can possibly survive the destruction of barbarism. It will become universal-the only religion of mankind at no distant day. In one country it will be called Catholicism, in another Protestantism, in another Buddhism, in another Confucianism, in another Mohammedism, in another Zoroasterism, in another Orthodox Greek, etc., and in all, finally, Christianity, for that it is. There will be "one fold and one Shepherd"-the ideal "perfect man," Jesus, who will draw all men unto him, foliage, flower, and fruitage of ancient Greek aestheticism, outmatching the grandest conceptions of Phidias-the beautiful Shepherd, more transcendent in ideal loveliness than was ever before conceived of any other, even of the gods, whether presented in the Iliad or by poet, painter or sculptor, of any age or clime. Jesus is the "living Christ," not an Apollo of cold Parian marble, but the "Son of God," that love alone stands to represent; for He is love as God is love; and Jesus is seen in living souls and in deeds of love and mercy; for, according to the New Testament account, was it not he that said: "As ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me?" Is he not incarnate in every hungry, thirsty, naked or imprisoned soul? "I was an hungered and ye gave me meat, thirsty and ye gave me drink, naked and ye clothed me, in prison and ye visited me." We see him every day whenever we see one who has not "place whereon to lay his head.” We find him whenever we find suffering, which, if relieved, it is him we have helped the very Christ, the Son of God, though a tramp. This is true. Let us love and serve Humanity, for in Humanity, Jesus, the Christ, is incarnate. So I believe and so I teach; let others believe and teach as they will. YE 124TH LESSON. Party Spirit and Reform. Party spirit is the bane of reform and the curse of mankind. The Russian and the Jap are not at outs personally. Each, by the environment, is forced into an endeavor to kill the other, for the sake of party. "Be ye one," said Jesus to his followers, "as I and the Father are one." The Russian would make the world one- a Russian world, the Japanese a Japanese world, the American an American world, the Briton a British world, the German a German world, and the Frenchman a French world, etc., etc. So with religions. Party spirit keeps the people apart and at war. "Ye must become as little children to enter into the Kingdom of God." All will be one then. The white man says: "I am better than a negro." Yet eighty per cent of the blacks of America, according to statistics, have in their veins a portion of the white's blood. "Would you marry a nigger?" Tillman asks? I would be married to the mother of my child, white or black, is my reply. Party-spirit and race antagonisms are unnatural. "What race do you stand for" do you ask? My reply is: I stand for the human race. "Whom would you marry?" you ask. That is my own personal affair, I reply. But children's being born outside of lawful wedlock, is the affair of the public. The only party that should hold our everlasting and unqualified allegiance is the home party-the mother of my children and my children. But do you ask: "What religion do you hold to?" I answer: All religions. "Are you a Roman Catholic?" Yes. "A Protestant?" Yes. "An Orthodox Greek?" Yes. "A Mohammedan?" Yes. "A Jew?" Yes. A Buddhist?" Yes. "A Zoroastrian?" Yes. "A Confucian?" Yes. "Why so?" Because they all are one ethically. Politically they stand apart. I heard a Hindu-Buddhist preach in Des Moines, Iowa, at the close of the Columbian exposition at Chicago. His sermon was not different from that of a Christian minister. The THE SERPENT AND THE ADDER. 175 good in them keeps all religions alive. No man will help support what has nothing of good in it. Why are churches, mosques, synagogues, temples of worship built? It is because men see good in what they represent. It is not party-spirit alone that builds them. Religion is universal and it is everywhere the same. There is but one religion and there is but one people on earth; that is to say, according to the truth and to nature. Politically and socially, there are many of both. What is reform? It is a coming back to the arms of mother-nature. "Ye must become as little children." Study and learn the meaning of this sentence. It is the key to all reform. Little children are natural. That is all. Coming back to nature, I repeat, is reform. What good is party? No good. It is the cause of all wars-all antagonisms. The anarchist is right that would see all existing governments dissolved-all corporations-none remaining of the old except the family-the home. But, must we not have states? Yes. We would have the United States of the World. Is not the ballot our hope? No. What is? Public opinion. No machinery is used as a rule to enforce it. The machinery of government is ever arrayed against it. Public opinion does not beget wars and Kishineve massacres. What does? Party spirit. The Jew is a strict partizan. His partizanship begets the same in others. "He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword." That is what ails the Jew. He is a narrow partizan. Abolitionism in America was a good thing. The Abolition party was the opposite. So is Socialism a good thing; but the Socialist party antagonizes Socialism. So, too, of Prohibitionism and the Prohibition party. Party spirit is always bad. slaves. Did not the Abolition party oppose the election of Abraham Lincoln, both in 1860 and 1864? Yes. But Abolitionism freed the Did not the Republican committee of the Sixth Congressional District of Iowa pay the campaign expenses of the the Socialist party speakers in 1904 and so defeat Reese, the Labor candidate? Yes, I am told so. Did not the Democratic state committeeman in 1892 come forward with offers in Iowa to pay the campaign expenses of a Prohibition speaker? Yes. I was that speaker. The offer was not accepted. "I am a reformer." And let him say also: Party spirit has destroyed many a free state. It is the bane of liberty and of reform. Let every one declare: "I belong to no party." It never created one. YE 125TH LESSON. The Serpent and the Adder. Charles City, Iowa, Oct. 30.