear, and then said, "In the pinch of your campaign up there, when everybody seemed panic-stricken and nobody could tell what was going to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went into my room one day and locked the door, and got down on my knees before Almighty God, and prayed to him mightily for vic- tory at Gettysburg. I told him this was his war, and our cause his cause, but that we couldn't stand another Frederickburg or Chancellorsville. And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God that if he would stand by our boys at Gettys- burg I would stand by him. And he did, 114 PROVIDENCE IN AMKRICA.. and I will. And after that — I don't know how it was and I can't explain it — but soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that things would go all right at Gettysburg, and that is why I had no fears about you. ' Then this man of sorrows added, " I have been praying over Vicksburg also, because we need it in order to bisect the Confeder- acy and have the Mississippi flow unvexed to the sea." The traveler to Plymouth- Rock sees among the treasures sacredly kept an old arm-chair. A case of glass guards it. Its arms are worn. It belonged to Elder Brewster. Near by is his old Bible. This vision rises before the trav- eler: the old elder kneeling and grasping the arms of his chair, the Bible which he has read open before him, his face lifted toward heaven and his voice rising in prayer, "O Lord, led by thee, we crossed the unknown ocean to these wild shores. Half of our number are dead. Only seven, are able to care for the sick. Our food is nearly gone. We are surrounded by hos- tile savages. But here we remain until thou dost call us away. Carry on this helpless beginning to success. Make this world free and righteous. ' ' The imagina- PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA'S I^EADERS. 115 tion of the traveler is based upon fact. Those who discovered our country, those who settled it, those who have saved and developed it have been men of faith in God and in his divine Son. President Schur- man's keen analysis of I/incoln's power might be made the description of America's leaders : "I wish to say deliberately, after reading many lives of Lincoln and trying to understand the history of the Civil War, that in my opinion the Union could not have been restored without the unseen but none the less real power which came to the nation through Lincoln's belief in God, and confidence in his moral government of the world.'" American leadership means nothing unless it is a leadership of faith. We are workers together with God. The call now as ever is for leaders of principle, of unselfishness, of quick discernment, of simple fidelity to duty, and of- supreme aith. 1 Agnosticism and Religion, p. 78. We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time, In an age on ages telling, To be living is sublime. Hark ! the waking of the nations, Gog and Magog to the fray ; Hark ! what soundeth is creation Groaning for its latter day. Worlds are charging, heaven beholding, Thou hast but an hour to fight ; Now the blazoned cross unfolding, On, right onward, for the right ! On ! let all the soul within you For the truth's sake go abroad ; Strike, let every nerve and sinew Tell on ages, tell for God. — Arthur Cleveland Coxe. VIII. PROVIDENCE IN ITS PRESENT PERH.S. No one except he be shallow in thought or courage doubts that American institu- tions are threatened with man}^ and grave dangers. Each one of these perils has been stated with greater thoroughness by some special reformer than we can hope to do here. We wish to mass them together to give the coming citizens a view of the enemy's army, its numbers and fierceness, that seeks the death of American institu- tions and civilization. As I wTite, reports come from a neighbor- ing city that the strikers are training a military company of their own, and that the labor organizations favor such a course. The tendency for several years has been strong toward the creation of a bitter class feeling between the rich and the poor, the capitalist and the laborer. The acquiring of great fortunes in biief time, the control of the oil or coal or other products for the prrfit of a few, the flooding of this land with foreigners, many of whom were born and reared where classes exist and are en- PROVIDENCE IN ITS PRESENT PERILS. 1 19 gaged in a death struggle, the false utter- ances of party papers and political dema- gogues, the unwise utterances found in some of the state papers of leading officials, op- pressive capital and anarchistic labor, have all helped to cultivate this destructive spirit. One need only to read the banners that are carried by some of the labor processions or the stock utterances of the many labor pa- pers that are springing up, or to note the sneers wealth sometimes flings at labor, to see that the spirit of brotherhood which is the strength of a democracy is far from per- fect even in America, and in many quarters is growing more hostile. The growing sectional spirit which would array the south and west against the east is greatly to be deplored . The interests of this country are one. What would injure one part of it would injure all. That which is for the interest of one part is for the interest of all. The interests of capital and labor are not different. " They are Siamese twins. If one hits the other a rap, he finds he has knocked himself down." Careful observers are startled by these many signs of a growing division of the American people into classes marked by I20 PROVIDENCK IN AMERICA. geographical or social conditions. America can stand almost anything else better than this. The second danger is from a dull national conscience. I call this the greatest evil that any nation can have. It is disastrous to be wicked, but it is hopeless to care nothing about it. There are many indications of. this deadened sense of responsibility. The lack of the enforcement of wholesome law is the most conclusive one. A nation may be drunken, or ignorant, or anything else, rather than be lawless. There are few com- munities where the laws of the state are sa- credly observed. This is destructive be- cause it helps to create a lawless spirit. But the great danger to America is seen not in the number of law-breakers, but in the indifference of the citizens that permits this lawlessness. In one city of twenty thou- sand people two hundred saloon keepers have for years openly violated the state laws in regard to the closing of the saloon on Sunday and the keeping of gambling dens and brothels. It is not because the major- ity of the people of the city want such a state of things, but because the conscience of good citizens is so dull that they prefer PROVIDENCE IN ITS PRESENT PERILS. 121 to let the life of the community be crushed out rather than put forth the effort and en- dure the sacrifice which would be necessary to enforce the law. This is more or less true in regard to these evils in every city outside of New England, and in some cities there. This is the danger of dangers of our country to-day — this indifference to the law- lessness and debauchery that slalk abroad. Lecky, in his ** Democracy and Liberty," says, ' * There is one thing worse than cor- ruption. It is acquiescence in corruption. No feature of American life strikes a stran- ger so powerfully as this indifference, partly cynicism and partly good nature, with which the frauds and corruption in politics are en- dured by American public opinion. There is nothing, I think, weaker than this to be found in any great community. Many in- stances of corruption have been disclosed in France since 1870, but French opinion never fails to promptly punish them. In America unfaithfulness in public life and the ad- ministration of public funds seems to excite little more than a disdainful smile. It is treated as very natural, as the normal result of the existing form of government." Stern says, ' ' The debt of the cities of the 122 PROVIDENCK IN AMERICA. Union from i860 to 1880 rose from about $100,000,000 to $682,000,000. From i860 to 1875 the increase of debt in eleven cities was 270.9 per cent, increase of taxation 362.2 per cent; whereas the increase in tax able valuation was but 156.9 per cent, and increase in population but 70 per cent." Ivccky writes when viewing these facts, "The New York commissioners of 1876 probably understood the case when they de- clared that more than half of all the present city debts in the United States are the di- rect result of intentional and corrupt mis- rule. ' ' Still the citizens permit this robbery to go on. Mr. Rhodes in his history as- serts, "It is certain that in no Teutonic nation of our day is the difference so marked between the public and private standards of morality as in the United States. The one is lower than it was in i860 ; the other, incon- sistent as it may seem, is higher." Mr. William Kent, an alderman of Chicago, rep- resenting the most aristocratic ward, in an address before one of the churches of that city on Sept. 13, 1896, said, "Here are franchises worth millions given away by a shameless majority of the council, some- times vetoed and sometimes encouraged and PROVIDENCR IN ITS PRESENT PKRIIvS. 123 signed by the mayor. Pay-roll scandals ; frontage brands and forgeries; every form of violation of civil service laws; highway robberies every day ; a police force some of the members of which are worse than the criminals they are supposed to watch; po- licemen who are not permitted, if they would,' to suppress public gambling, and who in spite of all forms of malfeasance are kept in position by political pull; justice shops that blackmail the unfortunate, that sell verdicts to good customers; constables who are the lowest (»f the low; saloons run- ning in prohibition districts on payment of blood money; a drainage board given over to spoilsmen; park boards who have to heed machine clamor in employing men; judges whose tenure of office depends upon com- plying with machine demands; a board of education still a victim of robbery, though nobly striving to climb up out of the mire ; revenues deficient from tax dodging on the part of citizens, and corruption in the offices of assessors, and a county commission known of all men. The food you eat, the water you drink, the air you breathe are tainted by politics. Your rights, your prop- erty, the very education of your children have long been at the mercy of the spoils- 124 PROVIDKNCK IN AMKRICA. men. ' ' The solution of all these problems must come from a quickened conscience. The sufferance of the existence and reign of the demagogue is another indication of the inactive conscience. Men whose only claim to leadership is shrewdness, who change as each varying breeze, who appeal to the ignorance and passions of men, who seek office first and country second, are fol lowed as leaders in the great political move- ments. That Tammany Hall, when its avowed motives and history are known, should ever be permitted to take part in the councils of parties is possible only by the sufferance of good people. Instances of scarcely less magnitude are within the ob- servation of all. The indifference to obligations is a sign of this moral dullness. Parties are elected upon the planks of their platforms, but whether those utterances are ever carried out is often of little care. The frequent re- fusal of capitalists to arbitrate the differ- ences between them and the laboring men, the recklessness of the laboring men during the time of strikes, the attack of a political party upon the supreme court, indicates a sad indifference to the general good of the PROVIDENCE IN ITS PRESENT PERII/S. I25 people and the responsibilities of citizenship. Yet the American people endure all this, when they should arise and make it impos- sible. The licensing of the American saloon is another indication of this lack of conscience. It is known by every one that the American saloon is a curse. It destroys manhood and debases citizenship. It wrecks homes, it corrupts legislation, it terrifies communi- ties. If any power on earth treated the dogs in the streets as the saloon treats the interests and welfare of society it would be overwhelmed by the indignant people. Yet the great saloon system is licensed. It is not because a majority of the American peo- ple are drunken, or because they believe in its work of destruction, but because the con- science is dull, and men have not the strength of purpose that calls them to face the danger and to undertake a great moral reform. Worse than the saloon is the con- science that will legalize the saloon. The third danger is a growing religious indiflerence. This is undoubtedly the cause of the moral indifference. A careful study of almost any community will show that not over one-fifth of the people of the 126 PKOVIDKNCK IN AMERICA. commuuity are even irregular attendants at the services of the church, and about thirty per cent attend regularly. I give at some length, in Chapter X., the facts in regard to this. I do not care to do more here than to suggest the dangers of such indifference. First, the leading ele- ment of strength in every nation is its re- ligious character and vote. Second, an at- tendance at church and the consideration of the great themes of the Scriptures are necessary to a quick and faithful conscience. Third, indifference to spiritual responsibili- ties on the part of the parent brings often on the part of the child a moral indifference, and sometimes an open violation of moral ob- ligations. Without their strength of reli- gious opinion our fathers would never have had the courage to meet the persecutions of King James, or the strength of conscience which led them to engage in the struggle for the independence of the colonies. Had it not been for the strong religious charac- ter of the American people, which at last yielded to the appeals of the reformers, slavery would still be in existence. The fourth danger of the present is the decay of the family life. In the large PROVIDENCE IN ITS PRESENT PERIIvS. 127 cities a great part of the population has no home life. Thousands of them are crowded together in the dangerous tenement houses, still other thousands stay in the many large hotels and boarding houses that are found on every hand. The children grow up with very little strength of the home tie, and often with none of the home life. The omission of family worship bodes evil for the future. The Puritan and the Pilgrim learned of religious and civil liberty while studying around the family altar the scrip- tures of Wyclif and Tyndall. It will be found true, I think, that the majority of the great moral and spiritual leaders of the world have had this early religious training. There are few homes, comparatively, among Christians, that have family worship. This country can never have the moral and spif • itual strength necessary for the solution of its problems until the family altar takes its proper place in the homes of its citizens. Add to this "an extensive carnality, be- ginning too often before adolescence, vitiat- ing the physical basis of the family ; the increase of intemperance, which, in aug- menting the lack of self-control, threatens the disintegration of every finer trait of 128 providence; in amp:rica. character and the effacement of all delicate affection; a haste to enter upon the marital state, opening the door to infelicities for the thoroughly unmated; the refusal to assume the duties of maternity, known to afford the highest discipline to the faculties; the cor- relative tendency to gratification through illicit means and a yielding to criminality against which medical journals vigorously protest — a criminality from which everyone should shrink and which is contrary to every instinct of the feminine disposition; a crimi- nality which would appear hideous as a gross violation of the sixth command were it thought of save in connection with the initial point of existence, and practised un- der secrecy, deluding the perpetrators into a belief that responsibility to the Creator for destruction of life begins only when it has assumed a tangible form," The number of divorces shows the decay of family life. The increase of this evil during the last thirty years is alarming. In 1867 there were 9937 divorces in the United States ; in 1,886, 25,535— thus the number of divorces has increased more than twice as fast as the population. The statis- tics of the last decade would only add to the PROVIDENCE IN ITS PRESENT PERII.S. 1 29 threatening facts. New England with her intelligence and high moral standards has repeatedly granted 2000 in a single year. Says Ivccky, "Hardly any problem affect- ing the future of humanity is more impor- tant than the type of humanity which the great republic of the west is destined to as- sume. In the opinion of many good judges its decay of the family life, through the ex- cessive multiplication of divorces, is the darkest cloud upon its horizon." This suggests another destructive influ- ence in our life, the growth in some way of social immorality. The president of one of the great colleges of America, a school whose influence has always been a benedic- tion upon the land, said not long ago, " I cannot be quoted, but I confess with sor- row and shame that I believe nine out of ten of the young men of this college are im- moral. ' ' I cannot believe that his fears are true, but this much is certain, even to the careless observer, that a wave of filth has been going over this land during the past few years. I have consulted in confidence with principals and presidents of many of our leading academies and colleges, and I find that they have all been saddened and 130 PROVIDKNClC l.V AMKKICA. perplexed by this new problem of col- lege life. If this be true in such surround- ings, what must it be in the general life of a city or community. I have gathered in a few small cities, by consultation with teach- ers, clergymen, and police officials, informa- tion in regard to the young men that is startling to one who loves his country and appreciates the part which this and the com- ing generation must take in its salvation. The flood of weak and vicious literature that has come upon us is a result and a cause. It would not have been possible a generation ago in American society for a young woman to be drunken and still hold her place. It is occasionally true now^ in what is called good society. We can only hint at those facts whose possession saddens us while we write. The fifth destructive influence that I would mention is intemperance. Financial- ly it takes out of the legitimate business of this country a sum large enough to eventual- ly paralyze legitimate business. A con- servative estimate of the cost of the liquor traffic to this country for the year ending June 30, 1889, is the best proof of this statement- PROVIDKNCE IN ITvS PRKSKNT PERILS. I3I DIRECT COST. Domestic distilled spirits 83,337,811 gal. @ |6 ^500,026,866 Domestic beer, 25, 1 19,853 bbl. @ |i8. . 