Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-10-20

more we are developed in every nor
ma faculty and power, the richer we
are toward God and our fellow men.
The greatest boon we can confer on
society is to take into it, in our own
persons, the noblest and highest re-
suits of self-culture, for then We dis
tribute the wealth of true and roble
being on every hand. But we crisp
and shrivel whatever We come in con-
tact with when we are base and mean.
Look on life, look on existence, with
face to the front Say what you will
about any particular theories of evo-
luton 1t Is certain enough that the
fundamental law of the universe is
progression from less to more per-
feet state.
'Lo on a narrow neck of land,
Twixt two unbounded seas stand"
| Which way shall | look; to the past or
the future? To that from which or to
that toward which the universe rolls?
10 the crude beginning or toward thu
finished end? To the germ or to the
| rlpenlng fruit ? How is that you call
the man whose face is toward the past
and the old reverend? Has not God
as much interest in the to be as ia the
has been? What is the past past tor,
unless to be by and done with ? Why
Is be not reverent who opens his vim
dows and wosships towards the to come,
as we'll as he who worships toward the
| past! If the fundamental law of the
| universe is progression, IS not the
only reverent worshlpper those WHO, for
getting the things that are behind
stretches out to lay hold of the thug
that are befJre? Men are anxious
about the standards Whose stand
ards! The standard of The dead or the
stan lard Of the yet to live The
standards of those to come are surely
worthy OF as mucn reverence as the
emblems Of those who have gone be-
fore. There are always tie coming af-
ter whose shoes, Iatchei the going be-
fore are not worthy to unloose. But
we know the standard Of the past. and
we do not know those that are to be.
All! there is where will lie our high
prophetic value We ars to be seers
to feel out what it must be before it
IS. Here lies the merit-though not
having received promises, to see them
afar off, and to be persuaded OF them
and to embrace them. True enough,
all sold things are not ever old"
True enough, all things new are not.
good, but if progression be the law Of
the universe, the greater good must
| lie In the direction of the neu There
must be richness and eliminations but
the new resldunm will be better than
the old. While it is not possible here
to give in detail what the future will
untold with which We must be in alli-
anee, it is possible to indicate attitudes
which We should preserve toward
whatever may be unfoided We can
be alert, inquisitive, hopeful, generous,
sympathetic. One Of the most PAIN
full sights | know of is the young man
who deliberately takes Up the role of
reaction and retrogression-who is
nothing unless critic or cynic-who
plants his heel and puts his force into
resistance TO the forth-reaching of hu-
man endeavor-who adds so much
more to the inertia to be overcome, the
incubus to be hurled off before men
can step into the freer possessions that
lie before them. La that attitude
there seems to me that sort of sin to
which forgiveness can be applied
neither in this world nor the world to
come.
70 the front face there is an open
universe for time and eternity, and
that rightly apprehended is the JOY of
existence. Some one, whose name
cannot give you, but who deserves a
high place among the very select of
the earth's sages, when told that he
was abont to die, said joyfully, Nov
then for the grand secret" That
seems like grasping the problem of life
Alright. We shall do we'll so to set and
school our being, that We can approach
the problems of eternity with reverent,
trusttul, yet with inquisitive eye