Reminiscences of a. Wayfarer
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Some of the Important Events of the Pioneer Days
of Richardson County and Southeast Nebraska, as
remembered by the writer, who has spent fifty
one years here
Church and State.
Carlyle, essayist, philosopher anil
obstra t theorist and thinker of tin
last century, said that tin most im
portant tau about any man or nation
of men is. his or their religion.
By which he wanted it understood
that by religion, lie did not linan tin
church, sect or creed he belonged to
or professed, or whether lie belonged
to any church, or subscribed to any
creed, or made any particular pro
fession of faith, but what in his
heart he really believed concerning
Ills own existence, his relation to tin
universe, to his fellows, and to the
all-controlling authority and power
that made him a part of the unknown
and unknowable purposes of creation.
1 do not give bis language, for 1
have not the work before me. but
am giving as well as I can the idea
the gr< at man had in mind and wished
to convey, as I understand and con
strue his language. Critically consid
ered, his definition of religion will
apply to all—-church members or non
church members, civilized or uncivil
ised, Ignorant or enlightened; the
living thinking animal man — wltethei
in the wonderland of the infancy of
the race or in the broad blaze of the
twentieth century civilization, culture
and refinement
No human boiug c.»v«*r livid who
did not in the course of his lib form
some idea satisfactory to Ills judg
ment on the subject of bis place in
creation; his origin and Ids possibb
ultimate destiny, and that Idea what
ever it may he we must ao ept a bis
religion according to the incompar
able Scotch savant of deathless lame.
The doctrine, if it may be called stu it
is not new, but is as old as man
himself;luu the style in which it is
written is certainly new, and forms
the chief element of value in the rum
position. As a definition of religion,
in my poor judgment, and as I have
come to understand it after years of j
diligent study, it falls far short ofj
the mark. Was it Mlrnbeuu or i
Byron or both who said that words!
are things? In the hands of that in
imitable master of forceful and ele- j
gant style, the Chelsea philosopher |
here named, words were Indeed ;
mighty tldngs, and were' marshalled
by him to the everlasting orutunen
tation of it literature that up to bis
day, had ltuver been equaled in the |
world of letters. The gilding hides!
many it delect, which without it j
would l>e puli lit to all.
It is not my Intention in this paper j
to discuss the question of religion, ex-j
cept so far as it is a factor in world
history and a something inherent in
human nature. The use 1 shall make
of the reference mentioned, 1 think,
will be sufficiently pertinent to the
purpose in hand to justify having
mailt it without offending against
the properties or evincing a spirit
of irreverance for the works of one
of the most original of independent
thinkers in modern times.
In the settlement of a new country,
and the establishment of government
therein, religion bus been the basic
principle of the laws enacted to give
operative effect to such government.
This may seem a broad assertion, and
it is certain that there are those who
will deny it. But l will go further
and say, what I believe is historically
true, that without religion, civilization
itself would be an Impossibility. If
I argue ttie point here, it will be by
suggestion and inference only.
iv nen i ca in I' ui .x'uriiBKU im.v
one years ago there wore no churches
or school houses in the country. Met
build houses first for shglter, and for
other uses when their means will al
low and the necessities of the com
munity require them. llut nearly
every person I met was either a mem
ber of some religious denomination,
or was predisposed in favor of some
particular church. For myself 1 was
friendly to all, hut belonged to none.
The settlers were horn In other states
and countries, and brought their re
ligion and ideas of civil government
with them.as man lias always brought
bis religion into the world when he
came into it himself. It is us much
a part of his nature as tlie disposi
tion to protect himself, which is pres
ent and controling in every moment
of his conscious life.
The Methodist persuasion was the
pioneer, perhaps for the reason that
most of the pioneers were themselves
Methodists, and was the first church
to gain a foothold in the country. 1
remember with much satisfaction the
many incoherent and rambling ser
mons 1 heard preached in those long
gone years, by men for whose piety 1
bad the most profound respect, and
whose superb ignoranc e became a very
glory in excelcis. And now when the
shadows are falling darkly about me
I feel that 1 would be willing to pay
the expenses of a whole camp-meeting
il 2 could hear an old time sermon
from one of thos" early workers m
I h< vineyard of the Master, *uch a.~
Fathers King and Taylor or .1. F.