452, 157,334 Domestic wines, 30,000,000 gal. @, $2 60,000,000 Imported liquors, value to consumers . 21,993,698 Total ^1,034,177,918 INDIRECT COST. Insane through drink $ 8,000,000 Paupers through drink 8,374,889 Police regulations on acct. of drink . 53,000.000 Medical attendance and medicine. . 109,500,000 Total I 178,874,889 Total direct cost 1.034,177,918 Total . 11,213,052,807 Total receipts from liquor traffic 135,000,000 Ivoss to the United States . , 5^,078,052,807 These calculations are too low. The to- tal cost for the year computed was undoubt- edly |2,ooo,ooo,oco. The increase each year in cost is from $40,000,000 to $50,000,000, while the increase in receipts does not grow with so large per cent. This worse than wasted sum would have wiped out the national debt of that time in less than a year. The total value of the corn, wheat, and oat crop of the United States for 1894 was $995,438,107; the aggregate production of gfold and silver from I4g^ to 132 PROVIDENCK IN AMKRICA. 1S75 was $10,802,329,343. lu six years the total loss of the United States from the liquor traffic would equal and probably ex- ceed this sum. This -amount of money can- not be drawn from the avenues of business without causing want and business stagna- tion. The political influence wielded by the liquor power is startling. During the spring of 1896 a large majority of the citi- zens of Ohio, making up its wealth, culture, and manhood, petitioned the legislature to pass a bill submitting the question of the existence of the saloon in any community to the vote of the community. It was thought the united will of the citizens of the state would be heeded by their representatives, but, under the threats of the liquor power, this bill, seeking only to furnish an oppor- tunity for the expression of the will of the community, was voted down; the threat of the liquor minority having more influ- ence than the wish of its intelligent and patriotic majority. The pages of this book might be multiplied with illustrations of the deadly political influence of the saloon. The moral ruin of intemperance is a fa- miliar theme. Manhood and womanhood PROVIDKNCE IN ITS PRESENT PERIIvS. I33 are debased. Those who should be patriotic citizens are made lawless and unfit for citi- zenship. Insanity and imbecility, dwarfed and weakened bodies, and a dull sense of re- sponsibility are coming- in a large crop with each added year. If a plague existed in the United States that carried away one hun- dred thousand of its people every year, men would think of nothing and attempt noth- ing else until this disease was destroyed. They would be wise, for to permit it to re- main would mean not only the destruction of one hundred thousand lives, but the ex- tension of death with every passing year. It would mean the depopulation of the United States in time. Men might well do nothing else, if they seek the industrial, po- litical, and moral welfare of the United States, except destroy the liquor traffic. Either it or America must eventually die. The generation just taking up the responsi- bility of citizenship must discern this need and meet it. Any reformer will say that the evil he attacks is sufficient in itself to destroy our institutions and civilization. He speaks truly. Not one of those mentioned above has not in it the seeds of ruin. Yet I 134 PROVIDKNCK IX AMERICA. dare to urge, after following the course of our history, after meeting face to face in battle these dangerous demons, after dis- cerning the leadings from above, that God expects this people to meet this army of enemies and overwhelm it in eternal disas- ter, and that, by all their natural advan- tages, by the conflicts and activities of the present, he has prepared them for the strug- gle. The dangers of 1776 furnished the providential opportunity to establish a rep- resentative government. The presence and aggressiveness of slavery was the opportu- nity under God of freeing a race and giving an example to the world . The dangers of to-day furnish the opportunity to show that a Christian civilization and a representative government are equal to all tests. That God is leading America in this critical time is clear to him who notes, (i) The prepara- tion which America has had for this strug- gle. (2) The many wise and brave leaders who see visions and dream dreams and in- terpret these to duller eyes. (3) The vast number of all ages and attainments who have responded to God's call to enlist iu this campaign. In every community a heroic band from the rank and file are fol- PROVIDKNCP: IN" ITS PRESENT PERILS. I35 lowing the leaders. (4; The wide-spread discussion of these problems carried on in innumerable ways. Discussions, like thun- der storms, clear the social atmosphere. (5) The activity of the messengers of Christ. A host of heaven-inspired men are going into every corner of the land, to the poor, to the wicked, to the distressed, to capital and labor, to the young and the old— to all with their messages of love and their commands to righteousness. Never since the third century haS the church been so clear as to its mission and so aroused to fulfil it. This appreciatior and deter- mination will deepen. The number of mes- sengers will increase, and each shall press his way "To make the rugged place9*sniooth, and sow the vales with grain; And bear, with liberty and law, the Bible in his train ; The mighty west shall bless the east, and sea shall answer sea, And mountain unto mountain call, Praise Cod, /or zve are free y My country ! 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of tiiee I sing ! L,and where my fathers died ! Land of the pilgrims' pride ! From every mountain side Let freedom ring ! My native country, thee, I^and of the noble free, Thy name I love ! I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills; My heart with rapture thrills Like that above. Let music swell the breeze, And ring from all the trees Sweet freedom's song : Let mortal tongue awake ; Let all that breathe partake ; Let rocks their silence break. The sound prolong. Our fathers' God ! to thee, Author of liberty, To thee we sing : Long may our land be bright With freedom's holy light; Protect us by thy might, Great God, our King, — Samuel Francis Smith, IX. WHAT DOES (iOD EXPECT OF AMERICA ? As we have studied the different periods of America's history in these brief chapters, and noted the special care God has given our land, and as we have considered the ideals which are beckoning it on, we have had a growing appreciation of the purpose which God is working out here. The suc- cesses of the past have been in themselves great achievements. Men will always look back to the great epochs in our life, and with each added year will have a higher estimate of the importance of these strug- gles. Nothing since the coming of Christ will' stand higher in the final judgment of history than the founding of a free nation and the freeing of a race. Why has God thus blessed us ? Such care and victories suggest a purpose. What is that purpose ? The different currents of influence, indus- trial, educational, moral, civil, and religious, of other ages and other worlds, united in America to form a democracy. No careful student can doubt that when the perfect nation shall exist it will be in fact, no WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF AMERICA ? 139 matter by what name it is known, a gov- ernment of the people, for the people, by the people. To the accomplishment of this purpose has God used all the struggles of mankind. America's mission is seen when studied in this light. We have not yet realized our ideal. To realize that is our present and future task. I. We believe that God expects America to prove that the wisest laws and the high- est respect for authority can be only in a representative government. Such laws and respect are the basis of all true national life. When such laws are passed and re- spected we have the perfect nation. Men urge that this can never be in a democracy. That democracy means lawlessness. That you cannot trust to the great mass of peo- ple, that they are never able to govern themselves, that the few must govern the many. We recognize this danger, but we deny the conclusions. The same possibilities that, wrongly used, mean greatest lawlessness, rightly used, mean the highest respect for law. The ideal nation is not where the few are strong and capable and the many weak and unsafe, but where all have responsibilities and ap- I40 PROVIDENCK IN AMERICA. predate and meet them. America stands before the world as an example of such an attempt at government. Other countries will or will not be assisted toward this end by the success or failure of our experiment. They already point to our misgoverned cities, to the corruption of politics, the wide extended strikes, the lynchings in the south, the riots in the north, the defiance of the saloons to all law, and to many other ominous things, as proof positive that the republican form of government, while it may be ideal, is practically impossible. Mr. Bryce questions: "The future of the United States during the next half centur>- sometimes presents itself to the mind as a struggle between two forces, the one benefi- cent, the other malign ; the one striving to speed the nation on to a port of safety be- fore this time of trial arrives, the other to retard its progress, so that the tempest may be upon it before the port is reached. And the question to which one reverts in musing on the phenomena of American pol- itics is this : Will the progress now dis- cernible toward a wiser public opinion and a higher standard of public life succeed in bringing the mass of the people up to the WHAT D0P:S god KXPECT OF AMERICA. I4I level of what are now the best districts in the country heiore the days of pressure are at hand ? Or will existing evils prove vSo obstinate, and European immigration so continue to depress the average of intelli- gence and patriotism among the voters, that, when the struggle for life grows far harder than it nov/ is, the masses will yield to the temptation to abuse their power, and will seek violent, and because violent probably vain and useless, remedies for the evils which will afflict them ? ' ' It is America's great work to prove that the safest council is found in the united judgment of a people, and the strongest authority where the greatest trusts are imposed. Democracy's king is law — the will of the people. It may endure all other evils and still live, so long as its king is supported. It is already dead when its king has no authority. Drunkenness and immorality and other evils are destructive enemies of a nation, but lawlessness is a nation's satan. Lawlessness in its last analysis is treason. At one time it fires upon Fort Sumter, at another it defies the laws of the land. Each saloon keeper or other evil disposed person who persistently 142 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. disobeys good laws, is a traitor. Such a rebellion must be put down, or destruction awaits the nation. He who studies the indications of to-day must realize that God is calling America to put down all such lawlessness, and to prove that the best king is the will of the people. Already the work has commenced. What has been done in New York has been repeated on some scale in unnumbered localities. There may be temporary defeats, but we shall never see our cities given over without protest to corruption and disorder. It took a long time to arouse the conscience of America against slavery. Compromise after com- promise was made, and good men grew dis- heartened, but at last the hour of settle- ment came, and the people arose, and slav- ery was forever buried. The king demo- cracy is long in arousing to the demands that are made upon him, but the awakening comes, and it is omnipotent. Mr. Bryce, speaking of America's power to meet pres- ent emergencies, says: "To judge of America rightly the observer must not fix his eyes simply upon her present condition, seeking to strike a balance between the evil and the good that now appear. He must WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF AMERICA ^ I43 look back at what the best citizens and the most judicious strangers perceived and re- corded fifty, thirty, twenty years ago, and ask whether the shadows these men saw were not darker than those of to-day, whether the forecasts of evil they were forced to form have not in many cases been belied by the event. De Tocqueville was a sympathetic as well as penetrating observer. Many of the evils he saw, and which he thought were inherent and incurable, have now all but vanished. Other evils have indeed revealed themselves which he did not discern, but these may prove as tran- sient as those with which he affrighted European readers in 1834." - To accomplish this purpose special duties devolve upon all. Each teacher and minis- ter, each man and woman, has his part in this work. Our schools must instruct their pupils in patriotism. They should teach no less of arithmetic and grammar, but more of Americanism. In the school and in the home the young should be taught to obey. Many a criminal that preys upon society in the circle of business or morals or politics learns his first lesson of disobedi- ence in the home and the school. The min- 144 PROVIDENCK IN AMKRICA. ister has here a great opportuuity. In his pulpit he has a throne of power unequaled by any other person in his community. His utterances must be wise, but must be direct against pubHc ev'ils and for a stronger patriotism. The church should have fre- quent services, the aim of which is the cul- tivation of patriotism. Let the children sing those great national hymns that so stir the soul. Gradually will the public spirit be aroused and enlightened. The parent in the home should explain the significance of the great and interesting struggles of the past, and should teach his children that it is their duty and privilege to oppose every- thing that threatens our nation and to favor everything that strengthens it. Each citi- zen should be willing to run the risk of persecution and financial loss to support those principles upon whose triumph de- pends the nation's future. Agitation is the secret of success in arousing its public conscience. Anything is better than indif- ference. Public patriotic services of one good earnest church will work a revolution in a surprisingly brief time in the thought and courage of good citizens. God expects everv American to do his duty. A cow- WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF AMERICA ? 145 ardly American is a contradiction of terms. It should be a contradiction in fact. The first step in the solution of every other moral problem is the enforcement of law. A lawless people can never be made a prosperous people. 2. We believe that God expects America to prove that the highest intelligence can be only in a representative government. In proportion as men think for themselves and have responsibilities which they must meet will they be intelligent. Responsibility is the surest teacher. The town meeting of New England did as much to make its citi- zens thoughtful and earnest as the schools upon which she sp persistently insisted. The perfect nation will be composed of citi- zens each one of whom is wise in his understanding of the problems that require solution and in the adaptation of means to this end. Two theories divide the world. The one, that this intelligence can never be among the great mass of people ; that the safety of every nation is found in the intel- ligence of the few ; that to put the responsi- bility of considering and solving a nation's problems into the hands of the public is like putting a loaded gun into the hands of 146 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. a company of children. The other, that it is never safe to trust the solution of prob- lems to the intelligence and honesty of the few ; that to the people at large we must look for the highest wivSdom and the surest character. We claim that history is a succession of proofs of the truth of this last position. May, in his " Constitutional History of Eng- land," says, "Among the measures most conducive to the moral and social improve- ment of the people has been the promo- tion of popular education. That .our an- cestors were not insensible to the value of extended education is attested by the grammar schools and free or charity schools in England, and by the parochial schools of Scotland. "To the general education of the people, however, there was not only indifference but repugnance. The elevation of the lower grades of society was dreaded, as dangerous to the state. Such instruction as impressed them with the duty of con- tentment and obedience might be well ; but education which should raise their intelli- gence and encourage freedom of thought would promote democracy if not revolu- WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF AMERICA ? 