--Special: A little after 6 o'clock tonight A. H. Treat, a prominent business man, while drunk, shot his wife and daughter. Two bullets struck his wife, one in the temple, the other in the right breast, the last penetrating the lung. The little girl was shot through the arm. It is not known at the present time how serious the wounds of Mrs. Treat are. After committing the crime, Treat barricaded himself in a room in a flat adjoining the one occupied by his family and defied arrest. Sheriff Fluent and Marshals Braende and Bluhm broke in the door. Treat escaped to a balcony on the second floor. The officers approached at the rear of the balcony and opened fire. Treat returned the shots, discharging his weapon three times. Whether or not Treat was killed by the shots of the officers or whether he shot himself is not known, but he was nearly dead when the officers got to him and died soon after. Treat has been in the marble business here for many years and owns two or three large buildings. He has been a hard drinking man and was crazed from drink when he committed the deed.-Press Dispatch. "Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath wounds without cause? They that tarry long at the wine. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." (Proverbs, xxiii: 29-33.) The evil effects of strong drink are known to all. Money-making and tradition stand ever in the way of reform. No evil is greater. Yet for scarlet-fever families are quarantined. Why is not the saloon quarantined? Why is it permitted to be entered? "Great is Diana of the Ephesans!"—is all the answer that can be given. If the people were sane, not a building would be left standing twenty-four hours where intoxicants are dealt out as a beverage. Why so? Because by the laws (in Iowa and other states) those places are declared to be nuisances-places unprotected by law, as was Cain. And he that putteth the cup to his neighbor's lips is no less a murderer than was Cain. The curse of God is upon him. "And now thou art cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.” And Cain said to the Lord: "Every one that findeth me shall slay me." He became a nuisance. It is the duty of every one to destroy a nuisance-to "abate" it-and that without formality of proceeding-except to destroy it on sight. The old common law process was by stoning-as women were stoned for adultery in Judea of old-and that was the method of our fathers in dealing with nuisances they stoned the buildings where women and men held their carnivals of shame. It is the method inaugurated in Kansas by Mrs. Carrie Nation against saloon nuisances-perfectly legitimate is her proceeding with her hatchet and she cannot legally be held to account for it. The common-law process for the abatement of nuisances is fully justifiable where the officers of the law do not take hold to abate them, as in Iowa they do not. If public sentiment in Iowa held the ground, as it should, the illegal traffic would not last a day; nor would a saloon building or drugstore where intoxicants are sold as a beverage be left standing twenty-four hours. It is lawful to destroy them and no attorney or judge or magistrate will deny it. The law gives them no protection. And the so-called "mulct tax" is. not legal-it cannot be, and no court will so determine. One possessed of a grain of common sense must see that "illegality" is not legal and the mulct law states in express words that the mulct tax does not render "legal" the sale of ardent spirits as a beverage in Iowa. The statute says: "Nothing contained in this chapter, so far as it relates to the mulct tax, shall in any way be construed to mean that the business of the sale of intoxicating liquors is in any way legalized, nor as a license," etc. (Iowa Code). Common sense declares that the voice of the people in Iowa is law that a constitutional amendment presented by the legislature clearly before the people, no misunderstanding of its meaning and intent having arisen-discussed fairly and passed by a majority of thirty thousand votes-is legal, and that the voice of the people is the voice of God, as in this vote it surely was. It is not, was not, and can never be neutralized or vetoed by the action of a clerk in not recording the words in the right book at a certain time or in a certain form as ordered and the court that placed the action of a subordinate above that of the people (and no doubt his wilful and corrupt action) gave a tyrannical and false decision, and so, too, the people of Iowa decided, removing from office the unjust judge responsible for the wicked and illegal act. The people who voted for the prohibitory amendment are the better class of citizens and will join in no, even seemingly, riotous proceedings; but those who support the liquor trust are the riff-raff of society, nor may we except the politicians; because only for political ends THE OMNIPOTENCE OF IDEAS. 