CHAPTER XXIV.

APPEAL TO THE WOMEN OF AMERICA IN BEHALF OF THE

RELIGION OF PHILOSOPHY.

The Question Considered with Regard to Nations and Men-The Question Considered with Regard to Children-Religion is the Highest or Most General Thought and Feeling; Morality, the Embodiment of Both in ActionThe Home is the Citadel of Individual and National Purity.

PHILOSOPHY claims no prerogatives; its organization is purely intellectual and moral; it is the critic of succeeding civilizations, of social progress, and of moral development. Occupying this position, it has a right to demand reasonable reforms. Not unmindful of the slow methods of actual life, or of the disparities of intelligence and sensibility between nations and classes, it regards organized religion as indispensable to the world,-as the central feature of every civilization. But religion must always represent the highest knowledge of the race, the purest view of life interpreted in the most fitting language for each nation of worshippers. As the thought and feeling of the world learn to respond to those symphonies of life which declare the human race to be a great unit, and its origin and destiny but obverse aspects of the single fact of development, religion must take up this refrain and repeat it to its followers. It must repeat it in language which has the dignity of simplicity, the power truth. A religion which under any pretext falsifies life is immoral and must decay. As the realm of religion is that of thought and feeling voiced in language, purity and integ rity of speech should be its first consideration. It has no right to employ vague symbols when the ideas which they represent can be more truthfully expressed by the use of

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direct terms. If a creed has life, it must progress; if it is wholly dead, it must be discarded. Philosophy would do no violence to living faiths, but it will ever seek to remove those decaying structures of belief which encumber society and threaten its welfare. The extent of the religious reform which each age demands can be measured by the degree of confusion which prevails among the people with regard to their most general conceptions. However simple and primitive the religious ideas of a people may be, providing harmony prevails, morality is comparatively unaffected. But when from great disparities in intelligence and education there is a continual clashing of religious opinion, morality, which is the expression of the highest logical harmony of our lives, is sure to suffer. Above all, when that class which represents the widest culture and deepest thought of a nation withdraws from its dominant faith a reaction is sure to follow, for this class embraces the true religionists of each age. In response to their deeper thoughts and purer feelings creeds must yield, beliefs must widen and deepen; nothing can resist the silent energy of their reforms. The language, the sentiment, the life of their epoch they unconsciously control; they fix the ideals, pass the judgments, determine the scope of their civilization, for their convictions and their lives constitute the philosophy, the morality, and the religion of their time. In the past, this class has belonged chiefly to the church: in our time, through the medium of general culture and the higher refinements of life, this class is entering and transforming the homes of America; and the day is approaching, if it has not already come, when women shall constitute its most numerous members.

The Christian religion is widely understood to be a religion of love, and is therefore supposed to have peculiar claims upon women. It is by no means manifest, however, that woman has had a greater share in the sentiment of love than man, for history shows that she has wielded its power rather than submitted to it. But can a

religion be successfully based upon this sentiment of love? Does experience show that in this respect Christianity has succeeded? Have the passions of men and the intrigues of nations been controlled by its power? Is it not rather to the broader sentiments of justice and humanity that we are slowly yielding? Are not justice and humanity truer names for that universal solicitude for our race which makes it physically and morally a single being? In a word, does not that affection which extends itself until it recognizes no individuals, until its object is the single individual of humanity, cease to be what we call love? For the purpose of illustrating this principle, contemporaneous events are quite as useful as history. Let us, therefore, look about us and examine the degree of moral authority which the religion of love exercises over Christian nations.