Chamberlain. The Inspiration m a
lofty enthusiasm, horn of a faith
stronger than 1 if«■ or death, will make
the most hone ly la e beautiful anil
transform the illiterate "man of the
hoe" into the High Priest supplied
with a lore not to be gotten front
hooks, or the great institutions ol
learning established hv niau.
It was eight years before we had
ti church building In Falls City, hut
the gospel was preached to the peopli
in every neighborhood, and yearly
camp-meetings were held over north
of town, and now and then on the
south fork of tiie N'entaha above Sa
lent.
It was at one of those ramp-meet
ings I first met Henry T. Davis, now
tit rest, in the early days especially,
in* was a tower of strength in the
church, and one of the best men God
ever made and put on this earth. His
was a good life, lie would have put
something good Into a false religion,
if such a paradox is permissible,—
but it is not, for no religion among
men lias been entirely without some
truth to its credit, Any doctrine that
any considerable number of people
have believed, through long periods
of time, must have had something
about it that commended it to the
truth loving side of their lives, and
therefore could not have been wholly
w rong.
I he rounder oi lsmiutsm. the so
etilled prophet of Allah. Mahomet,
said. "1 never expect to go to heaven
oh account of anything I ever pro
leased, but on account of tin pood
things i do in tills life,” Now it oc
curs to me that laying aside prejudic
of all description, the sum multum of
good in all the religions of men, in
their best features, can !><• expressed
in that single sentence.
Henry T. Mavis made the .Methodist
church what it is in Nebraska, lie
came when the country was a wilder
ness in more senses than one; com
mem ed 11,s labors when the people
were few arid poor, anti continued
them till the great cat' came to go
home. He temlnded me of those
old apostles of the first century 1
have lead about and admired so
mm It, In every fiber of ills soul lie
was a missionary and a herald of the
gospel. Personally i have always
been a littit* partial to tile Methodist
church, but it did one tiling I didn’t
like,—it elected .loliu II, Mickey go\
crnor of Nebraska, and that was pret
ty nearly the unpardonable sin; and 1
am not at all certain that it did not
contribute largely to putting the state
in the column witli the solid south
last fall, but 1 reserve judgment on
that point. While the Methodist was
the pioneer church in this state, others
have followed and done their full
share in building the moral and re
ligious fabric of the commonwealth.
It is not enough to be religious in the
sense indicated by the Chelsea phil
osopher. To he of any account to
the world a man must not only be
so in sentiment, but he must be so
in action; but it is not of the first
importance that his name be on the
roll of membership in any church
not for everybody. For the mass of
mankind the rule should be otherwise,
for religion, properly understood, is
tile metaphysics of the people, and
ino uiseipune ot tno enure it is neces
siiry to the good order and happiness
of its individual members. The
«liurch is the id< a of the family en
larged mid like fan ilies. is liable to
sub-divisions; but of the many parts,
tile whole is composed. For fifteen
hundred years the Christian church
proceeded in violation of two fixed
and invariable laws of nature, iliai
of segregation and differentiation.
Everything in nature is in a state of
the becoming,— that is, becoming
something else. A tree will grow to
a certain height in the stem and then
segregate into branches, and these
will continue to sub-divide into min
uter branches; and this process of
sub-division will go on during the
whole life of the tree. Without it.
foliage and the fruit—for all trees
bear something of both—would be
impossible. No matter into how man
thousand tiny branches the immense
crown of the sturdy oak may be di
vided, they still form a part of the
tree in its entirety, from the highest
twig at the top to its lowest root in
the earth; and at every stage of its
growth, fall and decay, it will con
stantly become different in appear
ance and size till it finally disappears
as an organism and its material is
absorbed by old mother earth for
other uses of nature in its eternal
work shop. The same invariable pro
cess goes on with man and with all
that concerns him. The church paid
the penalty of violating these natural
laws l>y internal disturbances long
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continued, and by ultimate sub-divi
_visi(ni. which was nothing more or
loss than the assertion of Nature’s
eternal authority.
