The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-07-02
A Star In the West.


versatility of Chicago, or to tell in what
new or old form its next bit of good for,
tune will break out Better is it as we deem
things, than swifter way of building up
houses or surer way of preventing them
from burning down, that great city
should have given to it great teacher of
wise, and good, and beautiful truth.
Chicago in this, also, is fortunate for
besides the men who have hitherto stood
in the midst Of it, prophesying Of riches
more valuble than the riches commonly
sought there, there has now risen up
among then, man whom nature, and
culture and trial have all wonderfully en-
dowed with the faculty Of speaking the
things which this generation specially
nce,:s to hear, and Of doing this in such q
way as to secure the hearing. OF course
we mean David Swing, Pastor OF the
Fourth Presbyterian church, whose ordi-
nation to the apostolic succession is al
ready confident by the laying on Of hands
by some of his brethren not in benedictiOn
but in wrath. We know not how this
week to render those who read these pages
a greater service than by telling them Of
the little book into which Mr.. Swing has
Just put his sweetest and latest thoughts.
1t is fittingly called Truths for To-Day"
and consists of fifteen sermons spoken
during the past winter. These truths
touch upon the topics that are uppermost
in the brain and formost on the tongue
of our time, and concerning subjects Of no
less importance than the very meaning OF
religion, faith in God and in the life ever
lasting, the laws Of human brotherhood,
the memories of good men saints and
heroes in churches and state, and the
immutablc duty Of doing right. We
would speak, if there were here room, OF
the purely literary merits and attractions
of these exquisite sermons. They are
the words Of a man familiar with the most
perfect fruits of culture, and sensitive in
high degree to the charm Of literary form.
Not merely in this palpable allusion but
in the choice phrase, in the meditation OF
his sentences, and the most chaste verbal
reserve, are to be discerned the tokens OF
his profitable industry among the best
books. But his mastery of fascinating
and powerful diction is not his greatest
merit. He is a thinker. His sentences
are weighted with ideas and on nearly
every page is to be found some well ut
tered thought which rings out like an
aphorism, and contributes something real
to the worlds store of intellectual treasures
1.-THE fact that man is by nature imperfect,
makes it necessary that he should also be
tolerant" 1T is folly to demand a unity
of belief in word where there is no one
wise but God, and no one good but God"
1.-THE origin of intolerance has never been
the deeper truth but the deeper egotism"
Christ has stood SO near the people that
they have wreathed the cross with their
infirmities at the very hour when they
crowded around it to find their salvation"
ut is not ideas alone that transform the
world but ideas with an inspiration in
them crowding them from dream into life"
1.-THE men that commit acts of crime and
dishonor, the men that commit frauds
in the money circles, come in part from
the multitude that carry catechism and
book of common prayer. All this because
religion has been form of argument
rather than the shape of our inner life."
There is no intellectual pinchbeck in
these golden words, and the book is so
full of them that, drop your eye upon 1t
where you will, you are sure to alight
upon others just as good rs these. When
the people who are ever hungering for
real thouhgt, once get taste of this book
they will be apt to call for it SO fast that
the presses of Messrs. Jansen, McClurg &
Co., will be kept very busy to answer
the demand. hope it MY be so, for
the sake of the people; and in the mean
time we send to Chicago our congratula-
tons upon the advent there Of this
authentic messenger Of the best tidings.
Nav we all listen to him.-Christian