October 12, 1899
THE American dollar was meant to be the product, and not the foundation, of American civilization.
THE sacredness of liberty is not affected by changes in latitude or longitude. Like gold it has a fixed value throughout the world.
THE specter of corrupt government in America is not going to be changed into the angel of good government in Asia by going across the sea.
THE man who assumes the right to govern another man takes upon himself the responsibility of that other’s conduct before God; but the God who will require every man to stand independently before him at the bar of final judgment, sanctions and demands independence for every man now.
THE weapons of Christian warfare are aimed at sin; those of carnal warfare are aimed at the sinner. The whole object of Christian warfare is to save men alive; the whole object of carnal warfare is to kill men. Christian warfare means self-denial; carnal warfare aims always at self-supremacy. How much Christianity then can there be in carnal warfare?
THE nation demands that no citizen within it shall be an open polygamist; that is its highest standard of conduct. But God and Christianity demand that no man be a polygamist at heart; and this only is the right standard of conduct. But should the state adopt a standard, it would be necessary to set up the Inquisition in order to extort the secrets of the heart; and even then it could not enforce heart righteousness.
“CIVILIZATION” goes to the heathen with tremendous sinking power of drunkenness and other vices, but with no uplifting power to save them from it; for though it may bring to them the knowledge of what is high and noble, the knowledge does not give them power to attain to it. The mere knowledge of good gives no one strength of character; but it requires no strength of character to imitate vice. The heathen, therefore, in their weakness, need not the contact of civilization, but the gospel. And nobody who receives the gospel was found afterward in need of becoming civilized.