Carson daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1873-1877, 1877-01-21
SUNDAY READING.

SUNDAY READING.
When the blessings which the sea-
sons always have in store for us have
come, We know that we may trust
Mother Nature, and that there is
sure store Of something for which We
NAV feel thankful. So now we rejoice
in the down-pouring snow and rain,
and see afar, over the steaning hills
and flooded wales and swollen rivers
of California that assurance OF plenty
and prosperity whose coming was SO
doubtingly looked for, a week ago.
Never any storm came bringing more
iov than this which whitens the pate
Of the Sierra and gives the desert as
full share of the heaven-sent dispen-
sation as the lushest garden that lies
under vine -trailed walls and amid the
beauties of grove, parterre and gravel
led walks. Nature is impartial. She
has no pets; and the despised sage
brush shares to the full with the tulip
and the rose. See what a sweet singer
Of poetry says:
"The world we live in wholly is
redeemed;
Not man alone, but all that man holds
dear:
His orchards and his maize forget
me-nOt
And heart's-ease in his garden; and
tho wild
Aerial blossoms of the untamed wood,
That make its savagery so home-llke;
all
Have felt Christ's sweet love watering
their roots:
His sacrifice has won both earth and
heaven.
Nature, in all its fulness, is the Lords.
There are no Gentle oaks, no Pagan
pines;
The grass beneath our feet is Chris
tian grass;
The wayside weed is sacred unto Him.
Have we not grOaned together, herbs
and men,
Struggling through sitting earth
weights unto light,
With our high possibility Of bloom
And He, He is the Light, He is the Sun
49,
transmutes
The noisome earth damp into heav-
ems own breath,
And shapes our matted roots, we know
not how,
Into fresh leaves and strong, fruit
bearing stems
Yea, makes us stand, on some con-
summate day,
Abloom in white TRANSFORMATIONS
robes"
The tone of the poem from which we
have given an extract, above, is that OF
q full and abiding and elevating cheer
fulness in, and love for, our surround
ings, our mute neighbors, our daily
encounters and commonplace expert
ences-our life, in short; and not
alone our life but our hope for the fu-
ture and our trust in God. This is the
better, unsectarian, broad, modern
spirit of religious thought. 1t is puri-
flying and ennobling, and leads us on
toward more perfect enlightenment,
and a broader charity; and prepares
mankind to fulfill the destiny be-
spoken for it by the laureate, and pave
the way for the "vslian: man and
free - and the opening Of "the larger
heart and kindiier hand" If men
can become better by the paths which
are pleasantest to them, and if the viz
tuous and beautiful can be but coup
led with the attractive. the sympa-
thetic and the tasteful if men may
drop that which is impure and un-
lovely in their lives and take on that
which is refined and tender and I'M
sinful without finding themselves
abased or made the objects of special
observation if, in short, human ma
ture can see the way plain and open to
a mental and spiritual improvement
without surrendering a proper degree
Of self-assertion and the pride Of indi-
viduali.y, this world will grow better
and more lovely, and that which is
called by the name Of religion will
find a larger and more welcome rec
ognition. Religion, to deal success
fully with man, must not forget or
ignore mans manhood. Theodore
Parker interprets for US this spirit
when he tells us: cit is an old world,
mankind is no new creation, no up
start of to-day, but has lived through
hard times and long. Yet what is the
history Of man to the nature that is in
us all! The instructive hunger for
perfect knowledge will not be conten-
ted with repetitions of the remembered
feast. There are new truths to come,
truths in science, morals, politics,
religion some have arrived not long
ago upon this planet, many a new
thing underneath the sun. At first
men give them doubtful welcome.
But if you know that they are truths,
fear not be sure that they will stay,
adding new treasures to the conscious