The Democratic Pioneer

Reform Needed.

It is a fact too notorious to be denied by any man of common sense, that there is a genuine and thorough reform needed among the children of men. On every hand, says friend Hacker of the 'Pleasure Boat,' wherever we turn our eyes we behold the miserable fruits of transgression, ignorance and error. The human family instead of being united heart and hand, as members of the same family should be, by the bond of universal love and goodness, are divided into sects, parties, clans, and nations, warring against each other as though happiness could be attained only through envy, hate, and murderous strife. Then, instead of brotherly love, there is selfishness, envying and contentions between man and man; instead of justice and truth, there is cheating and lying; instead of mercy and kindness, there is cruelty and heartless neglect. The world is full of evil; man not only wars against his brother man, but is destroying himself by slavery to unnatural habits, and perverted passions and lusts. Children are born without natural affection, because parents cannot impart to their offspring that which they do not possess themselves; they are born heirs to all the evil habits of their parents, with the same hankerings for that which gratifies the appetites, passions and lusts which they have inherited, and especially in large towns and cities, each generation becomes more and more depraved.

How deranged must society be—how far sunk below their duty and privilege, when in a nation like this, thousands annually destroy themselves by the use of intoxicating spirits, which are neither clothing, food nor drink, and which all know cannot be used without abusing the physical, mental and intellectual organizations; —how depraved, when tens of thousands who call themselves temperate, are annually destroying themselves by the use of unnatural and unhealthy food, and by an intemperate use even of that which is natural and good.

Yes, a change is needed, a thorough work that would change nearly all our habits modes and customs of life; a work that would save us from unnatural habits, from the control of perverted passions and appetites—in short, a work that would cast out all evil and place the purified man upon the throne of his own heart, to rule in righteousness over all his passions, the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that have been ruling in his whole body, which is the world.

Now in order to bring about such a reform we should not wait for one another for the longer we wait the worse will be our condition. It is an old saying that 'charity begins at home;' now there is just where reform should begin. Let each look within himself for instruction, and correct every habit and appetite that leads to evil and reform must follow.