142 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



tion in business, making wealth the only standard of worth, 

 and the selfishness that either, or all of these causes combined, 

 have nurtured in the human breast. But from whatever source 

 the evil has sprung, the necessity of its reform is obvious. The 

 best interests of our community demand it. 



I am aware that it is often easier to point out an evil, than it 

 is to suggest an effectual remedy. Fortunately, however, a 

 specific is at hand, not, indeed, in the re-organization of soci- 

 ety, but in the universal application of Christian principles to 

 society as it now exists. I perceive no occasion for finding fault 

 with the social institutions of which God is the founder, though 

 man may be justly censured for his abuse of them. Nor has 

 necessity arisen for their destruction, that the evils which sin 

 and ignorance have forced into them may be reached. If the 

 temple is denied, let it be purified, not razed to the ground. If 

 false notions and wrong practices exist in society, let them be 

 met and removed by the correct views and right practices of 

 Christianity. Practical Christianity, divested of mysticism and 

 superstition, is the true remedy for all the ills of the social state. 

 If men look into its pure ethics, they will learn that avarice is 

 sin, and selfishness antagonism with God. They will learn 

 that true living consists in subordinating the passions, mode- 

 rating the desires, abjuring the servitude and idolatry of fash- 

 ion, cultivating the social relations, and esteeming Mind of 

 more worth than Matter, and Heaven more desirable than 

 Earth. Let these truths be reduced to practice by both sexes, 

 and justice will be done to the moral, physical and intellectual 

 natures. Time will be so rightly divided, that labor, rest, rec- 

 reation and intellectual culture will each occupy its due propor- 

 tion, and a healthy equilibrium be maintained. 



