Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-06-21
A SERMON ON MAN.
BY PROF. DAVID A. SWING.

Let US then turn away from
the many complications of man. turn
away from him as Emperor or us slave, as
scholar or as unlettered plowman, as rich
or poor, as high or low, as plain or rs
beautiful, as merchant or as mechanic,
and think of him only in that upper out
line where analysis seems not so utterly
hopeless. Let us 60 to the simplest theory
of this creature, bringing back with US
some 7auabe outline of his body and
soul
HIS CHILDHOOD.
Mark first that infancy and childhood
through which he is ordained, not by a
cruel fate, but my mercy, topass. Though
TO Millions of these little ones the help
lessness of childhood brings pain, al.
though there are countless numbers to
whom life begins as neglect or as an
arena Of cruelty, yet the theory of man
contemplates no such misfortune. The
civilized condition of society contains the
best hints at the real import of infancy
and early life, and in that civilized condi-
ton the infant man and the child man is
seen carried at first on the bosom of al.
most infinite love- The world is seen only
through the veil of tenderness. There
are loving arms around him; the words
spoken to him are kind words the actions
he first sees are kind actions. In an or
binary home in the great civilized lands
the kindness that surrOundsthe first years
of life is simply beyond words in its ex-
ternal deed and inner thought. If sick
ness attacks the little one the mother i'm
mediately counts herself and all the world
as nought She forsakes all the outer
scenes; the laughter OF the street comes to
her as a discord. She almost forgets to
eat; she sleeps so lightly that sign of
me sick one wakes her. The same solici-
.ude attacks also the father in the higher
order of society. He quits the path OF
his business or his profession. lie sees
no value III merchandise or fame. When
in the court room or the market, or in the
Senate chamber it is whispered that the
public man is absent because his child Is
sick. All acquiesce in the absence, for
The Judge on the bench and the statesman
in the Senate know where the feelings of
The human heart are deepest and from
what part OF LIES horizon the darkest
storms can come. They know how worth.
less the world might suddenly become.
Here in this childhood of man two in
dispensable forms of culture are taking
place. The parent is having all selfish
ness displaced; is learning that to live for
others is the true mission of each, and is
the best culture for self; is experiencing
new motives of industry and morality is
reaching deeper dependence upon God,
from whom now great atfliction or great
blessing might come; the parent is car
Tying now a vulnerable heart exposed
on all sides to the arrows of adversely is
reaching a new belief in heaven as be-
ING place where the family can at last
be reunited away from the tears of all
change. Home is the herald of heaven
The other shape of education is spring
ing up in the bosom of the child. In a
few years the moral storm of life will at
tack him. BY the eighteenth or twentieth
year there will come the temptation OF
Inc great wilderness Divine beings like
lhe Christ may in their own power endure
through all these forty terrific days. but
beings not divine go down in these as.
saults OF early life. In the theory Of man
all those home years, in which the love
HAa kindness of the parents were so inf
nite and inexpressible, were to be the ade
quate shield against the arrows of subse
quent evil times. For the young man oil
young woman to sin was TO forget an inf
nile love. 1t was TO seem like the muir
der OF the old home friends. 1t was to bt
amatricide, quick or slow death of thai
bting that held the offender for years il
owing arms That home so Overlooking
with devotion was 10 be the bulwarl
against sin IL those first years away iron
Us sacred hearthstone. As Christ com
maaded Satan 10 get behind him, and die
ms easily, because of the great heavens
around him, and because OF the Father il
The heavens, SO the theory of man show
Us youth passing ont into the sinfu
world powerful to resist evil, because o