Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1871-07-27
From the Methodist Recorder.l
Mans Place In the Uni
verse.


| IhS SiLy1 euiouSu NohSyt ohu hsA",
and continent boundary, and ocean,
and suns, and systems, you find
them, and every shape, from star
down through the clouds and the
leaves, to the pebble, is nodded in
beauty. In this world of forms,
there is one being, man, of purer
type and finer mold than all the
other bodies within this neighbor-
hood of planets. But form is of
matter, and all the ability that mat
ter has, is to be put into shape and
size; the best you can do with it, is
to place it in the least or most use
full space, or in the most agreeable
form. And shape and size are not
mans place in the universe-unless
he be all matter, and no mind nor
soul.
Whether it be summer elsewhere
than on earth, just now, concerns us
not. Here, life has been at work
and twined the trees, everywhere,
thick with wreaths, and hung rubbed
gems on the strawberry vines. And
in unnumbered things this agency
acts, but nowhere as in the human
race. In man Life makes its high
est efforts and builds into struct-
ure-the model of symmetry and
grace. But to live is not mans
place. Life is under bonds to go
the same old rounds Of production
and to keep in the same old tread
mill, evermore. Mans place in the
universe is not simply to live and
get along,-unless he act in only
one way without mind or spirit.
No, there is another capacity, the
greatest in nature, that comes from
nerve and brain. To the mind, the
voices and sights, the touches, fra
grances and tastes of all creation
come, thrilling through the senses
and nervous veinlets to start a won
drous activity movement of holy
and limb. And man, gifted, blessed
with movement of body and of
countenance the most delicate, with
powers of brain, the most keen, with
qualifications of sense, the most de
licious, stands on the sunlit summit
of the sensitive world and regales
himself with all the universe at his
feet. A high position, but not mans
plaee,-unless he live in sense, re-
strained by fear and keenness of de
sire.
If man be a man, he is neither
just clay to be shaped, nor just a
tree to be grown, nor just an animal
to be coaxed, and will not be opera
rated on in these ways.
From far back through the cen |
turies, when the light of science was
dim, and shadows encompassed the |
world, the true nature of man comes
to us, from woodland beauty and
tempted grandeur. In grove, fire.
quented by thousands, where the
walks ran by cooling streams, where
statues stood under the trees, and
sepulchers of the noble were hid |
away by ivied banks and knolls, a |
garden was set, overlooking a beau
tiful hill-hedged valley, and Athens,
queen of art with her wondrous
walls and tempted towers and mas
sive structures. Here, Plato, delv-
ing into the mysteries of being,
turned from garden and grove and
city, and looking up toward the
stars, conceived, in the activities of |
every man, an immortal soul made |
of the same thing as those stars
and ever working upwards to regain
the native sphere.
This was twilight view of man.
The day is come. Light sweeps
over the hills and into the valleys Of
thought. Man is seen in bold out |
lines and his place in the universe |
is marked by the capacities of a
soul He interprets all music; he |
divines meaning in penciled rock,
and flower and statue; he apple
hends a God. He knows-or can
know-himself; he can bind down |
his senses, despite all their entreat-
les, by right and worthiness. Yes,
could Plato stand within that wasted |
garden in that desert grove, to-day,
he could say, that, instead OF star
essence, and above form and life and
sense, and brain, man is Reason,
Consciousness, Will, as the powers
of living soul, and as the result
ing demands of this intelligent spir-
it mans place in the universe is, to
be worthy And when tire old |
philosopher would finish, the bards
of the world would sing as they
have ever sung-man's place in the
universe is, to be worthy And
after the bards, the orators of the
nations would waken echoes over
the earth, mans place is, "to be
worthy" and the people, as they
would hear the word of the elo-
quence and song, would sanction it
with uncovered heads and silent
souls.
And what it is to be worthy, is
clear as the land under the flood
tides of this Moons sunlight. In
the light the unworthy appear in all
ado about shape, in ease of life, in
delights of sense, or in conceits of |
mind, either above the toll of hand, |
or below the toll of mind, or with
out an alteration and submission of
heart TO One the worthiest of the
worthy, through the Christ of Beth
lehem and of the world. The Soul
is above form, in man, that he may
be worthy in his shape; above life,