147 tion. It was right that the children of the poor should be taught the church catechism ; it was wrong that they should learn to read newspapers. So long as this feeling pre- vailed it was vain to hope for any system- atic extension of secular education ; but the church and other religious bodies were exerting themselves earnestly in their proper sphere of instruction. In their schools religious teaching was the primary object ; but great advances were also made in the general education of the poor. Meanwhile, the increasing prosperity of the country was rapidly developing the inde- pendent education of the children of other classes, who needed no encouragement or assistance. As society advanced, it became more alive to the evils of ignorance ; and in a reformed Parliament the jealousy of popular education was speedily overcome. ' ' God expects America to prove that a free people is a thoughtful people, that it is safer to trust the interests of this world to the whole world than to an elect few. Whatever, then, can be used to make our citizens thoughtful should be insisted upon by our government. It should see to it that every person of school age is in attend- I4S PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. ance on our public schools. If sectarian schools take the place of public schools in the education of some, the government should see that such studies are taught and such principles urged as will train up pupils to an intelligent appreciation of the respon- sibilities of citizenship. Instruction in sec- tarianism should never be allowed to take the place of instruction in patriotism. Our schools should be nurseries of patriotism. The placing of the flag upon each school building is a step in the right direction. Days in memory of our nation's heroes and the principles for which they contend- ed should be observed with appropriate services. Teachers can arrange oratorical contests upon patriotic themes. Debating clubs should be organized among the 3'oung of a community, at whose meetings the dif- ferent problems of our land should be con- sidered. The dangers of a country are not all in the times of war, when great princi- ples speak through the loud voice of strife, but in times of peace, when principles are the same and the voice of appeal still and small. War makes men patriotic. The dangers of peace are inattention and indif- ference. Inattention and indifference beget . WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF AMERICA ? I49 ignorance. Mr. Bryce says of the educa- tion of the people at large, "That the education of the masses is nevertheless a superficial education goes without saying. It is sufficient to enable them to think they know something about the great problems of politics ; insufficient to show them how- little they know. The public elementary school gives everybody the key to knowl- edge in making reading and writing famil- iar, but it has not time to teach him how to use the key, whose use is, in fact, by the pressure of daily work, almost confined to the newspaper and the magazine. So we may say that, if the political education of the average American voter be compared with that of the average voter in Europe, it stands high; but if it be compared with the functions which the theory of the American government lays on him, which its spirit implies, which the methods of its party organization assume, its inadequacy is manifest. This observation, however, is not so much a reproach to the schools, which generally do what English schools omit — instruct the child in the principles of the constitution as a tribute to the highest of the ideal which the American conception I50 PROVIDENXiC IX AMERICA. of popular rule sets up. ' ' Our work, as we have said, is to realize this ideal of intelligence. Discussion in and out of our schools is what we urge. Agitation is an educator. Mill, in his essay on " Liberty," says that " man recti- fies his mistakes by discussion and experi- ence, or there must be discussion to show how experience is to be interpreted. Wrong opinions and practices gradually yield to fact and argument, but facts and arguments, to produce any effect on the mind, must_.be brought before it." The discussions, religious, political, moral, and industrial, of pulpit and paper and street corner, by their boldness and bitterness sometimes startle us, but out of it all will come a higher intelligence and a stronger civilization. Let this discussion be in our schools, where the child will come to the consideration of public questions from the right point of view. The advances of lib- erty have not come down from the rulers, but up from the common people. The source of a nation's progress is the House of Commons, and not the House of Lords. 3. We believe that God expects America to prove that the highest moral develop- WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF AMERICA ? I5I ment can be only in a republic. God aims to develop not one person but every per- son. He looks not at hierarchies but at hearts. The ideal world is one in which the moral nature of each person in it is de- veloping along the path of good toward the best. That nation has the highest moral character which has the most citizens of mor- al strength. Such strength can only come where responsibilities are widely imposed. " Insulate and you destroy him," says Em- erson of man. The way to teach a child to swim is to put him into the water. The way to make a nation of swimmers is to put every child in. The way to develop the moral nature of the person is to put him into the sea of responsibilities. To make a nation of moral power is to put every citi- zen in. •' Cast the bantling on the rocks, Suckle him with the she-wolf's teat ; Wintered with the hawk and fox, Power of speed be hands and feet." Every patriot of Revolutionary days was a moral giant. Many of them were moral babes when they left the complete oversight of King George. The common burdens of those early days made giants out of babes. 152 PROVIDENCK IN AMERICA. * ' What do you grow on these barren hills ? ** was sneeringly asked of one of New Eng- land's great men. " Men," was the man's great answer. Had New England been a despotism no such answer could have been truthfully given. A man's moral nature without responsibilities is like the spinal cord of a jumping jack, and a nation's only a multiplication of loose joints and tow strings. A republic furnishes all the conditions of development. It lays upon each citizen a common responsibility. It offers him an equal opportunity. The perfect world which God is making is a spiritual kingdom of which Christ is the head ; but the visible government, which is an essential to its realization, is a representative one, a gov- ernment of the people, for the people, by the people. It is America's mission to realize here the moral development made possible by her form of government and to prove to the world that a republic is the ideal. The young must have, in addition to a vision of the new earth, a vision of themselves mak- ing the earth new. The undeveloped for- eigners, those unused to democratic citizen- WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF AMERICA ? I53 ship and ideas, must be made into Ameri- cans in spirit and living. It takes something besides naturalization papers to do this. A vote only makes its possessor more dangerous, if he is dangerous. It is putting a knife into the hand of an assassin. Two things must be done if God's expec- tations of America's moral development shall be realized. First, all evils must be destroyed. The saloon, the brothel, the gambling den, and other vices, as institu- tions in a community, must go. Their direct results work incalculable injury. But their very existence by license or indif- ference is enervating on the conscience. Worse even than the victims of the mad dog's bite would be an understanding and conscience that would accept as a matter of course the life of the maddened brute, or a fear that would silence all cries of warning and all efforts to kill. God expects the generation just taking up its work to wipe these institutions of vice from the face of the earth. I do not say that another thirty years will do away with all drunkenness, immorality, and vice, but I do believe this, that God is calling America to rid this land of the existence of such places by law or 154 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. sufferance. The difference between the in- fluence of an evil that lives only in caves and drrkness and is pursued by law, and of the same evil when it openly and perhaps legally plies its trade, is almost infinite. With this work accomplished, the forces that tend to destroy manhood and woman- hood will be minimized. With the weeds uprooted the good seed can grow. The moral development of America can then be accomplished. Second, all good citizens must rally to the destruction of these evils. This in it- self will influence the young to enlist on the side of God and home and native land. The reason why so many of the young are walking the ways of darkness is because there has been no line clearly drawn. Let the issue be made clearly and bravely, and there can be no doubt as to the final out- come. Lundy and Garrison, hooted and imprisoned for truth's sake, mean Phil- lipses, Sumners, and Lincolns in every ward and hamlet. These mean, at last, a public conscience, an organized effort, and slavery dead and buried too deep for resurrection. The best moral teacher is manhood battling for the truth. WHAT DOES GOD EXPBCT OF AMERICA ? 155 , ' What constitutes a state ? Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, Thick wall or moated gate ; Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned ; No — men, high-minded men, With powers as high above dull brutes imbued In forest, brake, or den As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ; Men who their duties know, But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain. Prevent the long-aimed blow, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain — These constitute a state." 4. We believe that God expects America to prove that the most perfect brotherhood can be only in a republic. A brotherhood has been the Utopia of men's dreams. From Plato to to-day the dreamers have seen a society of perfect laws and life. Some have mapped out extensive plans for its realization, still has it come slowly. The conditions for such a desired state are not mechanical but spiritual. There must be a oneness of spirit before there will be a unity of life. Man's way is to try to make a brotherhood by force ; God's way is to make men one in motive and aim. Man tells us that armies alone can keep peace between men ; God tells us that love is the only solvent of men's hates and strifes. 156 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. Complete love to God and perfect love for one's neighbor are the conditions Christ lays down. With this spirit there will be a considerate regard for all the rights of every nation. It is not dependent upon equality of wealth or education, or upon force, but upon motive. The discussions and teach- ing of to-day are pressing home this truth. These and the struggles between races and classes indicate that God is calling upon this generation to solve the problem of brotherhood. Our republic is in form a brotherhood. It has, therefore, the best opportunity to realize in itself the ideal of Christ and the prophets of all ages. Its present mission, then, is to bring the reign of love in the hearts of its citizens and in all the relationships of men. The task is thick with difficulties. Capital and labor threaten each other. The white race, north or south, has not yet seen in the black man a brother, but looks at him as an inferior creature, now free, once in slavery. A chasm wide and yawning separates the Roman Catholic and the Protestant. To unite all hearts and to show that the inter- ests of all are one ; to eject trusts and to usher in trust ; to overthrow the reign of WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF AMERICA ? 157 moneyhood and to establish the rule of manhood ; to pass the laws of justice and to repeal the "law of just us ; " to make the measure of individual and communal life the standard of the Almighty and not the iron rule of the mighty, is the work of the present and future. There is a sense in which these problems are never solved. * * The struggle of mankind upward " is an everlasting one. The victory of to-day brings man face to face with the struggle of to-morrow. But in another sense our part of the problems is solvable. * ' We want a more cordial personal relation between the employees and the employed ; we ask for a more righteous distribution of wealth ; we seek to make indolence and overwork equally impossible ; toil ought to be fully rewarded ; the law should protect the honest man against dishonest competition; the state should save from individual rapa- city whatever pertains to the necessities and interests of the whole community ; " it should give to all races equal privileges in law and life; in a word, it should learn the meaning of neighbor as Christ understood it and illustrated it. To do this each pub- lic teacher and every Christian must press 158 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. home by teaching and practice the laws of responsibility and love. Let the pulpit urge the laws and spirit of the kingdom upon all with the plainness of the prophets and the tenderness of the Christ ; let the Christian business man set the example of honest getting and beneficent spending ; let every follower learn by experience that it is more blessed to give of love, life, money, all things, than to receive ; and then let the legislator incarnate this spirit into laws, and one step in the * * struggle of mankind upward ' ' is accomplished. In proportion as the ministry and laity are true to this demand will the task of the present be performed. "Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as breth- ren, be pitiful, be courteous ; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing ; but con- trariwise blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. ' ' ** Through the harsh noises of our day A low, sweet prelude finds its way ; Through clouds of doubt and creeds of fear, A light is breaking calm and clear. That song of love, now low and far, Ere long shall swell from star to star ; That light, the breaking day, which tips The golden-spired apocalypse." Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord ; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored ; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on. I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps ; They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps ; I can see his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps. His day is marching on. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall neve^ call retreat ; He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judg- ment seat ; O be swift, my soul, to answer him ! be jubilant, my feet ! Our God is marching on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea. With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me ; As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on. — Iiiha Ward Howe. X. THE CHURCH AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. I mean by the church all true followers of Jesus Christ. These are banded together in visible organizations for worship and work. With them are associated others, in number unknown, in whose hearts the Christ has never been enthroned. This is by ne- cessity. In the visible church as well as in the world the wheat and the tares grow to- gether. Upon these visible organizations and back through them upon the real dis- ciples of Christ rests America's future. This is the lesson of the Christian centuries. Christ established his kingdom in the hearts of those who obeyed him and called this spiritual brotherhood his church. He laid upon them the salvation and perfection of the world. Around them gathered others, some of them selfish in heart, of ty- rannical spirit and worldly lives. That which men have called the church has often become corrupt and oppressive. But al- ways within its number have been those who saw the new heaven and worked for the new earth. They lifted their voices in con- l62 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. demnatiou and exhortation. They were greeted with a babel of sneers and curses. But upon them the future rested. God honored their fidelity. The future was won for him. Christ's followers have been to the world both its salt and light — perserv- ing all that was good in it, and adding little by little as men would respond that which it lacked. A field with a toothless harrow to cultivate it and no one to sow the good seed would be the world without the follow- ers of Christ. Open your histories and pass your pen through the names of its heroes who were Christ-inspired men. There is left a record of oppression, igno- rance, and shame. The lesson of universal history is America's lesson. Who laid the foundations of our nation ? Who accom- plished its independence ? Who formed the constitution ? Who freed its slaves ? Infidelity never discovered a continent, never launched a Mayflower, never founded a free republic, never freed a slave. No so- ciety of free thought can save America to- day from the ravages of its evils or make one in heart its discordant and dangerous elements or inspire it to struggle upward to- ward its ideals. O church of Christ, you The church and America's future. 