PREACHING UPON POPULAR PROVERBS.
"Speak the truth and shame the Devil."
"Ho can never be God's martyr who is the devil's servant."
"Neutrals are soused from above and singed from below."
"The way to Babylon will never bring you to Jerusalem."
"Truth may be blamed, but shall never be shamed." There is a great deal of confusion along the line of fence which divides the good people of this world from the bad. The fence itself is bestridden by an uncounted host, on the right side of which there is a multitude, standing and looking wistfully toward the wrong, and on the wrong side, another multitude looking toward the right. We cannot count those who are undecided in their convictions; still less can we count those who with their convictions correctly formed, have voluntarily chosen a neutral policy, and taken position upon the fence. Undecided, compromising, neutral, negative, these men form a portion of humanity as respectable in numbers as they are contemptible in quality. Asses between two bundles of hay, dogs in the manger—eating not and hindering others from eating—houses divided against themselves, men of putty who always flatten under pressure, men of pewter who never take an edge under any rasping; slaves in the market and tools for the crafty, self-seekers, and self-losers by self-seeking, soused from above and singed from below, these neutrals are as uncomfortable and unhappy in themselves as they are powerless as positive forces in society. Manhood demands that a man shall take a position on the side of truth, and in some way, declare himself in that position. It bids him, if it be necessary to achieve this step, to cut off old companionships, to compromise apparent momentary advantages, to incur enmities, and endure hardships. It demands that he plant himself upon the ground of right; and stand there though all the world forsake him—stand there and fight there if necessary. Self-respect—always requisite for the attainment of the respect of others, is of vastly more value than the respect of others. There can be no manhood without it, and true manhood will always hold it above mercenary advantage, or temporary popularity, or dread of singularity, or personal peace and comfort. A man who voluntarily refrains from taking a position towards which his convictions urge him, because it will disturb pleasant relations or interfere with his pecuniary interest, or compromise his comfort, does not deserve the name of a man. He is always a coward—often a knave. There are always in society two marked classes of neutrals. One of these is, on the whole, more to be pitied than blamed, being composed of men of weak will, with excessive love of approbation and great good nature. It seems to be impossible for them to withstand the fire of opposition from any quarter. They become accustomed to yield or dodge every disputed point. They cannot stand up before a strong will and assert themselves without experiencing emotions akin to guilt. They half doubt their personal right to an opinion. For walking boldly out upon the field of right and wrong and taking a position and maintaining it, they do not appear to have the legs. I say that such men are in some respects the objects of pity, because their mental and moral constitution is at fault. They feel themselves almost obliged to take position on the fence, and spend their lives in bowing in about equal measure to each of the opposition camps—afraid to dismount for fear of being in somebody's way, or treading upon somebody's toes. I suppose there may be the germ of manhood in many of these men, and that it might, under favorable circumstances, be developed; but the most of them consent to be nothing and to be good for nothing while they live, and to die "without an enemy in the world," simply because nobody deems it worth while to be their enemy. The other class is made up of men who in all matters of principle and policy make it a point to take middle ground. They delight to be called "conservative men," but their conservatism always relates to their own reputation and interests. They desire the good opinion of all classes, and imagine that their moderation and their location between two extremes will enable them to use both for the accomplishment of their purposes. They are ambitious of preferment perhaps, or greedy for wealth, or desirous of popularity. They aim to make themselves stronger by drawing to their support the sympathies of all parties, through direct or indirect alliance with all parties. To some of them, "There is something good in all parties"—to others "all parties are equally bad." Others still, convey the impression that they are but passengers in the social vessel, having no interest in ship or cargo, and indifferent as to the name and qualifications of the captain. Now I despise these men—though there may be among them those whose talents I admire. Conservative and reputable, negative, neutral and contemptible, I recognize in them no element of manhood—no chivalry, no bravery, no devotion to conviction, no true self respect, and no supreme love of truth and the right. Humanity demands that a man shall take his position on the side of truth and the right, and maintain it. We look around us and see how positively pronounced are the agencies engaged in the prostitution of humanity. Despotism enforces its power at the lips of the cannon, error preaches upon the mountain-tops, cruelty and wrong work out their ends by systems cunningly devised and openly defended, drunkenness displays its enticements at the corners of the streets, prostitution flaunts its colors in open day and crowds purity from the streets at night; corruption—recognized and unrebuked—riots in the various departments of government, mobs rule cities and perjury presides at the ballot-box. All that ambition, avarice and lust can do to prostitute humanity to their purposes is done and done boldly. Humanity, therefore, demands that all true manhood shall stand boldly pronounced upon the side of right. It demands that the power arrayed against the iniquity and wrong that afflict it shall be positive—that there shall be no middle ground, no neutrality. What manhood and humanity demand so plainly, christianity demands with still greater authority. In christianity there is no middle ground. He that is not for it is against it. There is no such thing as being God's martyr and the devil's servant at the same time. We know those to-day and have known many others, who profess to have a great deal of respect or reverence for religion. I have no doubt that much of this respect is honest, that it is not all a hypocritical pretense. They love to have their families attend church. They never interfere with the religious instruction of their children. They are willing to pay their share towards the support of the institutions of religion. They attend church themselves, perhaps, and shun all profanity and debauchery, but