The practice of bleeding, which was once so popular in medicine, has been discontinued, because the doctors came. to the conclusion that the physical strength of a patient could be utilized in his treatment, and was seldom if ever an obstacle to his recovery. Might not the same reform be adopted in the domain of international pathology? It is well known that no Christian people ever engage in a war which has not a distinct humanitarian principle at bottom, or, at the least, which cannot be clearly identified with some of the designs of Providence. Is it not a well-known fact that modern wars are principally undertaken for the spiritual amelioration of the weaker nation? Have we not abundant evidence for this view of the case in the justifications which Christian nations almost always offer for such wars as they may feel called upon to wage? To be impressed with the prevalence of this belief, we need but to glance at that part of contemporary literature which deals with international relations. A striking proof of the existence of this tacit understanding between the nations of Christendom, that all national policies are at bottom humane, and even religious, is to be found in the speech of the Emperor of Germany in commemoration. of the results of the benevolent interest which his people so

recently manifested in France. In one of the leading New York journals of last September the following notice appeared:

A GERMAN MEMORIAL.

THE NATIONAL MONUMENT UNVEILED.

THE CEREMONIES WITNESSED BY CROWDS.

Great crowds gathered at the Niederwald, Germany, yesterday, to witness the unveiling of the National Monument, which has been erected as a memorial of the German victory [over France] of 1870-71. The Emperor William was present, and expressed much satisfaction with the arrangements. He was enthusiastically cheered by the people as he passed through Wiesbaden to attend a banquet at the royal castle. A counterdemonstration was held in Paris at the statue of Strasbourg.

POPULAR

CELEBRATION AT

NIEDERWALD.

CASTLES AND VILLAGES ILLUMINATED.

RUDESHEIM, Sept. 28th.-The Germania Monument was unveiled to-day at Niederwald, in the presence of a great crowd of persons, who came from all parts of the empire; besides, the German Princes, the Princesses, the Mayors of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, and nearly every prominent person connected with the military and civil government, were present. All the German Sovereigns and Princes assembled before the monument, and the ceremonies proceeded in accordance with the programme. The villages and castles along the Rhine were illuminated, and bonfires and blue-lights were burned on all the heights. The total cost of the statue was over one million marks. The inscription upon it says: "In memory of the unanimous and victorious rising of the German People, and the reëstablishment of the German Empire-1870-1871."

SPEECH OF THE EMPEROR WILLIAM.

The following is the text of the Emperor William's speech at the Niederwald unveiling:

"When Providence desires to signify its will with regard to mighty events upon the earth, it selects the time, countries, and instruments to accomplish its purpose. The years 1870 and 1871

were a time when such purpose was indicated. Our threatened Germany arose in its love for the Fatherland as one man, and, with princes at the head, stood in arms as the instrument. The Almighty conducted these arms after sanguinary conflicts from victory to victory, and United Germany takes its place in the history of the world. Millions of hearts have raised their prayers to God and given Him humble thanks, praising Him for esteeming us worthy of accomplishing His will. Germany, to the remotest time, desires to give constant expression to this feeling of gratitude. In this sense the monument standing before us was erected. In the words spoken at the laying of the foundation-stone, words. which my late father, after the wars of liberation of 1813-15, bequeathed in iron to posterity, I dedicate this monument: To the fallen, a memorial; to the living, an acknowledgment; to coming generations, a source of emulation. May God vouchsafe it!'" On concluding his address the Emperor unveiled the

monument.

COUNTER-DEMONSTRATION IN PARIS.

As a counter-demonstration to the unveiling of the statue of Germania on the Rhine by the Germans, a crowd of Parisians assembled around the statue of Strasbourg, in the Place de la Concorde, and indulged in patriotic cries. The demonstration passed off without any disorder.

The question naturally arises: What were the feelings of these citizens of France with regard to the German designs of Providence? Mark how familiar and natural the language of this speech sounds to us! how little we suspect its full significance! The facts are, that France and Germany act and feel toward each other as hostile feudal lords did in the middle ages. They are enabled to wield vast military organizations through the agencies of national revenue, and debt, and indemnities from conquered nations, instead of an army of retainers supported by levies upon the surrounding country and the plunder of their neighbors. Instead of family feuds, with a chain of murders and pillages to avenge, we have the history of nations, with defeats to turn into vic