163 who share in Christ's sufferings and work, if America is saved you must save it. Your Christ, your faith, your godliness, your self-sacrifice, your courage and endurance, your estimate of manhood, denunciation of evil, and expectation of victory are its only hope. I. The accountability of the church for certain dangerous conditions. Mr. Moody once remarked, "The gulf between the church and the masses is grow- ing deeper, wider, and darker every hour." According to the census of 1890 the in- crease in our population during the preced- ing decade was a little less than 25 percent. The churches during that time show a net increase of about 35 per cent, a gain of 10 per cent over the population. In 1800 the evangelical communicants in the United States were 7 per cent of the population. In 1880 they numbered 20.07 P^^ cent, and in 1890 21.42. As Dr. Strong points out, this does not prove that the proportion of the church-going population has increased* nor that it has not decreased. In a city of Ohio whose population numbers about 20,- 000, by a careful estimate it is found that not over 10,000 are occasional attendants at i64 providence: in America. church. In a township in one of the most intelligent counties of Ohio the writer finds that not over one-third of the population attends the services of the church. These are not exceptional cases. The wTiter has been permitted to visit many communities in different parts of the United States, and has been astounded to find that the major- ity of the people in the United States are not attendants at the churches. Others have come to the same conclusion. Rev. A. H. Bradford reported at a meeting of the Inter-denominational Congress that investigations in many of the larger cities of the country have proved that the num- ber of the poorer classes who are separated from the church is very large and rapidly increasing. At the same congress Dr. Washington Gladden reported that only about one-tenth of the families on his church list belonged to the working class, Dr. Strong gives page after page in * ' The New Era ' ' of such startling statistics, and con- cludes " that less than 30 per cent of our population are regular attendants upon church, that perhaps 20 per cent are irregu- lar attendants, while fully one-half of the people of the United States, or more than THE CHURCH AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. 165 32,000,000, never attend any church ser- vices, Protestant or Roman Catholic. ' ' Two ominous things are suggested in this study. The churches of our rural communities that have furnished so large a per cent of our leaders in every undertaking are in many cases dying out. These communities are left then without any religious service. The result of this change cannot be calculated. Then another fact noticed in our cities, the up-town movement of our churches. Large down-town districts are left without any re- ligious service unless it be that of a rescue mission. There has been until recently a lack of any effort on the part of the church to meet the needs of these districts. These are the plague spots of our civilization. I have found in such parts of different cities many who know no more about Christ than the degraded savage in Africa. They are growing up without conscience or vision, to fill our prisons and attack our institutions. The church has failed to reach the down- town population. Another fact faces us. The young men are not members of the church or engaged in Christ's work. I have investigated this in nearly all of the large cities of the United i66 providhnch; in America. States by finding out the proportion of young men in those churches that are most successful in reaching this part of our pop- ulation. I am compelled to say that I do not believe that on an average over one- tenth of the active workers of our churches are young men under twenty-four years of age. When you add to this the terrible facts mentioned in Chapter IX. we can par- tially appreciate the bearing it has upon the future. The church has failed to reach the young men. The study of denominational year books brings its lessons. It tells of churches of large membership that have spent their thousands for local church expenses and have added by the year's work sometimes as few as seven on confession of faith. Take the leading denominations, those most zealous in Christ's work, and how few they reach during a given period of time. Many churches are successful here, and we need to bear in mind that figures are not a sure test of a church's work. But no one can study this phase of the problem without concluding that the church of Christ which is sent out into the highways and hedges to compel the people to come in is not most ef- THE CHURCH AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. 167 fective in accomplishing this in the United States. The church has failed to ininister to all the needs of its members. The theory of the church has been that its work of minis- try has been to the soul of a man. It has sought to guide him in his religious life but not in his mental and social life. It has had its service on the I^ord's day and once or twice during the week, and left him to seek elsewhere his associations and companion- ships for the remainder of the week. He has organized clubs to meet this need. Lodges have sprung up to gratify this de- sire for companionship and to minister to him and his household in times of sickness and disaster. Charity organizations have come and done a worthy work. The Young Men's Christian Association and kindred organizations have sought to direct the young man in social and intellectual ways and to win him to Christ. These all indi- cate a failure of the church. All such or- ganizations ought never to have been need- ed. The church should have furnished the young with healthful amusements and ele- vating associations. It is an indication of the vicious division which we have made in l68 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. life, holding one thing sacred and the other secular. Christ has to do with alllife, with life in all its relationships. Had the church thus applied the gospel many of the dan- gers which threaten our country to-day would never have come. The religion of Christ excels all others and proves its divin- ity by its revelation of God, of man, and of society. The church has dwelt not too much upon the first, but too little upon the second and third. The church has erred in magnifying the ecclesiastical and theological idea, and min- imizing the idea of the kingdom. We are suffering from the accumulated debris of the ages. I would not underestimate printed creeds or the value of church membership ; but who can read the history of the church since the beginning of the fourth century and not be shamed by the truth of this statement. Councils have outlined a long list of statements and have made it essential to church membership to assent to these formulas. Denominations have wasted strength and time often in heated dispute, discussing non-essentials. The discussion from the third century to the beginning of this generation centered not about Christ- The church and America's future. 169 like living, but around theology. The Ro- man church has always held that it is quite a necessity to salvation to be a member of its communion, and that such membership will insure final salvation. It sometimes admits that through ignorance and by the great mercy of God some outside will re- ceive eternal life. Other state churches have occupied practically the same position. In this country two other denominations numbering upwards of two millions of com- municants recognize in no other organiza- tions, except each in its own, a church of Christ. Thousands of persons who have come un- der the influence of such an exaggerated idea have confounded it with the religion of Christ. When they have come to see that mere church membership is not salvation they reject this and think they are rejecting Christ. Other denominations have not been free from this in some form. I remember hearing in my childhood a denominational leader say that all who have not obeyed a certain rite of his particular church would perish. In my work as a minister I meet very many who think that to be a Christian one must simply obey certain formulas. lyo PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA, They see that these vary in different denom- inations and in their misunderstanding they become agnostics or unbelievers. Washington Gladden pointedly says, "Any attempt to restrict his salvation to those interests which are expressed by the church as an ecclesiasticism is mischievous in the extreme. When you have fenced re- ligion off into a separate realm you have not only robbed society of the only power that can keep it from putrefaction, you have doomed religion itself to paralysis and death." ' Had the church spent its time and thought in teaching and applying the prin- ciples of the kingdom of God, there would be to-day no such separation of the masses and the church. Many of the evils of so- ciety would have been overcome long ago if each minister had taught and each Chris- tian had lived the gospel of the kingdom. Suppose councils and church conferences had insisted simply upon loyalty to the Son of God and to the Scriptures as the only rule of faith and practice, and had spent their time and wisdom in planning their work, and the local churches, instead of 1 "Ruling Lie of tho Present Age," p. 109. The church and America's future. 171 looking with hatred and suspicion upon each other, had united in an effort to rid the community of its evils, think you that the forces of evil would be in possession of any city or hamlet of this land? To have a creed is one thing, but to insist in the re- lationships of worship and service only up- on those things in the creed that are essen- tial is far better. The church has failed to utilize its power. Few of the members outside of those neces- sary to fill the official positions have been engaged in any definite work for Christ. The work of reaching the indifferent in the parish has devolved upon the minister. The laity as a whole have felt little respon- sibility except in time of special evangelistic effort for the accomplishment of the same. The ministry has borne the responsibility of the pulpit and the field. Several unfortu- nate results have come from this. Often the ministry has failed to attempt it. Many parts of the community where ser- vices might have been held have been neg- lected. Many homes that might have been visited and hundreds of souls to whom the message of life might have been brought have never been approached. The theory 172 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. on the part of some churches that only an ordained man can teach and exhort and the failure of other churches to use those upon whom councils have not laid their hands are accountable for many waste places to- day. We do not attack church shibboleths. We simply state results. Many communi- ties might have had its Moody or its Spur- geon had the churches thought more of souls and civilization than of denomina- tional order. 2. The way in which the church may shape the future. Its work may be outlined in a sentence as conversion of the soul, ministry to the whole man, and the regeneration of the whole com- munity. The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. He could have ac- complished his purpose in no other way. He commenced at the heart and worked out. In no other way could the soul have been saved and its earthly life given to Christ- like ministries and the community re- claimed. Portions of the church need to be reminded of this to-day. We must not be silent, or in our great interest in education permit the community to overlook the fun- THE CHURCH AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. I73 damental thing in the gospel of Christ — submission to the will of God. The great work of the church now as ever is the win- ning of the lost to Christ. The place to be- gin the purification of society is in the heart of each person. When this is done we must remember that the work is just begun. He is saved but not perfected. He must be made an in- telligent Christian. He must be guided in- to the possession of the Christian graces. No part of his nature is to be left to find its satisfaction and development in the world. The gospel is to be the sunshine and the rain that through the atmosphere of the church shall come to him to strengthen his whole nature and to make him a fruitful plant. This is to be accom- plished not by centering his thought and effort upon himself, but upon his responsi- bility to others and the community. Christ died to save the life as well as the soul, and life is saved in spending it in service. Theoretically the church understands that its great work is to minister to persons. It needs now to see that one part of its service is to the community. Its work is the per- fection of the entire life of the community. 174 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. It is not a pleasant task. It must press its way into dangerous and filthy corners. It must run the danger of slander and the knife of the assassin. It must expect the derision of the dail}^ press and the hooting of mobs. These will be the spurs and music which shall accompany its work. But it cannot turn back if it would obey the call of God and heed this country's cry of need. A failure to do this means the ruin of America and the overthrow of the church. Fidelity to this task means a strengthened nation and a triumphant church. The message of the church in view of this work is easily found. The great posi- tive doctrines upon which all evangelical churches agree, and which have given shape to our life must be proclaimed with the .same earnestness and confidence as of old. No negative or destructive message can save a nation. The old doctrines need to find a new tongue suited to the conditions of the time and clothed in the language of the nineteenth century, but none the less clear in its utterance and positive in its demands. Sin, whose heart is unbelief, needs to be shown in all its hideousness as the execu- tioner of Christ and the destroyer of souls THE CHURCH AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. 175 and communities. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. Then call upon all men to repent and be- lieve in the lyord Jesus Christ with the same earnestness of spirit as the preachers of old. ** lyCt the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the I^ord, and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." So present all the great messages of the word. Not preach- ing about them, but preaching them. The danger in an age as critical and restless as this is that we shall spend too much of our time in the pulpit in the discussion of the Bible's language, authorship, the theories about it, and other questions that have their proper place, and shall not present the great truths of the Bible, and upon these base our appeals to men. Mr. Spurgeon and Dr. A. J. Gordon are illustrations of positive preach- ing. Take out of their messages the ever present appeal to the Scriptures, and you rob their lives of half their fruitage. There must be scholars, and every minister must understand the thought of his day and meet the error and adapt himself to the new 176 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. truth and guide the thought of his people, but to accomplish this he need spend little time in purely critical preaching. If he would reach the indifferent, win the young, and set them at work to destroy the evils that threaten America, and have his part in the evangelization of the world, he has lit- tle time for other than the most positive work. There are other places than the pul- pit where as necessity demands and wis- dom indicates he can instruct his people in these things. I am convinced also that the minister will develop his church in intelli- gence as well as in Christian earnestness only in this way. The man who shapes his creed from the point of view of the lost sheep will have a truer one than the man who forms it by the rules of logic and criti- cism. His message to the community must likewise be positive. The minister is a prophet. His voice, though it be alone in its warning, must be lifted in denunciation of those evils that feed upon society's life. He must not rant, he must condemn. The truths of the Bible, like the stones of ancient warfare, must be hurled at the fortifications of the wicked. Even here he must guard THE CHURCH AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. 