they fail to show their respect for religion by embracing it, receiving it as the ruling element of their life, and declaring themselves to be its adherents and possessors. I suppose that such men imagine that, on the whole they are on the side of religion—that their influence, in the main, is in its favor. They declare with their lips and their intellects that religion is a good thing, while with their hearts and lives they declare that it is not worth personally securing and possessing. How much is such favor as this worth? How valuable is that testimony which the heart and life belie? Ah, no! There is no middle ground here. It is either everything or nothing. Christianity asks for no man's patronage, and seeks for no man's favor. It is something given, for man to accept or reject, as he may see fit. It is something bestowed, for a man to incorporate into his own life if he will. It is an infinite favor from an infinite benefactor, and does not go around seeking the endorsement of those who do not care enough about it to receive it. To all those who decline to make its personal acquaintance, it says: "Take me or leave me. No service that you can render me by words and patronizing deeds, can counterbalance the contempt which you manifest by refusing to me a dwelling place2in your heart. I ask for no friends, and I can possibly have none, who are not willing to take me into their life, and acknowledge me to the world. I reign supreme, or I reign not at all. If you fail to accept me, you reject me, and are to all intents and purposes, my enemy. If I can do nothing for you personally, then you can do nothing for me. If you gather not with me, you scatter abroad." There is another class for whom Christianity has no more favors than for this—a class which holds a relation to christianity no more honorable than this. I refer to those who profess to be christians, but who accommodate themselves, their thoughts, habits, pleasures and pursuits—to whatever society may envelope them. They are exceedingly pious at a prayer-meeting, and uncommonly sharp in business; devotedly attendant on public religious services of the Sabbath, and very forgetful of their religious obligations during the week; perfectly at home in a respectable carousel, not particularly conscientious in their politics, careless in the use of their neighborhood names, indulgent often in a kind of mongrel profanity—a cross between slang and swearing—that would be wicked if it dared to be, and meanly powerless always before the scoffs and bold iniquities of the infidel and the scoundrel. Riding the horse of selfishness with a christian profession in one pocket of their saddle-bags and a worldly life in the other, sailing the sea of life with religious papers and a black flag, professedly bound to Jerusalem, yet taking the well known Babylon road, these men occupy, in fact, no neutral ground. They are not for christianity, but against it. There is still another class; and in the history of christianity it was never larger than at the present time—which openly affects a kind of neutrality in its relations to christianity. This class holds the Bible as, on the whole, an excellent book, and Jesus Christ as, without doubt, the best man that ever lived. There is much in christianity that they admire, but much that has been superceded. They have a kind of religious philosophy that embraces all there is that is good in christianity, and discards all that is not up to the wants of the present age—particularly all with which it does not harmonize. With such men reason stands above revelation, to approve or condemn it, point by point. Some of these men go so far as to call themselves christians, while others adopt with more consistency, other names. Now christianity is what it pretends to be, or nothing—a complete and authoritative system of religion or an imposition. It is something above all religions and all philosophies, in that it is divine, or like all other religions and philosophies, in that it is incomplete, incompetent, and human. I am utterly at a loss to know how any man can call himself a christian—much more at a loss to know why he should desire to be called one—who denies the supreme authority of christianity as the one true and complete religion revealed by God to men. I declare there is no middle ground here for philosophical eclectics to occupy. The denial of a part of christianity, is the denial of the whole as a complete and true religion. What manhood, humanity and christianity conspire so evidently to demand, must be in the line of a sound policy. No man can prosper in wealth, reputation and happiness who strives to win them against the force of such demands as these, so that self-interest, intelligently consulted, demands that a man shall pronounce himself on the side of the good, the pure and the true. All the men who have won a name that will worthily live, who have attracted to themselves the admiration and love of the world, whose words and lives have become powers, felt and acknowledged upon the heart and life of mankind, whose influence has mingled in the tide of good that gathers volume from age to age to whelm at last the black contents of wrong, have been positive men—self-committed, self-declared—men of manhood, humanity and christianity, who shunned the fence, voluntarily cut off their own retreat, and battled bravely where they stood and while they lived. The policy of neutrality is suicidal. It is not only cowardly and mean, but it is thriftless and disastrous. Positiveness is both a prerogative and a privilege. If it be a privilege to live, it is a privilege to live for a purpose and be recognized as a true man. To add a single ounce to the propelling power of human progress, to remove one stone from its path, to reform one abuse, to rectify one wrong, to add a single ray to the gathering flood of light which is to envelop the world, to assuage one sorrow and lift up and save a single fallen man—this is indeed, a privilege. Intelligently to choose the right and maintain it and do battle for it is to accept a privilege which gives us a place among all good intelligences, and makes us co-workers with God himself. It is to achieve self-respect, to make a place for one's self in the world, to enter into the sympathies of the noblest, the bravest and the best that live, to make life savory and significant, to put away the temptations to meanness, and to be upon the side that will as surely win as there is a God in heaven. Let every man be something or other. A misguided zeal is better than lukewarmness. It is better to be a living cock on a dunghill, telling a sleepy village of the coming of the morning, than a gilded cock on a church spire, voiceless, and wheeling to the touch of every wind. In some place, in some office, by some means let every man assert himself, and exert his measure of power for the redemption of the world to goodness.