Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1876-05-25

numberless achievements. In language
alone we see the soul OF man held In
great mirror that omiIs no feature and dis
torts none The mind, growing for thou
sands Of years, has here recorded It's
progress--has in the language found an
urn that can keep the spirit long after the
body has become dust. Our word " lib
erty" now holds in its glorified body The
eloquence and struggles of countless
great souls that once girded them
selves for battle, and who sighed In
deaths agony on the bloody field. Our
word loyc'i is full to-day of the expc-
rience Of the yesterday far away when
Ruth CLEANED In the fields Of Boaz, 'and Ia
cheI wept for her children. and the divine
Lord came In the name Of all the love OF
Heaven. Open the page Of literature and
behold! the soul Of Sappho, of Virgil. OF
Homer, Of ST. John, Of Milton. sbaks-
pearc, of all the scattered ages, meet you
as living friends meet you at your home
today. And yet what is this literature
but the place where the labor OF man went
forward eYoking universe OF LONELINESS
cut Of those mornings anG evenings tbat
made up the days Of long creation. And
il Is all very good. The plastic arts, the
sculpture and the architecture, combine
with the written arts in showing us that
soul Of man, which would otherwise be
invisible. In all the old and new cities,
In the temples Of God, and IN the house Of
man we behold the ideas and tastes OF the
soul; in the pyramids, its force; in st. Pc
ter's, the sublimity; in the home, with It's
decorations upon the wall and the fire
upon the hearth, the domestic sentiment.
AS the psalmist saw his Deity in the firm.
I'D ri
makest me glad through Thy works"
go Domino, delectasti. y And Us the paint
crs and poets have created out Of this psalm
the Matilda:
a lady all alone who. singing went
CulllDg flower from flower wherewith her way
Was all DER painted,
and have made her all radiant with joy
over the matches beauty Of nature, 30 we
all can write new psalm, humber in
deed in its object and eloqucnce, but over
flowing with power in the words, "Oh
man in thy works thou makest me glad.
We are all Matilda culling in the fields
Of humanity the flowers wberewith our
way IL all DER painted" The cities, the
sailing ships, the inventions, the poetry,
tie letters, the arts the faces, the charac-
tiers, the heroes, and the friends, the faith
full citizens and faithful Christians are only
the soul of Gods cbild-man making itself
external that we may behold and love II
in our pilgrimage. Industry istheretore,
not the calamity, or accident OF time, the
result OF sin or of misfortune, but 1t Is
the gateway by which the soul passes from
death TO life. Labor Is the cradle Of life.
Repose Is only another name for the
grave.
While The soul is thus projecting itself
outward, and is thus becoming a part Of
the human EARTH as the stars become
diadem Of God, ii is inwardly adding 10
all its powers OF goodness and happiness.
All blessedness comes from high oecupa.
ton Rest Is valuable only so far as IL is
contrast. Pursued as an end it becomes
a most pitiable condition. Out Of toll the
soul becomes like lily out Of the water
beneath the earth Hence labor comes
not only TO help fill up the creative scheme
of God, not only to cover earth with
cities, and railways, and languages, and
institutions, but 10 I'll up the bosom Of
the laDorcr with treasure purely his
own. When the heroes have died on
the field and left republics behind them
they have taken away with them into
eternity "A glory Of soul equal 10 the
the shores of earth. Always while the
human spirit Is building without it is
building within. Indeed, the outer OBJ
ject is only the reflection of the inner
scene the darling rays that are less won.
deriul thaa the sun itself Hence the
Bible principle that he who should give Il
cup Of water TO a thirsty brother would
thus give IL 10 the Son Of God, or TO God
the external offering being the shadow
Of heart worthy Of the paths OF Heaven.
AS the Creator, from His six days, drew
new bcssedness; coming each evening to
the consciousness that II was good and
very good" so man in his deeds finds
more joy than all else can bring AS the
branches of the oak expand the oak grows
more powerful In its heart.
Out Of these reflections should come n
conviction OF the utter vanity Of hopes
founded upon any shape of inactIon.
Without exception, all the good and
beautiful things OF our world tell us that
here some human industry hath been,
The Cfumbling columns, whose acanthus
capitals our builders initiate. the unfading
colors on Pompeii's walls, the chiseled
head from Phidias, the finished odes Of
Horace, the Justinian laws, are footprints
HItlF iHhNatl oA'Dt'h aiohE ihbib iNul
aud more lovely than any graceful Apollo
or any goddess rising from the sen foam.
The Bible, having unfoldcd the idea
upon its first page in that sublime picture
OF the Deity toiling six days and resting
only one, carries the truth forward and
combines 1t with every hope and joy of
time and eternity. Ii bids man work out
his salvation. II says the Infinite Judge
will reward every man according as his
work shall be. Ii declares that by the
fruits Of life you shall know the life.
Passing from prose to poetry 1t says
/" Blessed are the dead who die in the
Lord their works do follow
them" Thus into the final state of the
soul, which the Church calls by the name
of salvation, the labors of these earthly
days all enter AS the elements of the en-.
nobled spirit. AS the dew, and the rain,
and the earth, and the sunshine, and the
OF night all work together and
give us the rose In the richness of its color
and perfume, SO the deeds of this life, the
hours of study, the cups of cold water
given to brother IN the name Of God, the
love carried In the heart, the solicitude
over the true, the beautiful and the good
all these pour their moral riches In the
soul and work out the final salvation, that
sacred fitness for Immortality.
In the midst OF this philosophy we per-
ceiye the import of the word "sin." Sin