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Modern Persecution, or Married Woman's Liabilities

From: Modern Persecution
Creator: Elizabeth P. W. Packard (author)
Date: 1873
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 1  Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8  Figure 9  Figure 10  Figure 11  Figure 12  Figure 13  Figure 14  Figure 15  Figure 16

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843  

But, from whence comes the mouldy, rotten, shriveled nut?

844  

From the gnarly, old, decayed, rotten and crumbling trees of Calvinism!

845  

Let the woodman's axe level it, and prepare it for the flames.

846  

But let the fair young twigs of nature's verdant soil remain, to fill the welcome vacuums with the fragrant foliage, and spreading boughs, and teeming fruits of the perfected Christianity of nature.

847  

So, in God's great family of human trees -- the sects, tribes, races, nations of men -- each and all, have a shell, and a nut, peculiar to itself. For God has made us to differ.

848  

How shall we perfect ourselves?

849  

Shall the butternut try to be a walnut?

850  

Shall the chestnut strive to be a hazelnut?

851  

No. Be what God has made you to be -- a good butternut, a good chestnut.

852  

Some like chestnuts best. Some like walnuts best. Be good in your sphere, and you will be sure to find some to admire and appreciate you.

853  

But the mongrel all rejects. It is not a native-born plant; nature perfects her own fruit on a self-reliant base. It is bad cultivation that makes nature's prodigies.

854  

God made man a democrat; society makes him an aristocrat. Let not the aristocracy of the Presbyterian Church boast of their being God's workmanship.

855  

No! aristocracy is the fruit of Calvinism, not of Christianity. It is the true man, the true woman, which God makes. And those only are good men and good women who are natural -- who bring forth the fruits of righteousness. "He that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him," whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free.

856  

Be a good slave, and try to wait as patiently as you can for your freedom, for it is certain God will free you before long if your government does not.

857  

Be a good slaveholder, if God's providence has made you one; but don't trust to Providence to be responsible for your continuing to be one; for to be a good slaveholder now, you must and will emancipate your slaves forthwith: for God says you must do it, or he will do it for you.

858  

Be a good Catholic, if God has made you a Catholic; and to be a good Catholic you must not believe that Protestants are all heretics, for they are not all heretics. It is only the bigoted Calvinist that is a heretic -- a tyrant -- a despot. It is the Calvinist alone who reflects your image; or rather, it is you who reflects his image.

859  

Be generous to your impulses. Be a free, independent thinker, standing on the self-reliant base of a whole true man.

860  

Be equally generous to others. Let them be as true to themselves as you are to yourself, and all will be harmony and peace.

861  

It is the Christians, the practical Christians, who are alike -- not the creeds or sects. In every man behold a brother and a friend -- one endued with equal rights and privileges with yourselves.

862  

Remember, there is a well in every rock. Moses did not well to be impatient to see the waters of humanity gush on at the first drill stroke. The drill of perseverance does wonders in tunneling the rock.

863  

Remember, too, that iron is melted by the furnace of affliction

864  

Remember, too, that God thought that one Niagara was enough for one world. But not so with the verdant rill, the babbling brook, the heavy moving stream, the pond, the lake, the sea. Each has his own office to fill, and none can fill another's.

865  

The foaming cataract is the world's wonder -- but the mountain spring is the world's blessing.

866  

"One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism."

867  

CHAPTER XV.
An Asylum Incident -- A Spiritual Conquest.

868  

On the afternoon of October 16,1863, as I was preparing to copy my first volume for the press, Dr. McFarland came to my room to inspect the business.

869  

I saw by the eye of my instinct, rather than by the eye of my natural vision, that he had not come alone, as usual, but brought that most unwelcome guest, the bad Dr. McFarland, or, the "old Adam," rather, with him.

870  

I knew I must now be as wise as a serpent, in dealing with the serpent, or I should be bit by it! So I put on my "charming" powers to quiet his asperities and control his reason. And choosing, as I thought, the most unexceptionable manuscript, my "Dedication," I offered to read it to him, for him to offer his criticism upon, before copying it for the press.

871  

I had read about two-thirds of it, with rather a palpitating heart, when he suddenly interrupted me by saying:

872  

"I should like to remark here, that I don't like your calling this place a prison, so much; for it isn't so. And as I'm to superintend these manuscripts for the press, I'm not willing you should call it a prison. You may call it a place of confinement, if you choose, but not a prison. It is only a notion you have taken up, to call it a prison, by your choosing voluntarily to confine yourself to it, as if it were a prison. But you have no occasion for so doing. I am just as willing you should have your liberty, as I am to let Mrs. Chapman have hers. And she goes about just where she pleases; and so could you, if you chose to."

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