y
is a part and a necessary part of our civilization and to revive the
old prohibition would turn the world's civilization backward and be as
absurd as to now dispense with steam or electricity.
In reply it may be said that the changes are not universal, that there
are some things that abide, that the changes are trifling when
compared with those things that remain and are permanent.
1. Human nature remains the same. Man, in body and mind, in
physiology and psychology, has not changed in these thousands of
years. That which in ages past promoted the health and vigor of his
body, will secure its best development now. That discipline, culture
and mental exercise that secured the highest intellectual strength in
ages past will do the most for its best development now. Many things
that now give splendor to our civilization do not promote either the
best physical or mental manhood.
2. Family ties remain. The relation of husband and wife, of parents
and children, and the duties of their several positions in the home
have not changed. The family remains the social unit as it has been in
all ages. Sociology, the science of social and political organization,
is a permanent science. It does not change with the shifting temporal
conditions of the people. Those things which made for the general
welfare of ages ago are for the public weal now, and those things that
endangered the state then are to be avoided now.
3. The moral law remains unchanged and unchangeable, with all the
brilliant present there is no amendment to the ten commandments. The
ethical nature remains and the voice of conscience, approving the same
right and condemning the same wrong, is identical with the voice of
conscience in the time of Moses.
4. The laws of nature have not changed. The relation between a cause
and its sequence remains. Like causes produce like effects.
No living thing has changed its nature. A lion now is of the same
nature that it was in the time of Samson. So with every savage beast
that roams the jungle. Even the domesticated animals, with all the
effort and skill of intelligent man, have only been smoothed or
speeded a little. The horse, cow, sheep, or dog have held their old
forms and dispositions.
Seed time and harvest come and go and we are dependent for the same
shower and sunshine that gave Adam his first harvest.
We know some things they did not know and we have bettered our tools,
but the natural world has shown no
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