Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-11-23

cult, a being differing from us in creed
and to see in him who bows a Catholic
! or Jew brother of ourSelf. Its al
Aladdin that turns our little island
into continent and makes us citizens
of a world. The love of self has never
been sentiment out of which grew
much greatness. If You will look into
the heart of Paul or Christ, or any OF
the most powerful which have moved
! across time, you will not find egotiSm
there, but you viii find a spirit which
! forgot itself in presence of the progress,
and happiness, and destiny of man,
kind. Ego has, never been the
eagle of lofty flight; it has never
been q flaming chariot upon which
man has moved heavenward, but il
has been a milestone about the neck,
sinking into the sea all who have
worn such rude ornament. All this
because the interests of humanity are
so vast and precious that nature never
fOrgiveS those who close their eyes in
presence of such spectacle. The
grandeur Of nation begins when it
begins to seek the highest welfare of
all its people, white, or tawny, OF
black, and the glory Of Jesus Christ
will roll like flood Of light forever
out of the act that He lived and died
for mankind. Thus charity is the
soul, that image of God, out on an er-
rand of love. AS the universe is the
Deity becoming external, becoming so
embodied that other life besides God
may exist and may have stars for its
home, SO charity is the soul breaking
away from the bosom and building up
worlds of love and light where once
were chaos and darkness. In its
name the school-house began to ap-
pear in far-off times and has repeated
itself until each country road becomes
the path of the dear school children
in it's name bands of holy women ex-
plored the hills and forests around
Rome, seeking the infants which vice
had exposed to wild beasts and the
elements; in its name all the mission
airy ships have sailed; in its name all
the hills of Prussia are ornamented
with asylums for all sufferers, the
sunshine of Nature and the sunshine
of love thus meeting amid the leafy
trees in its holy name all the battles
of human rights have been fought; in
its name came Jesus Christ as though
heaven itself were imperfect unless
he could live and die here and then re-
turn to the sky ornamented and
blessed with earthly charity. He de-
sired to import to heaven the glory of
earthly benevolence.
In presence of PauFs group, how
insignificant became the ideal statues
of the Greeks. Paul had seen the
classic graces; he had read of them in
Homer, in Pindar, in Hesiod. In
painting, in sculpture, in poetry, he
had seen the graceful three-Aglaia,
Euphrosyne and Thalia-g gracefulness,
beauty and success; but coming to
these ideals after he had studied the
lofty philosophy of Jesus Christ, how
their former beauty must have seemed
to him to have faded! That world of
brightness and beauty and triumph
seen by the classics had sunk from his
sight, having been made dim by the
splendOr of new world. He had
been with Christ. The ideals of Athens
"a perfect body, a beautiful face, sue
cess at the Olympian games, or in the
theater, or in oratory- humble
dreams compared with the philosophy
of human life that fell from the lips
of Him of the manger and cross.
Wonderful as Greece was, its ideals
were great only while there was no
rival of Athens except Carthage, or
Alexandria, or Babylon. When all
around was twilight, then the Greek
shone forth in clear luster; but l.u
classic ideas could compete with the
wide thoughts which sprang forth
from Palestine after the tears and
blood of Christ had sprinkled it's grass.
What was Jupiter as carved n ivory
by Phidias, Jupiter as seen by the
highest classic mind, as compared with
the Heavenly Father of the Gospels,
and with the loving Teacher on the
mountain side? The greatness of ma
ton or age is always to be measured by
measuring its greatest ideals. What
in this comparison would the physical
beauty or the mental refinement or the
military or gymnaStic victory of that
brilliant nation weigh against the
morals and deeds and hopes of the
Testament? In all Greece there were
no doctrines that could stand beside
these three of the apostle. As the
laundering Zeus and the hght-darting
Apollo were deprived of their fillets by
Him who wore a crown of thorns, Sc
the three graces of the Greek and Ro-
man world were cast forever into the
shadow by the unveiling of these new
virtues, faith, hope and charity. What
was Agalia, that embodiment of al
| brightness of eye or soul, compared
with the faith that holds fast to a di.
vine principle through days dark and
| long? What was Greek K~gracefulness
seen alongside that hope which in.
spires the soul from its mothers arms
| to the grave? What was classic sue.
cess in ait or in conflict seen by the
side of the charity that loves all men
always? Looking over the wide world
| Paul, with the vision of a prophet and
with a cOmprehensivenesS almost di
vine, declared that there abide three
new graces, Faith, Hope and Charity
of which the loftieSt and lovelieSt is
Charity, and although eighteen hun
dred years have passed since the aware
was made, years of unrivaled thought
and infinite joy and sorrow, there is
no hand that would dare touch this
sacred group. We add nothing, We
take nothing away. These three viii
"Gbide' forever.-From Recent Ser
mon by Prot. Daoid Saoing.
THE French administration of woods
and forests is accustomed every yea
at this period to mark the trees whicl
! are to be cut down the next season
J That work has been rendered sinner