The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1872-11-12
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SOUL OR NO SOW.

There are good many kinds of souls; there
are people with large souls, and people with
small souls and not few who, if the popular
verdict be correct, have no souls at all. Ger
tain it is that, in view of the lives many peo-
pie live, in view of their indifference to their
highest interests, their pettiness and sensual
ism and selfishness, the old adage about CIV
ing the devil his due occurs to us, and we are
tempted to think that for the souls of some
people a small sum would be ample compensa-
ton. About the first business that a man has
in this world is to get soul worth having
for though-in opposition to some of our
modern philosophers do believe every hu-
man being has some sort of soul, | think it
depends upon individual effort whether it shall
ever amount to much, and that man is, to a
great extent, his own creator. Webster de-
fines the soul as the rational immortal princi-
pie in man; that which distinguishes him from
the brute, and constitutes him person. But
what if this principle is allowed to be dormant,
is never called into activity? What if the
man only eats and sleeps, and lives for himself,
how much of a soul will he be likely to get?
All the possibilities of the oak are folded in the
acorn, but what if the acorn is never planted,
never subjected to the quickening influences
of sun and shower and the nourishing earth ?
What if it is laid away in some crevice of the
rock, or labelled and put ON the shelf of a
cabinets Will it under these conditions be-
come an oak? Will it strike its hundred roots
deep down in the soil Will it rear aloft its
massive trunk, and fling abroad its banner of
leaves in the June sunshine? / think not !;
and yet all these possibilities lie folded in the
acorn waiting only for favorable conditions.
AS the acorn is to the oak, so is the undevel-
oped to the developed soul. One is latent
force the other is active force. One is posi-
bility the other is power. We are told in the
account of the creation, that when the Lord
had formed man out of the dust of the ground,
he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and man became a living soul. The breath of
life is still the indispensable condition of the
living soul. We are not to infer because we
are in human form that God is quite done
with us-that we arc completed men and wo-
lives not differing greatly from those of the
brutes, eating and drinking, gratifying our
appetites and pleasing ourselves. If we would
become living souls we must provide the ra-
tional principle, which is the souls germ, with
the means of growth. 1t must not be labelled
and put away in the cabinet of some dogmatic
belief, nor left to wither and dry up in the
fiinty soil of selfishness, nor buried in the mud
of sensualism, where it will rot instead of grow.
We know that the best seed in the world will
not insure good harvest unless there is good
soil, thorough culture, and the heavenly in
fluence Of sun and rain. Is it to be presumed
that man can get a soul at less cost than a
bushel of corn? That for the one he must
dig and plant, and hoe, and be vigilant to keep
down the weeds while for the other he need
take no thought? If any one has any such
notion, it is a false notion, and will lead him
into the greatest mistake of his life One can
have in this world only what he pays for, and
what is best always costs the most.-Celia
BurleSqh.