The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-09-11
THE STILL HOUR.

THE truest life is that which dares to
stand in the street in broad daylight
The truest and hottest religion is that
which shuns no self-revelation. Never
so sharply as now did the world demand
that all that is most sacred shall also be
most open. Spiritual seances that can
be held only in the dark are distrusted.
So is religion that boasts no victories,
save those of the closet and the still
hour. Let men bow in worship as they
will behind colored cathedral lights.
When they emerge from the low doors
they at once pass into the presence of an
unsparing light. The world turns cleo
trio flashes upon them. 1t severely dis
counts, or utterly rejects all inner rap
lures that cannot be translated into hon
esty, integrity and kindness. Not only
must our religion bear this test and sub
NIT to rude and unsympathetic meas
urements from people who cannot un-
derstand what is best in it, but it must
demonstrate its capacity to grow, not
only in the closet but in the world. The
world expects the souls most delicate
feelings 30 take root and flourish in the
crowded street.
Now to meet such tests so rudely and
unrelentingly applied to Christian con-
duct there must be deep Christian ex-
perieuce. And he is a very foolish
Christian who flies into the gale of the
worlds temptations and criticisms with
out a firm hold on God and deep
knowledge of himself. That hold, that
knowledge, can be secured not in the
rattle of the street, not in the whirls of
business or the storms of temptation.
Religion is indeed an action-a move
ment-a vast brotherhood that sends us
swiftly toward our kind, but behind
these, its high endeavors and noble
manifestations, is the mountain where
Moses was, the solitude of the hearts
communion with self and with God
Self-knowledge is the twilight gloom
out of which rise all true prayers.
1.-The intellect" says Aristotle, sis
perfected, not by knowledge, but by
activity" 1t is profoundly true of the
soul. Its action is its life. But there is
no well-directed action without knowl-
edge, "man reveals God," Jacob says.
10 knowledge of God, therefore a
knowledge OF self is of prime impor-
lance. U..
The more should it be insisted upon
because so many external subjects of
study invite attention that that which is
nearest at home is likely to be over
looked. We are great travellers, but
with most of us there is an "undiscov-
cred country" not far away. We are
too busy or too Indifferent, or too timid
to make the acquaintance of ourselves.
Some lessons can be learned in class
or in a crowd; but the heart is shy of
its secrets and retreats from observa-
ton. 1t will be heard only when other
voices are hushed. But it needs to be
heard. Let none of us dare the world
till we have confronted our souls One
half hour each day spent in self review
may determine all the world-battles of
that day. The very beginning of re-
ligion is this self-knowledge, and the
nurse of self-knowledge is solitude.
Nothing should be allowed to draw the
Christian from the still hour. Our
knowledge of ourselves conditions for
us the strength of faith and the Ian
guage of prayer. Only by such knowl-
edge does the need of God become real,
and that need, clearly conceived, is the
bedrock of all worship and all enduring
service. In the moments of the day,
most empty of the world, the soul
should seek the possible wealth of med
ltation. A great essayist saws: eff
thou fill thy brain with Boston and New
York, with fashions and covetousness,
and wilt stimulate thy jaded senses
with wine and French coffee, thou shalt
lind no radiance of wisdom in the lonely
waste of the pine woods" So it NAV
be said OF the soul. Before Boston or
New York get thee, seek the lonely
waste OF secret self-examination. and in
it seek that moral stimulant and sup
port for which every day brings such
ready demands.
And yet how little of the still hour
we have; how increased are the difficult
ties in our tense life of getting IL; spec
tally how little time and patience do
we have for deliberate, sustained med
itation which has characterized all the
strong. saints of the Lord! We can
hold ourselves resolutely to our books
or our business through hours of un-
broken tension, but how little strength