Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/104

86 There will be no need of argument for the worth of morality. Morality is necessary for the health and vigor and longevity of the individual and the nation. And morality must be propagated by religion. The best teachers and thinkers of all time have recognized and declared this truth. Washington said, 'Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

Morality has never propagated itself. It always must have an apostle moved by religious fervor if it is to live and grow. Seneca and Marcus Aurelius were moralists, but they sent no apostles into the world; therefore, Seneca and Aurelius are almost unknown. The Man of Nazareth sent Circuit Riders everywhere, even the "uttermost parts of the earth"; and His moral teaching with its fundamental bases—the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man—shall

Modern ministers of His Gospel are His apostles, sons of the Circuit Riders of pioneer days, and they propagate His morality for the health of the state, for the weal of the city, and for the good of men. They are not salaried by the state, but they are of more worth than its police force, and of more value to the city than its officers. They unceasingly toil for everything that makes mankind richer and stronger and better. Because this influence is invisible, and, except on rare occasions like this, voiceless, the public seldom gives the herald of the Gospel the credit which his worth deserves.

Historians do not hide the fact, however, that it was the religious conviction of the people, expressed by the minister (which means servant), the parson (which means chief person), which settled America. The Puritans made Massachusetts a religious colony, spreading