177 well. He may simply be destructive and fail. His message must call to a construc- tive work. He must inspire men to believe that there is no such thing as permanent evil. He must call upon his followers to destroy the bad for the sake of establishing the good! This makes the Christian's work heroic. This will draw around him the noblest and bravest souls of his parish and command the respect of the young to the church. Dr. Parkhurst and others like him have inspired a profound respect in the hearts of the people at large for the minis- try and the church, and have caused the evil forces to tremble before the power of Christian conscience. This battle pressed in every community, if he who lesds does not scold but speaks as Christ did to the extortioners and hypocrites, will change whatever disrespect or criticism many have had for the church to a profound respect and hearty support. The method of the church must be per- sonal. The danger of late has been to trust too much in large gatherings and res- olutions. The farmer attends his conven- tion and receives there new inspiration and new methods, but the results will depend tyS PROVIDE-VCE IN AMERICA. Upon his personal efforts during the follow- ing months. History records that the marvelous growth of the church during the first three centuries of its life and under its bitter persecution was because each follower of Christ told his message to each person he met. Let. the personal method return to- day and the results would be immediate and marked. Let each member say ' ' Come, ' ' and let him bear his part in the opposition to vice and oppression, and there would soon be no such question as, ' ' How to reach the masses ? ' ' The church has been too much like an army in which the general does all the fighting. The army where each sol- dier appreciates what is at stake and with sublime courage does his part knows no such thing as failure. 3. Application of these truths to a local church. The partial failure of a local church to reach the people of a community and to give shape to its public life has often come not from any lack of appreciation of its responsibility, but from an absence of tact. No general requires such great ele- ments of leadership as the pastor of a church. Many a minister has preached beyond criticism, has prayed and agonized THE CHURCH AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. 179 over the lost and urged upon his people their responsibility to society and to indi- viduals' souls and has wondered and perhaps been heartbroken because his church did not respond and the community come to find life. He charges his failure to the in- difference of the members and the total depravity of those outside. Yet the church really wished to do this work, and many outside of its circle were waiting for only a word to bring them in. I believe there are a few simple conditions which if met will make each church successful in filling the place and accomplishing the work to which God calls it to-day. (i) Its services. We have been endeav- oring these many years to secure the at- tendance of the members of the church upon the morning and evening services of the Lord's day. We have succeeded in accomplishing this in the morning, but in the evening half-filled pews have stared us in the face and discouraged many a courageous heart. We have prepared the most elabor- ate musical programs, and sometimes have selected startling|themes, and have lectured, when we were able, upon history and biog- raphy and art and sociology, and still the l8o PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. bare pews remain, and they always will re- main so long as this method is followed. One service on Sunday distinctively for Christian people is enough. At this ser- vice let the themes be such as apply to Christian growth and public questions. More naturally this would come in the morning. Make the distinct aim of the evening service the reaching of non-church- goers and the conversion of the lost. Call upon the church that you have instructed in the morning to prove 3^our ministry and their faith by going out into the highways and hedges to find and bring in the indif- ferent. And when the hour of service comes make the most simple and attractive service that human skill and divine spirit can arrange. lyCt the people sing. Put into their hands the words of familiar hymns. Let an enthusiastic leader insist that every person join in the service of song. Lay hands on the most effective gospel soloist that you can reach. Remem- ber that a violin in the hands of a skilful, consecrated Christian may be better than a card of invitation. Let the sermon be brief and upon some truth of the word that shall call upon every man to believe now in the THE CHURCH AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. I Si Son of God. Commence your service promptly and close it at the end of the hour. Gather up the fruits of the meeting in a simple, natural after-meeting. Direct your people so that each new-comer shall be welcomed and those under conviction shall be brought into the after-meeting. Wherever this has been persistently done vacant pews have been filled and rebellious souls won. The evening service is the an- swer to the question, " How shall the masses be reached ? " " • One of the most effective ways in which to join the members of the church to the evening service is to put a service each month in charge of one of the organizations. lyCt the Sunday school furnish for its even- ing parts of the order of service an appro- priate recitation, song, a portion of Scrip- ture, a dialogue, and anything else that will assist in reaching the results aimed at. The pastor can control the service and preach his usual short and direct sermon. Such a service will interest not only the Sunday school, but will draw in many of the parents from those homes which are not connected with the church. If the service is hearty and inspiring some of them will l82 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. become regular attendants. The next month let the brotherhood have charge of the evening service. Draft two or three young men and have them present in three- minute speeches the work of the brother- hood. Organize among their number, if possible, a quartette that will furnish a stirring song or two. The pastor comes then with his sermon in which he appeals to young men ti) be Christians. In this way the different societies of the church can be used, and the congregation built up in numbers and interest. Three or four patriotic services during the year in which stirring national hymns are sung by the congregation, as many temperance meet- ings with stirring appeals and music, bright missionary meetings — in these and other .ways the evening service can be crowded and the great work of Christ made ef- fective. Another effective way is to hold services in different parts of the parish. This can be done during the week ; place this work in the hands of the young people. Go with them whenever it is possible and preach to those gathered. Visit all the homes of that vicinity and invite them into the services. The churchan d America's future. 183 Bring the fruits of this work into the home church. Whether these services in any part of the city shall be continued will de- pend upon the needs. Many will be reach- ed by only a few weeks of effort. (2) Its organization. Much depends upon this. Many Christians desire to do personal work but do not know how. The preaching that stops with an exhorta- tion may make itself ineffective.. The min- ister must guide his people as he sends them forth. A church without organizations is like a business house where every employee is left to do as he has a mind. Each organization should aim at the ac- complishment of one of three purposes, the development of the members, the reaching of non-church goers, or the reform- ation of society. To accomplish the first purpose the pastor must be able to command the members. Much time is wasted in pastoral visitation, and many members be- come indifferent and fall away before the pastor knows the failing interest. Two plans seem to overcome this. Some have divided the church roll into equal parts and given each division into the charge of a dea- con. Others have divided the members i84 providence; in America. into companies of ten, making one of the company responsible for the nine. Still others have divided the members into groups according to location in the com- munity. Some plan like these will make the church manyfold more effective. Classes for the study of the Bible and its application in personal work are almost a necessity. Classes for the study of local social conditions will have a magic influ- ence in the development of the young peo- ple. Let it be the aim to give every mem- ber some special work to do. To reach the non-church goers: The aim should be to bring to each person in the community a per£:onal invitation to attend the services, and to win as many as possible to accept Jesus Christ. Nothing is more effective among the young men than the Brotherhood of Andrew and Phillip. Gather those who are anxious to do this personal work into such an organization. Meet with them just preceding the morning service and outline the work for the day and the week, and then as they kneel about you let each pray for the services and for this work. Each one is pledged to do his best to bring some young man to at least The church and America's future. 185 one of the services of the week. Place in their hands printed invitations which will make it easy for them to approach others. Send them out to the hotels on Sunday- morning with a personal invitation to each one of the guests. Keep them busy at something, and during the year the results will be visible. If possible unite others in an effort to visit the homes of the commu- nity, so that during the year each home will have had the presence of an earnest Chris- tian life, and its members an invitation to the services. The organization of the church for the reformation of society is an important thing. The pastor can accomplish much by wisely directing his people. Organize those who are especially interested in temperance work into a committee or society that shall do this work. A committee not only to re- lieve the wants of the poor, but to study the whole question of relief, will lead to some- thing usually that will affect the community permanently. If the pastor is persistent and careful he can so arouse his people to a sense of responsibility that they will lead in organizing among the citizens a Good Government Club. A public kindergarten l86 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. has resulted in several places from a begin- ning made in a private way by the ladies of a church. If a place demands it a reading room should be kept open during the week. Games and other entertainment should be furnished the young. The church should so enter into the social needs of the young that they shall find their satisfaction in good surroundings and shall not be led into the ways of sin. In this way the percentage of young men in the church will grow larger each year. Classes in sewing, cooking, talks to the mothers on the care of the home and training of children, other instruction as necessary, will have their part in the evolution of the life of the community. These may seem like trifles and beneath the notice of a church, but, like the mustard seed, they have in them great possibilities. (3) Its power. I have recognized in other places the power of consecrated personalty and of the word of God. Each church has these to wield. But they must be vitalized and used by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is promised to all believers and for all ser- vice. He coHvicts of sin. He gives cour- age, joy, peace, love, and power. Study THK CHURCH AND AMERICA'S FUTURE 1S7 the record in the Acts of the early church. Three thousand in a day/ five thousand men,' multitudes both of men and women,' a great company of the priests,* a great multitude both of Jews and Greeks be- lieved,^ and the world was turned upside down/ The church was filled with the Spirit for service. He led the Christians to their work, and gave them joy and victory in it. A Spirit-filled church will ''reach the masses." There will be added daily to it such as are being saved. The evil forces of the world will hate it. Religious for- mality will sneer at it, and religious indiffer- ence will be jealous of its work; but the blessing of God will be upon it, and the multitudes will be saved and will become national saviours. I have given only the outline of the re- sponsibiUty and work of the church; the de- tails would fill a volume. I am only to sug- gest. The true pastor and church do not need ready-made plans, but a realization of their responsibility and a hint from the ex- perience of others. As at the commencement of this chapter, 1 Acts 2:41. 2 Ibid. 4:4, 3 Ibid. Acts 5:14. 4 Ibid. .:7. 6 Ibid. 14:1. 6 Ibid. 17:6. I88 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. SO at its close, I urge that upon the church of Christ depends America's future. Its task is the bringing of Christ to the heart of man and society. The task and the leader should inspire us. Nothing is too great for those in whom he dwells and through whom he works. " All power in heaven and earth is given unto me," de- clared Christ of himself. The power that made him creator of the universe, that brought him to the earth and made him master over nature and disease, that made him equal to the trial of the cross and vic- torious over the power of the grave, are only- suggestions in earthly, finite language of power that is infinite. ' ' Lo, I am with you alway," is the assurance of Christ to the church. Infinite power, then, is pledged to the church's work. Upon this task we en- ter. To this power we look for strength. In his promises we find assurance of success. 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home ! A charm from the skies seems to hallow us here, Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere. Home ! home ! sweet, sweet home ! 1 1 There's no place like home ! An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain ! O, give me my lowly, thatched cottage again ! The birds singing gaily that came at my call — Give me them ! and the peace of mind dearer than all ! Home ! home ! sweet, sweet home ! There's no place like home. —John Hoiuard Pay\ XI. THK HOME AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. Of all the institutions that make up the strength of a nation the home stands with- out a rival. The first step in civilizing a people is to Christianize its homes. The church in any land depends upon its homes as the great means which Christ will use in extending his kingdom. Nationally and personally its influence is the most potent and lasting. A nation must look to its homes for citi- zens of strong and healthy bodies. Ten- dencies to disease are inherited. Food and sanitation are elements in the problem. Physical tendencies to dissipation or to sobriety are inherited, and are strengthened by the ph3^sical condition and early sur- roundings. * A nation must look to its homes as well as to its schools for its intellectual condition. The fiber of the brain depends upon all the conditions of the home. The point of view from which, the citizen looks at life and national problems is largely received here. ^92 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. The ideas that shape the life come to the child from the father and mother. Many influences unite to form the moral condition of a country, but the home is the primary one. The same child, that, brought up in an American home, speaks English, would, if reared in an Italian or German family, speak the language of that country. The moral difference dependent upon the home is as wide. Moral fiber depends up- on prenatal conditions ; moral ideals and purposes upon childhood teachings and early moral atmosphere. The Puritan and Pilgrim settled the north, and the Cavalier the south. Study the moral history of our country with this in mind. The home plays an equally important part in the religious life of a nation. Hor- rible religious rites have been in vogue in heathen lands for centuries. They have come down from father to son. The heathen mother murders her babe ; when she becomes a Christian she loves it more than she does her own life. The mission- aries appreciate the importance of the home in their work, and the- difficulty in winning those who have had a dark and terrible training in childhood. The workers in the mn HOME AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. I93 slums of civilized lands testify to the added difficulty in winning and holding those who have had no religious home training. Tests have been frequently made in large assem- blies of Christian leaders, and it has been found universally true that a large majority had early religious training in the home. Study thQ great, inspired leaders of history, and you will usually find a godly mother and often a household of faith. Thus upon its homes rests in large meas- ure the future of a country. Their influ- ence touches every part of national life, as the atmosphere touches every part of the earth's surface. They receive from the home more than from otherwhere the point of view, the purpose, the affections, the ideals and the memories that shape life. The homes in America have in the past come near to the realization of their place in the nation's life. They have sent forth from their sacred circles citizens of physical, mental, moral, and religious vision and strength. They have accepted from God their mission and fulfilled it with devotion and power. The present and future look to them for leaders and followers. The student of American life, recognizing 194 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. the place of the home, sees with deep con- cern the working of forces that will unless checked undermine this sacred institution. I. Wrong views of training and industry are too prevalent. In other days the chil- dren were taught to work. Many of them learned a trade. In the families of wealth industry was insisted upon. To-day in a multitude of homes the children are idle. Few of the boys in well-to-do homes are taught a trade. The work which the girls used to do is now done by servants. Out of twenty young women taking upon them- selves the responsibilities of a home recent- ly, fifteen knew nothing about the simplest duties of house keeping. The mental and moral results of idleness are evil. The young come to look at life from a wrong point of view. Idleness is often the way to dissipation. " Doing nothing is," says Crafts, "an apprenticeship to doing wrong." Beecher declared, "If you are idle you are on your way to ruin, and there are few stopping-places upon it. It is rather a precipice than a road." ' * An idler is a watch that wants both hands, As useless if it goes as when it stands." Give the children an appreciation of the 1^HE home; and America's future. 