177 and money did opposition to the amendment occur. Haddock and Logan were murdered and the murderers only nominally punishedall by liquor men and for liquor men. But a tidal wave of popular indignation is approaching that will wipe out of existence the socalled "liquor business" and the corrupt political rings that support it. YE 126TH LESSON. The Omnipotence of Ideas. It is remarked by scientists that the whole effort of nature in the evolution of sentient beings has been to develop brain-power. Step by step, little by little, has been the increase of brain-growth. With man the brain has reached its maximum of development. For us now to build up, by exercise of the brain, mind-strength, mind-capacity is to follow along nature's path. It is the natural thing to do. It is the proper work of man. Animals below man have but one thought. It is of food and drink. Few of the lower order of creatures know how to lay up for a coming day. Man does this. But beyond this he has another work to do. It is his work alone of all creation to solve the problems of nature. Fortunate is he who may give undisturbed his whole life to study. It is for this that man is born. And it is in this pursuit, we must believe, he will be employed, in the spirit-world. And what a force is thought! Nothing else to equal it. It is the controlling engine of the being man. It alone moves him to action. Tell me what his thought is and I will tell you whether he will write his name on the bright pages of his country's history or not. Nothing can keep him down if he have received within his mind a divine thought. He will be what the thought makes of him. Is it Watt? He sees the lid of the teakettle lifted by a force. "If that little expanding steam do that, what may not a huge boiler of confined steam do?"he asks himself. The thought controls him. He would utilize that force by a proper mechanism. Had he read of Herro's rotary engine? It was invented two thousand years earlier than the world was ready for it. No matter. Watt's invention was radically different and made at a time when mankind might utilize it. Fulton would apply steam to the navigation of rivers and seas. How the thought held him to his task! In spite of scoffs and contumely, he succeeded. But the thought that takes hold of a boy, as it did of Franklin in his youth, is the most valuable of all. Once entrenched in the soul of a boy or girl it will "hold the fort"; not only that, but it will overcome all opposition in its onward march. It will make him, or her, great. Oh, if this thought could take hold of every young mind, old Athens' greatness would be outdone by the whole human race! What books would be written! What paintings executed! What statues carved from marble, shaped from ivory and gold or cast in bronze! What temples constructed! Commendable ambition! "I will," says he of the capacious soul, "write my name high up on the declivity of aspiration's mount! Future ages will remember me with gratitude and love." Does such a thought enter the mind of the competent only? Or does the belief that one can and will succeed in a noble career create the capacity to succeed? -make competent the mind for the task? I believe it does make competent the mind. Let the boy say: "I will," and follow it out without faintheartedness, and his future greatness is assured. Now, what is the competent teacher's task? It is not just to solve problems in mathematics or to instruct in languages, philosophy, etc. No; that is the smallest part of his task. His real office is to awaken in the minds of the youth under his tutelage the undying hope of becoming good and great. Given this hope this aspiration and be lief that the end may and can and will be achieved by the aspirant and the teacher's task is completed. The boy or girl will do the rest. Nothing can keep the aspirant from success-no obstacle so great that he will not surmount it. Who would not, like the Condor, seek To gain the Andes' loftiest peak? Could he thence on wings arise For longer time than tongue can tell! This is the picture of a hope, an aspiration which, if it enter the soul of a young person will lead him or her on to greatness. It is commendable-it is Godlike. YE 127TH LESSON. The People On-Coming. The grand passion that filled the heart of Thomas Jefferson is, of all motives, most praisworthy. The same it is that led the man of Gallilee to the cross. His was a profound desire for the welfare of humanity. His was a deep feeling of disapproval of the selfishness of the rich. How fervid were his denunciations of the hardheartedness of the time. He would do away with poverty. His kingdom, or church on earth, was the ideal commonwealth. Now, I am sorry that "those who believe" have not always manifested the same benevolent spirit as animated the minds of the primitive disciples. I am astonished that Christian men do not go farther today toward the realization of the ideal Christian commonwealth. What is the "one thing needful" to insure the common welfare? It is to so amend the system of distribution of the common product that each will receive "according as he has need." This is the one essential wheel in the machine of social economy that needs repair. When that has been put in proper shape the Kingdom of God will have come down literally to earth. What is an equitable distribution of the common product? And how may it be reached? These two questions, properly answered, will fill up the measure of political and social economy. No man, not even Ingersoll, himself, could say that the needs of humanity ought not be satisfied even in as unfailing and certain and kindly a manner as prevailed in the society of the primitive followers of Jesus Christ. All that was peculiar in that method was that it assured to each his natural due. It came to him, as does the pension to the American veteran—not in the form of "charity," but as his right. What, then, is wanted? Each to receive of the common product "according as he has need," as the investor in stocks and bonds receives his dividend. It is the common dividend from inheritance as though granted by will to us by inventors-the common dividend resulting from increased production due to machinery of all kinds. And, above all, this is the one essential and vital thought. I affirm distinctly that the social compact implies this end as the one essential thing-the one object of organized society; all other objects being of minor importance to this. And all that is required to fulfill the purpose of the Christian order is that each shall draw unhindered-yea, automatically-his portion. But today the cupidity of the evil disposed leaves the widow |