I tut that saute segregation instead
of working destruction to the church,
as predicted by the fathers, lias, with
tlie flight of the centuries, proved to
be the one efficient, means most
needed for a wider spread of the
tiospel. 1,other, Henry YIII of Kug
latul, Mulanctholt, Calvin and John
Wesley, did nothing more than to in
fuse renewed life into the old church
of llii' Apostles. They wrought hit
ter and stronger than they knew.
Wl^le attacking abus.s in I lie chun It.
they were merely cleaning house, hut
it was still the old house of the Mas
ter.
But it is suggested that they only
created a lot of sects that have done
little else than quarrel among them
selves and with the mother church
for three hundred years, and are still
engaged in that apparently congenial
occupation. Well, what of it? Kid
they never quarrel before? Certainly
they did. for otherwise they would
not have been human beings, and
there would have been no need of tlte
Gospel. It was to meet just that pe
culiarity of the race that the Master,
when lie was about to go down to
his death, gave Ids disciples the new
commandment that they “love one
another as lie had loved them.” The
reformation of the world is not yet
complete, nor will it be till that new
commandment is more generally ob
served than it lias been.
In the course of my own life I have
seen much of this bickering going on,
but I record with pleasure that there
is less of it in these opening years
of a new century, than there was in
the first half of the last one. In that
time I have seen a nation recreated,
—a new republic erected on t lie
the ruins of the old, and have seen
a religious and patriotic people build
one of the states of that new repub
lic in the wilds of what was once
known as the Great American Desert.
Something came into the world
nineteen hundred years ago, that lias
never gone out of it; something that
has been slowly making people bet
ter than they were before, and is still
doing it.
Nothing lingers in my memory
with greater clearness, than the fact,
that the society of this state, its av
erage man and womanhood is of a
higher cast, is on a higher plane of
moral excellence, than when I came
to tti* country.
Why is that? One answer is, be
cause it is so all over the nation; ah.
and ali over the world. That some
thing refered to awakened in the peo
ple themselves a latent force that is
raising them up as time goes by
more rapidly than before, but nobody
has a monopoly of that force.
Another answer is, ttint the church
which had long mistaken Itself for
religion instead of an association of
people religiously inclined, for the
teaching and dissemination of religi
ous principles and sentiments among
the people who troop into and out of
this world on an unknown journey,
for their betterment on the way, has
come to lei* more reasonable on that
point, and a modicum of good com
mon sense has found its way into
the minds of the people on that sub
jeet, and they are none t lie worse for
it.
It is pleasant as well as profitable
to trace the historic march of that
incomprehensible influence from its
origin in tile far oast, westward over
broad continents and stormy seas till
now with its mighty Briarian arms it
girdles the earth. Owls hoot in the
palaces of the Caesars, but close to
the crumbling walls of the coliseum
in whit it in another age Christians
were torn by wild beasts for the edi
fication of a besotted heathen ruler,
stands a house of power—a power
that controls without force, and yet
is more potent in shaping human
destiny than all the military and
naval establishments of the world
combined. Its great age may have
render/d it dogmatic and exclusive
and all that; it may and probably
does, deny to tile segregated parts
that have set up their own separate
religious households, to preach the
tiospel of the Master, nevertheless
it is still only a part of the universal
Christian polity that reaches back to
the apostolic age, and so are all the
others; for whoever gives to another
a cup of cold water in His name, is
His brother, and the brother of all
His followers, whether he uses the
same cermonial in giving the cup or
not.
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Falls City Chautauqua August‘Stto
Announcement
We are pleased to announce that our Spring
campaign of the biggest values in Farm Ma
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