195 glory of work. Train them to be indus- trious. An industrious people will make a strong nation. 2. Devitalizing habits. The use of nar- cotics is widely prevalent. We are a nation of tobacco users. While the number of total abstainers is increasing, still, the habit of moderate drinking is wide- spread. I find from consultation with druggists that the use of morphine and cocaine is on the in- crease, The conclusions of science in re- gard to such habits may be briefly summa- rized, (i) A danger of physical, mental, and moral disease on the part of the one using. (2) A danger of giving to our off- spring a weakened or diseased body, an in- dolent mind, and a dull moral nature. I am personally convinced that the wide prevalence of the cigarette habit among the boys is in large measure the result of the use of tobacco on the part of the parent. Each person who seeks to relieve the woe of the world is acquainted with young men and women who are born with an appetite for drink, the result of a father's or mother's indulgence. I do not say that in a major- ity of cases these tendencies are inherited, but frequently it is true. The true parent 196 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. takes no risk when such sacred interests are at stake. He is willing to forego even the things that do not injure him for the sake of his children. I venture the opinion that no one thing would so minister to the phys- ical, mental, and moral health and strength of the next generation as to have the pres- ent generation give up the use of tobacco and liquors. 3. The increasing demand of clubs, lodges, and society upon the time of parents is a menace to our homes. Time is an es- sential element in the relationships of par- ents and children. Home to many a man is a place in which to eat and sleep — a res- taurant and lodging house. Rev. Charles H. Small, in an address upon the home, in summing up the conclusions ot his careful investigations, gives this as one of the po- tent causes of the decay of family life. I have often found it true of Christian men that the regular engagements of business, of lodges, and of clubs leave them no even- ings of the week at home. Five women chosen at random from the leading Chris- tian women of a city had each on an average fourteen engagements of this kind every week "during the season." There TH^ HO MS AND AMEJRICA'S FUTURE). I9) is no home life in such houses. The chil- dren must seek companionship elsewhere — in the gaiety or the dissipation of society. Such a life destroys in the parent the love for the home. Its associations seem dull. The power to appreciate its charms is de- stroyed. The saddest confession I ever heard a mother make was this, ** I cannot bear to spend an evening at home. It is so dull." She had come to enjoy the excite- ment of club and cards more than the com- panionship of her children. 4. The absence of children from our best homes is a threatening evil. Every disrep- utable physician's hand is stained with blood. Every reputable physician turns away with horror from the frequent appeals to commit murder. Many homes of which the above is not true are still childless from deliberate and selfish purpose. It is legal- ized prostitution. The results are destructive. It tends to destroy the love upon which the home rests. Often it leads to divorce. It destroys the moral power of the home. The young that come up to the duties of citizenship are too many of them from the homes of ignorance aad ideas foreign to our principles and 198 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. Spirit. Unless disease or nature forbid, each home should be the training school of citizens. 5. The absence of moral purpose in the training of the home is another national danger. When the soldiers of General Gates de- stroyed the snow forts of the boys of Bos- ton they went before him and demanded justice. "The very children," said he, ' * draw in a love of liberty with the air they breathe." The air that made them love liberty and bold to stand for it was the at- mosphere of the homes in which they lived. Fathers and mothers were patriots. They taught their children by precept and exam- ple that each one must champion the truth, and to this end God had given him life. In the days of our fathers the children were given in prayer to God before their birth. The parents looked forward to the time when their children should be engaged in some great work for God and man. The children from their homes came forth to be stalwart leaders and follow^ers in the nation's hours of need. Unless I mistake, many of the homes of to-day are not filled with such a moral atmosphere. Parents hope for their THK home and AMERICA'S FUTURE. 1 99 children a successful social or business career. I fear that comparatively few are hoping and praying that their children shall be faithful servants of God, and are train- ing them by precept and example to spend their lives for others. God does not expect all to be missionaries — but not until a home is pervaded by this altruistic atmosphere will it fulfill its mission. In the truest sense, then, God expects every person to be a missionary in his consecration and service. 6. This atmosphere cannot exist unless the home is distinctively religious. Around the family altar the children of early days received their impressions of the sacredness of life. As they heard their parents pray for America they realized that its counsels were of eternal import. They learned there that the problems of their day had to do with heaven and earth, with the past and the future. In the consecrations there made were the beginnings of many noble lives. I am, therefore, concerned as I see the decay of the family altar. In gathering as beat I could by personal obser- vation and consultation with pastors the present facts concerning this matter I am 200 PROVIDENCK IN AMERICA. compelled to express the opinion that not half the homes in which one or both of the parents are members of a church have family worship or grace at the table. This accounts in no small measure for the world- liness and coldness in the churches and for the weak conscience in regard to pub- lic evils. Let the nominally Christian homes have the family altar with its les- son from the word, its voices of prayer and songs of praise, and the generation coming from them will have the vision and strength to bring America nearer to the realization of its perfect ideals. I never realized so deeply the power of a Christian home as when wandering alone one night in a foreign land. All about was squalor and crime. I was asking myself if there is any means that Christ could use to reclaim such moral wastes. The sound of singing fell upon my ears and melted my heart. •' Home ! home ! sweet, sweet home ! There's noplace like home ! " There in the midst of desolation was a Christian home. Pictures brightened the walls. Carpets covered the narrow floors. Cleanliness had wrought its work well. The; home and amkrica's future. 201 Purity dwelt there. The joy of Christ with its songs of hope was an inhabitant. lyOve touched it all with the glory of heaven. A Christian family had taken up its abode in this desert to reclaim it and make it in time the garden of the I^ord. America has its countless numbers of such homes, and each one is a pledge of better things for the nation. others shall sing the song, Others shall right the wrong, Finish what I begin. And all I fail of win. What matter I or they, Mine or another's day, So the right word is said And life the sweeter made ? Hail to the coming singers ! Hail to the brave light-bringers ! Forward I reach and share All that they sing and dare. I feel the earth move sunward, I join the great march onward. And take by faith, while living, My freehold of thanksgiving. —John Greenleaf Whittier. XII. AMERICA'S FUTURE ASSURED. In the preceding chapters we have glanced over the history of America. No nation in so brief a time has had so eventful a career. Its short life has been full of great strug- gles. It was born in a time of great need, lyiberty and righteousness the world over must have a place in which to incarnate themselves in institutions, laws, life, and ideals. They had been chained for eleven centuries but now in the plan of God are to fight for the world's freedom without hin- drance of manacles. Persecution was used of God for the carrying out of his purpose, and the Pilgrim Fathers and other colonists came to the task of subduing a wild conti- nent and a wilder race of men. Disease joined hands with cold and poverty to de- stroy their work, but the power of the Om- nipotent was there and the foundations were laid deep and strong. Each genera- tion has faced enemies overwhelming in number and fierceness. The life of the country has often seemed about to be crushed out, but the impossible has always AMERICA'S FUTURE ASSURED. 205 been done and a victory recorded for free- dom. To-day more and fiercer enemies than ever threaten our life. Each one if looked at singly seems too much for any nation to overcome, and when taken collec- tively we do not wonder that some believe, with rough old Carlyle, that "the Ameri- can republic is going straight to the devil. ' ' We would not overestimate the dangers, neither would we underestimate them. Yet, in spite of all that threatens, I am confident as I look over the forces in battle array that those that are for us are more than those that be against us. It is our joy to point out in this chapter the causes of our confidence. I. This country in its present struggles has the assurance of history. The dullest student must see that history is only the record of the struggles of a few against the many and the victory at last of every just cause. A few men stand at the foot of a cross. They are unlettered fishermen. Their Leader is dying. Their task is to make universal a kingdom of which he is the head. Brothers are against them. Poverty is their treasure. Customs, ancient and cherished, are attacked by them. The 2o6 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. civil power that has taken the life of their lyeader will be wielded against them. Ec- clesiastical hatred is their strongest enemy. They go forth with no other ensign than a despised cross. Humanly estimated, they have not one possibility of success. They are sent to do the impossible. Still they go. They deliver their message. Gloomy prisons and burning fagots do not silence them. Men listen. Men respond. For centuries after they have laid down their lives their cause sweeps on. Every vic- tory won for God or men since the disciples died is a victory for them. Men have mis- understood and refused their message and the battle is long drawn out, but each age has seen some portion of this fair world re- captured and brought under the rule of Jesus Christ. The lesson of Christ and his disciples is the lesson of every person and company of persons that have stood for truth. One man has faced a world. He has undertaken the impossible. He has done his best. His record is one of persecution and death but never defeat. God made the impossible possible. The victory seemed all the more brilliant and blessed because the beginning AMERICA'S FUTURE ASSURED. 207 was so discouraging and mean. Each struggle has been an impressive commentary of the psalmist's prophecy: "There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth." ^ What is the lesson of Luther's life ? In the beginning an impossible task, at the finish a world-shaping victory. Man's ex- tremity is God's opportunity. What word does Wesley sound down to us? At first persecution and threatening death, at last faith that includes in the church's thought works. Listen to the lesson of the modern mis- sionary movement. In the beginning a cobbler with a vision of an evangelized world. A cold and sneering church. To- day missionary societies without number, missionaries reaching the thousands, many churches self-supporting and more, the world's history richer by the heroic lives spent in this service, heaven ringing with voices that otherwise would not have known its songs, and a growing number of Chris- tians whose purpose is that the world shall IPs. 72:16. 20S PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. be evangelized during this generation. It is the same old story. History has but one voice, victory for the truth. " By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding feet I track, Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back, And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned One new word of that grand credo which in prophet hearts hath burned Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven upturned. " For humanity sweeps onward: where to-day the martyr stands On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands ; Far in front the cross stands ready and the crack- ling fagots burn, While the hooting niob of yesterday in silent awe return To glean up the scattered ashes into history's golden urn." 2. This country has the assurance of its own history. Institutions, like persons, take their bent in youth. Train up a- child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it. '* As the twig is bent the tree is inclined." We have in this land the inspiration of a remarkable AMERICA'S FUTURE ASSURED. 209 history. Our great struggles hrve been for great principles and have always been vic- torious. America's great men, those to whom we look back now, were good men. Men who counted not their lives dear if principle was at stake. Their influence re- mains to-day. Indeed, the farther removed we are from the time in which they lived the clearer we see the greatness of the causes for which they stood and the more inspiring becomes their fidelity. To get the proper outline of a mountain and to be awed by it one must not stand at its base but far away. Thus loom up in their proper pro- portions the great lives of the past. Wash- ington lives with us to-day. Lincoln speaks to every young man. "Men's monuments, grown old, forget their names They should eternize, but the place where shining souls have passed imbibes a grace Beyond mere earth ; some sweetness of their fames Ivcaves in the soil its unextinguished trace, Pungent, pathetic, sad with nobler aims. That penetrates our lives and heightens them or shames." Many will not discern our companions or hear their voices calling, but others of keener sight and quicker ear will walk with the leaders of old, and spend life, as they 2IO PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. Spent it, unselfishly and heroicall}'. These will shape our life. It shall be the old vStory over and over again of two putting ten thousand to flight. There are currents in national life. As the spring in the mountain sends forth its rivulet which grows as it goes on through the plain to the brook, increasing in stature to a great river, so the stream of national life with each year of its progress gathers in volume and power. A child's hand could shape its course in the beginning. A continent cannot check it at last. The current of no country's his- tory is so complete and strong toward ideal national life as America's. The clear rivulet that burst forth at Plymouth Rock has gone on gathering to itself other streams, purifying those that were muddy, until to-day it is the clearest and most re- sistless stream in the woild. At first an evil-disposed hand might have changed its course, to-day the realms of darkness will try in vain to turn it and corrupt it. It sweeps on and shall sweep onward until it becomes pure and reaches with its touch of lif^ every desert and waste place of this land. It is said that General Grant did not AMKRICA'S FUTURE ASSURED. 211 expect that Missionary Ridge would be cap- tured at the time it was. He thought it would take longer, but when the men had once commenced to advance they gathered courage and force, and fought on with grow- ing hope, and steep hillsides and slippery paths and raining death were nothing to them. There is the same growing strength and courage in the great battle going on in this land between the evil forces and the good. No enemies, however bitter and de- termined, can stand before a nation that for two hundred and fifty years has swept on in charge after charge for the right and looks back upon no final defeat. ' ' The hope of truth grows stronger day by day ; I hear the soul of man around me waking, And every hour new signs of promise tell That the great soul shall once again be free; For high and yet more high the murmurs swell Of inward strife for truth and liberty." 3, This country has the assurance of its causes. Each battle which it is fighting is a just one. Each reform at which it aims is a lineal descendent of the reform of all ages. Lowell says, ' * Truth needs no cham- pion." Can anyone doubt that the cause of human liberty, which has pushed its way 212 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. forward for nineteen hundred years, which has won liberty of soul at the reformation and laid the foundations of national indepen- dence and established the principle of race freedom shall go forward from victory to vic- tory? It is the same old truth applied to mod- em conditions. Can anyone believe that the kingdom of God which in these ways and many others has been extending its sover- eignty over our land shall now prove unable to cope with its difficulties ? Is that appre- ciation of manhood which has been growing and strengthening during the life of our nation to be lost or deadened? Will the profound conviction that our causes are the causes of God be weakened or destroyed ? No. In one sense truth needs no cham- pion. Men die ; causes live. Often the moment of evil's seeming triumph is the moment of its greatest defeat. Even the wrath of man is overruled to the praise of God. Righteousness seems to be in the hands of its executioner, and tyranny and unbelief to be perfectly triumphant, when Christ is nailed to the cross. Truth never won a greater triumph and error never re- ceived such a defeat as then. When Bar- row and Penry are thrust into dungeons. AMERICA'S FUTURE ASSURED. 