Lyman Abbott

“ I went, as is my wont, with my wife and my prayer-book, to the Episcopal Church. Our Christmas waited till Sunday. A glorious day it was. The sun never shone more brightly. The crisp keenness was gone from the air. The balmy breath of spring was in it. The Church never was so full before and never has been since. The story of its decorations had been spread far and wide, and all Wheathedge flocked to see what the Presbyterians would make of Christmas. The pulpit, the walls, the gallery, the chandelier were festooned with wreaths of living green. ”

“ This wealth has been like a shower of gold pieces flung out into a populous Italian street by a passerby. We have all scrambled for it; a few of the strongest have won the prize, while the rest look on with covetous eyes. This wealth of the continent belongs to the nation; and justice demands such methods of legislation as will give most equitably to the nation this common wealth, and to each member of the nation his share of advantage in the common store. ”

“ Oh God! help me to teach him what my Bible really is and what its glorious teachings are.
"I don't believe the Bible is the Word of God. I can't believe it. I don't believe the laws of Moses are any more inspired than the laws of Solon, or the books of Samuel and Kings than the history of Tacitus, or the Psalms of David than the Paradise Lost of Milton, or—you'll think me bold indeed to say so Mr. Laicus," (he was cooler now and spoke more slowly) , "the words of Jesus, than the precepts of Confucius or the dialogues of Plato." ”

“ But after a little the conquering nation saw that it could do something better than flay its prisoners alive: it could make slaves of them and set them to work. So slavery came as the product of war. It was found better to make man work for you than to flay him alive. Later it was discovered that a community could enrich itself more by not making its captives slaves, but by bringing them into the community and making them free men ”

“ It was a bright afternoon in October. The woods were in the glory of their radiant death, the air was crisp and keen. Harry who now ran before, now loitered behind, and now walked sedately by my side, was full of spirits, and there was everything to make the soul feel hope and courage. And yet I had my misgivings. When I had told Deacon Goodsole that I was going to call on Mr. Gear he exclaimed at my proposition.
"Why he's a regular out and outer. He does not believe in anything—Church, Bible, Sunday, Christ, God or even his own immortality." ”

“ To the men who bring them from their hiding places and make them of value to mankind? Then the forest belongs to the woodman, the coal mine to the operator, the prairie to the cultivator of the soil. Something might perhaps be said for each of these hypotheses; the one hypothesis that cannot easily be defended in the court of reason by any theory is the hypothesis on which we have in fact acted—that they belong of right to the strongest (or to the most grasping and unscrupulous) in a struggle, not for existence, but for wealth, luxury, and power. ”

“ In our own time I do not think it is too much to say that the Supreme Court of the United States has done as much to guide the Nation in the new channels and the new life on which it is entering as Congress has done. The court is the intelligence of the community applied to the problem of rightly adjusting its customs, its habits, its State or National life. But the State has not only an intelligence to understand, it also has a will by which it can vary its customs. This will is expressed through the legislature. ”

“ The board of trustees are poor. Every man had been permitted to upholster his own pew. Some, without owners, were also without upholstering. In the rest, the only merit was variety. The church looked as though it had clothed itself in a Joseph's coat of many colors; or rather, its robe presented the appearance of poor Joe Sweaten's pantaloons, which are so darned and pieced and mended that no man can guess what the original material was, or whether any of it is left. There was but one redeeming feature-the bouquet upon the pulpit. Every Sunday, Sophie Jowett brought that bouquet. ”

“ The wealth of every millionaire comes from the resources of the land of which he has gotten control; or from natural forces, the chief grist of which falls into his meal bags; or from public franchises given by the state and created for the state; or from that general advantage which grows spontaneously out of the presence and power of a generally-diffused civilization and an increasing population. The least part of it is that which his own effort has created. The basis for a democracy of wealth is found in the fact that all wealth springs from the people. ”

“ One way is to build up armies and navies and get ready for the worst war the world has ever seen. The other way is for China, Japan, Europe, and America to organize a common intelligence through an international court, a common will through an interparliamentary union, and under their guidance select a common chief of the police, call him what you will—that is the other way. It is the sane way. It is the righteous way. It is the way in which lies peace. The world is moving very fast—very fast. ”

“ What I have been at Wheathedge you know. I cannot come here to-night on a false pretence. I cannot call myself a desperate sinner. I have wronged no man. I have lived honestly and uprightly before you all. I owe no man anything. I have depended on my daily labor for my daily bread. Out of it I have provided as I had opportunity for the poor around me. No one ever went hungry from my door away. My creed has been a short and simple one, 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.' I have tried to live according to my creed. ”

“ But it is this immigration which has created the wealth. These hungry mouths have given a value to our breadstuffs; these multiplied homes have made a market for our coal; these rushing hordes of immigrants and traders have enriched our railway companies. No man ever, by himself, created or ever can create wealth. Into the locomotive have entered the hopes and fears, the successes and failures, the labors and achievements of many lives now ended. The railroad owner cannot, does not, recompense the grave. ”

“ Napoleon undertook to make all Europe one great empire without a national consciousness, without a national intelligence, without a national will, and to focus all intelligence and all will in his own brain. Europe combined its forces and put them under the command of a common leader to protect every nation from the one whom they regarded as the foe of all nations. The Boxer movement threatened representatives of every nation ”

“ Nobody else will trust the church. He has to trust it for hundreds of dollars. And then when his grocer and his landlord and his tailor go unpaid, men shrug their shoulders and say, pityingly, "Oh! he's a minister, he is not trained to business habits." And the world looks on in wonder and in silent contempt to see the Christian Church carrying on its business in a manner the flagrant dishonesty of which would close the doors of any bank, deprive any insurance company of its charter, and drive any broker in Wall street from the Brokers' Board. ”