The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1879-03-20

velous continuance of our phenomena
of fields, and verdure, and bird-sono.
ana all the infinite variety of organic
life. 10 imagine that our little world
grows all the roses of the universe, and
sings all the bird-songs, and speaks all
the words, and writes all the poems,
and builds all the homes, and sails ali
the ships, and has all the wit and smile
OF the whole universe, is to make an as
sumption for which there is not the least
possible basis in reason.
The assumption that our universe
came from an Infinite Mind, which built
a palace for Itself, destroys the idea
that all the bodies in the depths of space
are mere deserts until one comes to our
little earth. The absolute truth must
be that there are thousands of worlds
where dwell intelligent beings, and hap
py, and perhaps sorrowful, beings like
man. And since the laws of the universe
are all OF one quality so far as science
has studied them, it is almost demon
strated verify that upon other planets
around other suns there are men who
till the ground, and who sail the seas
with ships, who build cities-other chill
dref who laugh with joy, and who
| pluck wild flowers ON other hills than
those of these earthly shores. For the
| joy and laughter of the young heart is
too glorious thing to be confined to
such an Insignificant star as our earth.
| Our world has been so often shaken by
the cannons of war, and sprinkled by
| the blood Of fathers, leaving the chill
dren to weep orphans tears, that we
may well hope that there are worlds
where nothing comes between the young
hearts and the sparkle in their eye, and
| the roses on their cheek
This will we all confess, that, if God
made the universe for His own pleasure,
the greatest part of such universe is
such conscious intellectual being as
man. Man is the sublimest witness of
the power and wisdom of his Maker,
and it is not probable that in no world
but this little one did the Creator give
being to that kind of soul which we
see upon this little globe. It seems al
most certain that man repeats himself
upon ten thousand worlds, and may be
here in his smallest nature, in the least
of intellects and the least of morals, Just
as he is dwelling upon the smallest of
Gods globes. -.
Let us now abandon the fate of other
stars and return to our own. In our
first and largest proposition it was af-
frmed that the Creative Mind fashion
ed the material world because of its re-
f1exive action upon Himself. He was the
end to be blessed. 1t is the Sculptor,
not the statue, that is bless
ed. 1t must therefore follow
that the material is formed
to bless the mental, and man having
been made mental and spiritual being,
the external world becomes great min
lister to his education and happiness. If
Jehovah himself needed heaven and
an earth, the land and sea, and all these
innumerable contents of the Cosmos,
needed them because He was Mind;
then man, the child and image of God,
is picked up by the arms of the same
law and is borne rapidly forward into
higher mental power and deeper happi-
ness. The heavens, which declare and
contain and cause the glory of God, re-
veal the path of man and treasure up
much of his mental and spiritual great
ness. z--
The material world comes to man and
helps furnish him with language. His
words are made out of its qualities and
quantities. He learns highness from
the mountains and the clouds, and then
he speaks of high virtue; he learns
depths from the earth's chasms, and
speaks of the depths of iniquity; he
sees bird pass OF swift wing, and can
then speak of the flight of time; he be-
holds the ocean, and ever afterwards
has an image of divine power and love;
he marks dying plant, and then he
can say "man cometh forth as flower
and is cut down." Thus came the ma
terial world to the soul in its early Ca
reer, and dressed it in beautiful Ian
guage, that as a painter puts his emo
tions upon canvas, all minds might
pour forth their feelings in words.
Words are urns made of material things
into which urns the soul may pour it
self outward and be passed over to its
friend. Fsu
Having given humanity language the
material passes onward and furnishes
thought and emotions to put into those
holy urns. Look into any appreciative,
sensitive mind and mark what place in
that spirit the sky, and sea,Aand land,
and the seasons, and the field, and
bloom are assigning to themselves. And
welcome tenants are they all! Our ideas
of the vast come to US when the astron-
omers inform US that there are suns
whose light, which can outfly electrici-
ty, could not have reached us in a mil
lion years; that the sea star, Sirius, is a
sun equal to 1900 suns such as the one
we all love. And yet our sun is one of
the most measureless things of which
we can dream. We owe all things to it..
1t grew the trees, and grasses, and ferns
which a million years ago made the
coal-beds of the world; it melted the