213 liberty seems languishing with them. But such things have in them future republics. It is in such soil and such shadows that liberty takes deeper root. When Lundy with his weak personality appeals in vain for the slave and Garrison is hunted as an enemy of his country their cause seems to have no future. But they are sowers, and the storms that rage around them are life to the seed which they sow. The harvest time is sure to come. America's future is assured because her causes are the causes of man and of God. The evils of to-day seem overwhelming, but the next generation shall look back and see clearly that this was seed- time, and they shall rejoice because theirs •is harvest-time. ' ' Art builds in sand ; the works of pride And human passion change and fall ; But that which shares the life of God With him surviveth all." 4. Its causes have loyal champions. We have already pointed out that the fut- ure of any just cause does not depend upon the number of its champions but upon their fidelity. We have to-day both numbers and fidelity. In the beginning of the agitation between the colonies and England only a 214 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. small portion of the coloiiists appreciated the problem. Had the colonists been united in their appreciation and purpose, they would then have been only a handful in contrast with the population of the English nation. The number who for many years carried on the agitation against slavery can almost be counted upon the fingers of both hands. Numbers, wealth, position, and in- fluence were against them. To-day it is different. Whittier in his day rejoiced in this broader appreciation of the truth: '* Thank God that I have Uved to see the time When the great truth begins at last to find An utterance from the deep heart of mankind, Earnest and clear, that all revenge is crime. And words, to which by Galilee's lake-shore The humble fishers listened with hushed oar, Have found an echo in the general heart, And of the public faith become a living part." Several millions of young people are banded together to make more effective their work for Christ and the church. This work includes the strengthening of their country. It is a rule of few exceptions that every young person in the young people's societies of to-day is given to the destruc- tion of this nation's enemies and to the AMERICA'S FUTURE ASSURED. '215 progress of every one of its great interests. No mean proportion of the ministry are courageously and with the weapons which Christ has given them pressing the battle against our nation's enemies. The appre- ciation of our public schools and other in- stitutions is growing rapidly in the hearts of the people. The temperance army un- doubtedly numbers to-day several millions. The ablest and most unselfish teachers that can be found are filling the chairs of sociol- ogy in our colleges. With love in their hearts the missionaries of the cross are founding their missions and social settle- ments where the ignorance and wickedness is greatest in our cities, and others are sac- rificing to take the new west for liberty and righteousness. Never in all the world's history has there been an army that com- pared in numbers to this army. Can we doubt the quality of their wisdom, courage, and fidelity ? Not if we listen to their ring- ing words and notice carefully their spirit and deeds. Each year will see their num- bers increasing. Each difficulty will in- tensify their patriotism. The most vivid imagination cannot picture what the future has in store of real achievement. It is the 2l6 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. privilege of each one to have part in the struggles and victories of to-day and to be encouraged by the vision of the future. " I feel the earth move sunward, I join the great march onward, I take by faith, while living. My freehold of thanksgiving." 5. This country has the assurance of the Scriptures. All of the reasons urged in Chapter I. might be urged with the same force here. God is the same to-day as yes- terday. His purpose is nearer fulfilment but not completely carried out. The next step in its progress is to be taken by Amer- ica and England. As with Israel, he wishes to bless this nation for its own sake and for the enlightenment of other nations. We have then the open door of opportunity. It is not free from all sin and evil, but it has the clean and faithful minority who have always been able to claim the promises of the word. This is the condition which God requires to be met if a people would suc- ceed. He fights for those who fight for themselves. ' ' I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone ; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself ; that frustrateth the tokens of the AMERICA'S FUTURE ASSURED, 217 liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; that confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers ; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof. ' ' God said of Cyrus, and how much more true is it of those who intelligently respond to God's will, "I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways : he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts. ' ' The scriptures teach that every nation has its peculiar mission. If it is true to that mis- sion its success though long delayed shall come. We have seen in our study the great mission on which this nation is sent. Liberty and the kingdom of God look to it for its next victories. Having in mind the number of its citizens that recognize its responsibility and are pledged to its tasks we apply the words of Peter, * ' But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people ; that ye should show forth the praises of him who 2l8 PROVIDKNCK IN AMERICA. hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." So long as America gives itself to the carrying out of God's purposes so long will the promises given to Israel apply to herself. The presence of the Bible is a significant indication. I need not point out that wherever the Bible is studied by the people there is a growing intelligence, a quickened sense of responsibility, and a new life. When Alfred the Great based his laws and education upon the ten commandments, and when Elizabeth permitted the English scriptures to be given to the people, they builded better than they knew. To know the results read the history of England's wonderful progress. The reformation be- gan as Wyclif, Savonarola, Huss, Luther, and others pored over the word of God. It was the death of heathenism in the Sand- wich Islands when the scriptures were given to that wild people. If reformations and new nations have come from the placing of the Bible in the hands of a few, what re- sults shall follow the study of the Bible by the vast number in our land to-day. Chil- dren are taught its truths when they can only lisp its words, others are studying the AMERICA'S future; ASSURED. 219 Bible in the Sunday school, in almost every church there are special classes for Bible study, magazines and papers with long lists of subscribers are scattered broadcast, theological seminaries and training-schools are sending out determined armies of men in whose minds and hearts the word lives, and Bible societies are bringing to the door of every American home the Bible itself. In the springtime a great company of farm- ers go out and sow upon the bare earth a cloud of seed. A child might, say as he saw the bare fields and felt the scorching rays of the sun and knew of the destructive power of insect and worm, that the fields would never be covered with anything except weeds, and the vegetation that had already grown would soon be destroyed. But the farmers keep on sowing. The sun keeps shining. The dews and the rain fall. Summer comes. Fields are green with growing grain. Autumn comes. Barns and granaries are crowded. It has taken time and hard work, but what of that, the farmers are happy. This is seed-time in America. Every- where men are sowing the seed of the word. Some will fall on the stony soil and among 220 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. the thorns, but others upon good ground, and will bring forth some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold. It requires hard work and patience to wait, but who doubts that the harvest will come when he realizes that the seed has in it the life of God — the germ of new civilizations. * ' For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it spring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree ; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. ' ' 6. It has the presence of Christ. If there is any one thing that continually meets the student of American history it is the fact that this has been a Christian na- tion. Its foundations were laid by those who followed Christ in what then seemed a foolish undertaking. Early society was AMERICA'S FUTURE ASSURED. 221 shaped by this spirit and around Christian standards. Schools were founded because our forefathers believed in Christ's estimate of manhood. Our ideals of liberty have come from Christian sources. Public senti- ment which led to the overthrow of national evils was developed by Christian men and teachings. Confidence, that led a few col- onists to meet a trained army, rested in the assurance that its cause was just and was the cause of Christ. Teacher and preacher and statesman and general and soldier in the ranks —the company that has given shape to our nation were inspired and em- powered by the Christ of God. It is not really otherwise to-day. The great body of American citizens believe in Christian standards and civilization, and those who shall give permanent shape to its life are the followers of Christ. Our president and other officials take their oath of office upon the scriptures. There is scarcely a rela- tionship in any part of life that does not recognize this fact. For many reavSons, not permanent, a proportion of our population seems indifferent to Christ and the church. Already, however, the tide is turning in the other direction. Men are beginning to real- 222 providence: IN AMERICA. ize that Christ is their hope and the church the institution which he uses to carry out his purposes. The church is coming to reaHze that its work has to do with every part of the life of the individual and the community. Wherever a church does thus realize its mission it is reaching the people and shaping the community's life. Such movements gather force at each advance. A quarter of a century from now the churches will have so entered upon their all-inclusive work that they will be the homes where men love to come, and centers out from which shall go the influences that work for righteousness. Then will this land be Christian not only in its creed, but in its life. Christ founded a kingdom which has to do not only with men's souls and brains, but also with their political, social, industrial, moral, and domestic relation- ships. The hope of this country is seen in the awakening at the present time of the followers of Christ to this great responsi- bility. Religion will not much longer be divorced from practical life. Mere member- ship in a church will open man to derision unless to his profession of belief he adds a life that is spent in its every relationship AMERICA'S FUTURE ASSURED. 223 according to the spirit of Christ. This is our confidence. We are workers together with God. " There is no uncertainty as to the result. The prayers of good men, the schools and the teachers, the churches and the preachers, the forces that make for righteousness, the promises of God for the accomplishment of his purposes among men, the stars in their courses, will bring forth judgment unto truth. There may be op- positions, hindrances, and what are to us discouraging delays, but He who came to bring forth judgment unto truth will not fail, nor be discouraged." He who led our fathers is leading us. Instead of the fathers are the children, not more faithful but with the fathers' vision and loyalty and spirit of self-sacrifice. *' But Kfe shall on and upward go ; Th' eternal step of progress beats To that great anthem, calm and slow, Which God repeats. ** God works in all things ; all obey His first propulsion from the night. Wake thou and watch — the world is gray With morning: light ! " God of our fathers, known of old, Lord of oui: far flung battle-line. Beneath whose awful hands we hold Dominion over palm and pine — Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget— lest we forget ! The tumult and the shouting dies. The captains and the kings depart ; Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet. Lest we forget— lest we forget. If, drunk with sight of power, we loose Wild tongues that have not thee in awe, Such boasting as the Gentiles use, Or lesser breeds without the law- Lord God of hosts, be with us yet. Lest we forget— lest we forget. For heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard — All valiant dust that builds on duat, * And, guarding, calls not thee to guard— For frantic boast and foolish word. Thy mercy on the people. Lord. —Rudyard Kipling. XIII. the english-speaking nations and the world's future. The student of America's history and problems travehng in Great Britain finds his convictions deepening that the two countries have a common cause. If he visits the haunts of Alfred the Great he finds there the beginnings of the political and intellectual life of America as well as of England. As he gazes reverently upon the fire-scared charter he realizes that it is his charter of rights. There is hardly a step taken that does not press home the fact that the two English-speaking nations have a common inheritance, common foes, and a common destiny. They have the same language. It is the universal tongue. The traveler to-day finds it the language of communication. Ten men from as many nations find it the only language that all can use and understand. The common means of communication in business will eventually be this language. This gives to England and America a great common responsibility. Their ideas and ENGLISH-SPKAKING NATIONS. 227 principles will reach all nations in time. They have a common literary inheritance. . Shakespeare, Milton, and Tennyson, lyong- fellow, Lowell, and Whittier, belong to us all. John Hampden and Wendell Phillips appeal to the English-speaking world. And this literature is marked by the moral pur- pose that gave it birth. Upon the expe- rience of the past it stands and speaks as a prophet to the present. It calls to a large future. It is a messenger of liberty and righteousness. It is an indestructible tie binding the two countries together in mem- ory, in responsibility, and in anticipation. It is one of God's ways of spanning the Atlantic. Some of the qualities ascribed to Amer- ica's leaders belong to the race. The Anglo-Saxon is noted for his energy and daring. He is the great explorer of mod- ern times. He pushes his way from busi- ness and other motives into all new lands. He possesses what some one has named *' practical judgment " that makes his un- dertakings successful. He now controls over one-third of the territory and over one- quarter of the population of the world. In 1700 the :^nglish-speaking peoples num- 228 PROVIDKNCE IN AMERICA. bered about 6,000,000. In 1897 they will outreach 130,000,000. What the future will be no one can say. England and America hold to the same ideas and principles of liberty. There are differences in political ideas but we are to mention only those that are alike. They have had an overmastering passion for free- dom. Prisons and battle-fields in Britain unite with prisons and battlefields in Amer- ica in testimony of the Anglo-Saxon's love for liberty. Amidst all the false ideas that led to slavery and sometimes to persecution this free spirit has been present that led at last to intelligence and freedom. To-day the great mass of Britain's population hold with America that the authority of govern- ment rests finally in the will of the people, and not in the power of the king, and that each citizen should have his part in deter- mining what the will of the people is. There is, loo, a community of religious ideas and principles. Both countries are Protestant. As pointed out elsewhere. Protestantism is based upon three principles — living faith in Christ, the authority of the Scriptures as a rule of faith and practice, and a community of believers of which KNGIvIvSH-SPKAKING NATIONS. 