Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-04-20

y y ". Il
Henry Ward Beecher, in late sermon,
thus delivered himself on the subject Of men
tal peace:
Peace is not TO be confounded with
dreamy indolence--a hali,conscious slumeer
of satisfaotion. II Is not the intermission of
INV thing in the mind. II Is not only a
quality Of nctivity, but of the most consum-
inatn nhtiyity Tho mind was made for
actiop. It finds its life and its Joy in it. Its
highest fruitions win always be those Of the
highest activity-4but it is to be concordant
action; IL is to be pure and perfect harmony
in action. That is to make the mind restfui.
All are aware that ordinary degrees of stimu-
lus are apt 70 produce sharp unresttul ex-
citement, which may have some measure of
relief in it, but not that measure which we
call by the name of rest. When excitement,
however, rises TO n certain intensity, and to
| n fn1Iness which shows that the mind is all
| moving together, and that there is no copfiict
| in 1t, then excitement becomes tranquil.
| And, whether right or wrong, united activity
Of every part Of the mind carries q certain
kind of peace with it. There is no peace
known to our earthly state greater than that
/ which is experienced in the exaltation Of the
| mind, and which, at one time and another,
gives moral unity to the whole man, and
harmony to the whole action of the soul. "a
/ The common lot of man is to live in hope,
| with only occasional realization--t0 live with
much excitement, but with very little real
| satisfaction. The causes of this are manifold,
and the narration of them will prepare us for
the positive statement of the text. ,"'
Men are driving, in this world, an exquisite
machine, of complex forms and rare adapta-
tibns, with only O little knowledge of its
operations. If a child undertook to guide a
ponderous steam-engine across the ocean, he
would scarcely be more Ignorant and helpless
than is the man who undertakes to guide
this wonderful machine-the human mind
through life. We are perpetually bringing
ourselves into trouble by the arrangements
occasioned by our want acknowledge of that
which we are attempting to use. l.si
Men, also, are employing their minds in
such method that one part is necessarily in
collision with another. 1t is scarcely ever al
rest except when asleep-and often not then
for sometimes sleep itself is bridged with
trouble from side to side. But during oui
waking hours the faculties of our mind are
in almost constant collision with each other
There is an anill-suppressed quarrel in the souls
of men all the while Sometimes il is of such
proportions and fierceness as to stand up on
the ordinary level of mems comprehension
and then they are aware of it. But men arr
in a perpetual state of unrest that they dC
not analyze or understand, which is no more
nor less than a1quarrel between the differen
parts of their mind. 1at al,a ~
One set of men have such violence in thu
passions and appetites, that all the rest of thu
, soul is made TO suffer in order that thes
lower propensities may be gratifed. Pas
sions and appetites are good in their place
but nothing is good in a state of despOtism
And in the soul, when the despots are from
the bottom, they are of the worst kind
There are many men who oblige their reason
their imagination, their moral sentiments
their affections, almost oil the executive
forces of their life, to succumb to the will o
their untamed animal passions and appettes