229 Christ is the individual head, and of which all the members are priests unto God. These principles must be the foundation of all true civilization. I^iberty commences to build here. General intelligence finds its beginnings in the personal responsibility upon which these principles insist. It is no accident that the English- speaking race has loved and stood for liberty. Their religious ideas have been the leading influence in tak- ing from the English crown its former pow- ers and giving them back to the people, and in founding a free nation and freeing a race of slaves in America. Judged from the point of view cf the hopes of the world, no stronger ties could bind two peoples to- gether. Here we meet another common responsi- bility. It is not simply a question of Eng- land and America and the interests of their milUons, it is a world problem.. Is reli- gious liberty to be at last the inheritance of every man and nation ? Is the almost ab- solute power of czar and emperor to be vested in the people, where God expected it to be ? Is a living faith in Christ finally to lead the world ? Is the priesthood of the believer to be appreciated by every be- 25O PROVIDKNCK IxV AMjmiCA' liever? In a word, will the kingdom of God ever fill the earth wuth its spirit and its power? If so it will be because the princi- ples, religious and political, and the type of Christianity of England and America have come to control it. This responsibility should thrill every patriotic and Christian Briton and American. He should measure his country and his part in its responsibili- ties and sacrifices by the world's needs. It is true in a peculiar sense of the Christian Anglo-Saxon that his " field is the world." But there are common foes which must be met and overthrown if this mission is to be fulfilled. With these great opportunities come, as always, great dangers. I. The danger of war. War between Britain and America would set back the causes of humanity for centuries. I know of no other calamity so destructive to the hopes of the world as this would be. When news of the Venezuelan complications was telegraphed abroad, strong men on both sides of the Atlantic wept at the thought of what might come. The non-conformist pulpits of Britain and the evangelical pul- pits of the United States rang out a united protest against the suggestion of war that ENCxIvISH-SPEAKING NATIONS. 23 1 aroused the great body of citizens of both nations to appreciate what is at stake. This false spirit of strife is apt to be stirred up in America by politicians and cheap party papers on the eve of an election. In Britain it appears in a lack of appreciation of our spirit and institutions which tests the patience of Americans who have not traveled on the island and found the cordial feeling of the English people for ' ' the people of the states." The way of procedure is plain. I^et the pulpit and press of both countries urge the common, world-wide responsibili- ties of the English-speaking peoples. lyCt the work of instruction go on until both na- tions shall appreciate this responsibility and be willing to bear and forbear. Let public sentiment be such that officials will not dare to enter upon a selfish policy or hastily talk of war when complications arise. The pul- pit and press have the power to bring about an invincible public opinion for peace. In addition to this all disputes must be settled by arbitration. Let the leaders of this land and their great constituency join with Dr. Berry and his constituency in in- sisting that an international board shall be established which shall have the settlement 232 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. of all questions between the two countries. Let the agitation go on until political self- ishness shall give w^ay and better judgment shall prevail. The time is past for nations of the same blood, language, literature, . of many common political and religious ideas, and who share a responsibilit}^ to the world, to shoot each others' citizens and to destro}'' each others' property. 2. The danger of sacerdotalism. The church in its beginning had no official priest- hood. It was a family, a society of free citizens, and, from its relation to God, a kingdom. Dr. Fairbairn, in "The Place of Christ in Modern Theology," puts it clearly: ' ' Its founder never <:alled himself a priest ; stood in radical antagonism to the priesthood of his land and time ; the writer who ap- plies to hi^m the nam.eof high-priest careful- ly avoids this or any similar name to any class of his people, and those who describe his work as a sacrifice never attach any similar idea to any acts of any officials or their instruments of worship. The religion of Christ stood among the ancient faiths as a strange and extraordinary thing — a priest- less religion, without the symbols, sacri- fices, ceremonies, officials hitherto, save by ENGI.ISH-SPEAKING NATIONS. 233 prophetic Hebraism held to be religious all in all." Each believer is a priest unto God in no official sense but in a spiritual rela- tionship. Sacerdotalism is against Christ's teachings and order. If it be true, then the salvation of a soul is not found alone in Christ, but must have the aid of a middle- man before it is effective. It is in its last analysis the substitution of the priest for Christ, of works for faith, and is destructive and dangerous. This is seen in the history of the church. It led to the formality and tyranny and cor- ruption of the church that marked the cen- turies from the fourth to the time of the Reformation. It has blossomed forth into scaffold, prison, rack, and stake. Its legiti- mate fruit is the fiat that the interpretation of the scriptures and the definition of re- ligious duties rests in the power of the few. If universally prevalent to-day it would sweep Protestant countries back to the physical, mental, and moral servitude pre- ceding the Reformation. To-day it is lead- ing a part of the church in England and America into ritualism and formalism and on toward essential Romanism. If sacer- dotalism is true, then Romanism is true and 234 PROVIDENCP: in AMERICA. Protestantism is wrong, and liberty a wicked delusion. It is the duty of those who believe in the great principles of Prot- estantism and the teachings of the scrip- tures, who rejoice in the civil and religious liberty of this age and race, to do their ut- most to check the growth of this dangerous error. The 3'oung people in the non-priest- ly churches should be carefully instructed in the teachings of the Scriptures and of history. In the spirit of love' and charity, but clearly and strongly, should the pulpit, press, and home declare the great principles upon which our institutions and civilization rest. In England the non-conformist churches have united in a federation. Their leaders begin to appreciate this menace and are getting their forces in line to oppose it- They wull thus hasten the time when church and state will be separate, and this will bear piecious fruit for the religious life of the nation. In America there should be that comity between the churches of this com- mon cause that shall avoid all rivalry and waste of time and means, and shall make most effective the efforts to extend a pure faith and simple methods of worship. 3. The substitution of policy for prin- ENGUSH-SPEAKING NATIONS. 235 ciple in international affairs. The world has seen the sad spectacle of slaughter in Armenia, and England, silent from fear of war, when her voice of protest should have thrilled the world and terrified the Turk. It has seen the war of extermination in Cuba, and America as yet trifling with its duty to humanity. ' It has seen the South African episode, and the House of Com- mons whitewashing the prime movers in the disgraceful affair. If this indicates a new standard of national conduct, the citi- zens of either land may well be anxious for its future. To substitute policy for princi- ple in national life will be as healthful as to substitute in man water for blood. Amer- ica and England have been fed upon differ- ent meat than political offal. They have grown strong among nations because they have shaped their policies by their un- derstanding of the will of God and the needs of humanity. Let every patriot's voice be lifted, as Gladstone lifted his for Armenia, for an international conduct of justice and mercy. Let it be taught, though men sneer or smile in pity, that a nation must I While this is in press we are having in the difficulties with Spain a thrilling illustration of the power of selt government and the unselfish love for humanity of the American people. 236 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. shape its policy by the sermon on the mount and the golden rule, if it would live and fulfil its mission to the world. Those just taking up the duties and privileges of citizenship have this responsibility to meet, and will, I am confident, see this ideal in a measure realized. 4. The danger of sabbath desecration. The contents of "The Sabbath for Man," by Dr. Crafts, should be familiar to every Anglo-Saxon. The sabbath as a day of worship and rest is one of the bulwarks of true civilization. I can only hint at the re- sults that would come from its general des- ecration. The religious life of England and Amer- ica would be destroyed. L3'man Beecher saw the danger and gave vigorous warning : ' ' The crisis has come. By the people of this generation, by ourselves probably, the amazing question is to be decided whether the inheritance of our fathers shall be pre- served or thrown away ; whether our sab- baths shall be a delight or a loathing ; whether the taverns on that day shall be crowded with drunkards, or the sanctuary of God with humble worsliipers." With- out the influence of a worship day — a time ENGI.ISH-SPEAKING NATIONS. 237 distinctly set apart as a day of spiritual cult- ure — the next generation would grow up without faith. To have one day in which business is laid aside and which reminds men that there is a Lord in heaven who is concerned with the earth is in itself a min- istry to the religious life of a nation. Such desecration would mean the destruc- tion of the moral and civil advantages of the English-speaking nations. Their estimate of the value of man would narrow down. The manufacturers would soon run seven days instead of six. The industrial classes would sink into a slavery more abject and permanent than the black man ever suf- fered. Liberty would die. The home would disintegrate. The moral nature would be deadened. The moral world would realize what Byron's dream of "Darkness" saw in the physical world. "I am no fanatic, I hope," says Joseph Cook, ''as to Sunday ; but I look abroad over the map of popular freedom in the world and it does not seem to me accidental that Switzerland, Scotland, England, and the United States, the countries which best observe Sunday, constitute almost the whole map of safe popular government." 238 PROVIDENCE IN AMERICA. The destruction of the sabbath would mean the destruction of the intellectual strength of the English-speaking peoples. They have been known for their thought- fulness. Many trains of thought have been started in the quiet of the Lord's day, with its meditation, its time for Bible study and prayer, that have led to reformations, re- ligious and civil. Dr. MacGregor recently said with great force from his pulpit in Edin- burg : ' * The keeping of your sabbath makes the difference between a frivolous and a thoughtful, reflective people. People of Scotland, keep your sabbath. English- speaking people everywhere, keep your sab- bath. ' ' Popular government depends upon general intelligence. No people can be thoughtful and spend each day of the week in the exhausting work and cares of busi- ness and social life. The destruction of the sabbath would bring physical degeneration to the nations. Machinery requires rest. The beast of bur- den can accomplish more in six days than in seven. A man is more highly organized than a mule. If he has no rest he draws upon his resources during the day more than he adds to them at night. It means a ENGI.ISH-SPEAKING NATIONS. 239 weakened body for himself and his off- spring. It means national deterioration. I have in few words outlined the common ties and responsibilities of Britain and America and some of the influences that are destructive to their type of civilization. Much must be left unsaid. I believe that humanity faces the east. The victories of the past are prophetic. I am sure that Christ is marching on, conquering and to conquer. With the ear close to the earth one can hear an approaching host. Even my dull ear, close to the living world, can hear the mighty forward strides of human- ity. Liberty and righteousness desire "new worlds to conquer." Men are be- ginning to appreciate the greatness of this age. If, appreciating this, we do Our part, the kingdom of God shall hasten in its com- ing, and our children's children shall say : * ' Then the time when men were truly men : Though wars grew less, their spirits met the test Of new conditions ; conquering civic wrong ; Saving the state anew by virtuous lives ; Guarding their country's honor as their own, And their own as their country's and their sons'; Defying leagued fraud with single truth ; Not fearing loss ; and daring to be pure. And as the martyrs of the ancient world Gave death for man, so nobly gave they life ; Those the great days, and that the heroic age." INDEX. Acquirement of Territory . Adams, Mrs. John . Adams, Samuel Aim of this book Alfred the Great American Missionary Association America's future Arable land . Area of U. S., etc . Armenia Anglo-Saxon Character and principles Territory and population Love of liberty Articles of Confederation, Failure of Bacon, Francis Bacon, Leonard Bancroft Barrow Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, Lyman Benedicts, Popes Berry, Dr. Bible and America's future Boston Port Bill Bradford, Rev. A. H. Brewster, Elder Brotherhood and a Republic 94 Bryce 50 94 107-108 23-24 218, 226 84 204 48 44 235 59-66, 227 227 ::28 96 ■36 57 28, 36, 89 212 no. III 236 30 231 216-219 92, 93 164 114 155-158 55, 105, 140, 142, 149 Cabot 36 Carey, William 28 Causes of America . 211 Christ and America's Future . 220-223 Church and America's Future . 161-188 Climate 51 Clubs. 196 Columbus 66 Congregationalists , 36 Copernicus 36 Corruption of the Tenth Century • 29-31 Coxe, Arthur Cleveland 117 Critical Periods 87 Cuyler, Dr. Theodore L. Id Cities, Corruption in . 120-123 Crafts, Dr. W. F. . 236 Cyrus 217 Declaration of Independence . . 96 DeTocqueville . . . .143 Discovery of America, Providence in . 27-37 Condition of the Old World . 29-33 General movement toward exploration 33-35 The gift of invention . . 35-36 Special Providences . . . 36-37 Democracy ..... 138 Development of America, Providence in . 73-84 Material . . . .74-76 Education .... 7^-77 Moral ..... 78-81 Religious . . . .81-83 Special Providences . . . 83-84 Divorces . . . . .128 Elizabeth, Queen 218 Emancipation Proclamation . 100, 181 Emerson 26 English-speaking Nations . . 226-239 Evening Service . 179-182 Fairbairn, Dr. A. M. . 81, 232 Faith 101-102, 112-115 Franklin . . . 94, 98 Fiske, John . 59, 84, 89, 92, 96 French and Indian wars 93 Gadsden . . , 94 Gage, General . 95, 198 Garrison . . 100, no, 213 Giddings, Joshua R. 99 Gladden, Washington, Dr. . 164, 170 Gladstone 73, 97, 235 Goodrich 55 Grant, U. S. . . 102, 210 Hamilton . • 98, 107 Hancock . . . . no Hemans Felicia 39 Henry, Patrick . 94, 106 Holland, J. G. 104 Home and America's Future . 191-201 Howe, Julia. Ward . 160 Huss 218. Immorality in our Colleges . . 129 Industry and the Home . . . 194 Intelligence and Representative Government 145-15 intemperance— Financial effects . 130-131 Moral results 132 Political Influence . . 132-133 Invention and Progress 35 Isabella, Queen 36 Jefferson 99 Kent, William 122 Kipling, RuJyard . 225 Lakes and Civilization 54 Law and Democracy 139 Leaders, America's . . 105-115 Number of leaders . . 105-106 Time of their appearance . 106-107 Character of leaders . . 107-115 Lecky . 122, 129 Lincoln 107, 113, 206 Literature, Vicious . 130 Longfellow . 86 Lowell 211 Lundy 213 Luther . 207, 218 MacGregor, Dr. 238 Mayflower Covenant . 87, 88 Mill, John Stuart . 150 Missions, modern 207 Moody, Dwight L. . 163 Moral Development of a Nation • 150-155 Morris, Robert 109 Mountains and civilization . 52 Oberlin .... 84 Organization of a Church . . 183-186 Otis, James .... . 90, 92 Paul 27 Payne, John Howard 190 Peace, Necessity between Britain and America 230 Penry . , . 212 Phillips, Wendell . . 109-111 Physical Features— Providence in . • 40-55 Area and position . 40-45 Resources of soil and mines . 45-50 Acquirement of territery 50 Climate and character • 51-52 Mountains, rivers and lakes . 52-55 Pitt 91 Policy .... . 234-236 Preface .... 7 Present Perils — Class and sectional spirit . 118-119 Dull national conscience . 120-125 Religious indifference . 125-126 Decay of family life . . 126-129 Social immorality . 129-130 Intemperance . 130-133 Providence in . 133-133 Protestantism 62-65, 228 Reformation .... . 28, 32 Renaissance .... 32 Revolution — Providence in . • 93-95 Rivers and Civilization 53 Romanism , . . .3 D, 64, 67, 233 Rhodes on Moral Standards 122 Sabbath .... . 236-239 Sacredotalism . 232-234 Saloon, Licensing of 125 Savonarola .... 218 Schaff, Dr. . 64 Schurman, President J. G. . 115 Scriptures and National Life 7-24 Providence assured , 7-13 Purpose of such care 14-17 Conditions to be met . iS-23 Settlement of America, Providence in . 58-70 Races settling America . 58-67 Types of ci\'ilization . 67-69 Smith, Rev. Francis 137 Spurgeon .... 175 Storrs, Dr. R. S. . 31 Strong, Dr. Josiah . . . 46, . ^8, 64, 66 Sumner, Charles 99 Tea party .... 92 Testament, New . 13 Tobacco . . . . . 195 United States— Extent of . 40 Isolated . . . 42-45 Resources . . . . ^15 Arable land . . . . 48-49 Mountain systems 52 Wade, Ben . . , . . 99 Washington 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 106, iii, 113. 214 Watts, Isaac . . . . Whittier Wesley, John Writ of Assistance Wyclif Young Men and the Church Young People and America's Future 28, 72, 203 : 28, 207 90 218 165 214 H 33 89 ii0 "^..♦^ :. .<^'%. \ '-/ '^'^ ^ • ^\*::^'-yo *^_ . tlk .c^ y£Pi(r/z^^ vp .^^ BINDERY INC. 1^1 \ .*|?§^^ -^x^^ v^'*' *rfCv^f A*" *^ ISm N. MANCHESTEfl. ^^ INDIANA 46962