New-York tribune., 1882-04-23
NrwvoRK DAILY TRIBUNE SUNDAY APRIL % 1sssTwEIyE PAGES

some lower but more remunerative work, or he
degrades his art into the manufacture OF sala-
ble wares paints cheap, false pictures, writes
popular, trashy books or plays. when he
grows old lac tries perhaps to take mp his real
work again, but the magic power Is lost Tor
ever. "The mill will never grind with the
water that is past" Then he himself and all his
friends bcmoan wasted life, regard him rs in
some sort a martyr, and invariably, III vague
way, hold God accountable for it and for the
cruel injustice of the fact that man cannot be
Pegasus and a cart-horsc at once, cannot carry
grist to the mill for his family and touch en-
pyrean heights at the same leap. God, too, Is
held responsible for the failure OF overworked
brains as in this last pitiable case
Now the popular error in this matter Is that
when mans motive in life is good, the puDlic
expect God to work miracle in his behalf 10
help him to accomplish it, and are aggrleved
with sense of the Divine injustice II 1t Is not
done. No man who was not ii fool, II he had a
delicate machine for weaving lace would 90 to
work to make carpets with it, or be surprised if
he did, that it would break to pieces with the
strain. Or if he had an instrument of tone and
compass fit for rendering divine harmonies, and
chose to jangle only watzes and discords on lt
for years he would not be indignant at Nature
or God if il was out of tune and forever incapa-
bic of echoing heavenly music Yet every man
of sense knows that his physical brain is ma
terial machine, an Instrument, subject to mate
rial waste and injury just as much as any
Cremona. If he persstently maltreats IT, hc
alone is responsible for its ruin. God is not
accountable. He does not work material MIRA
clcs for any man, however good his motive III
life NAV be- Christ Himself would not throw
Himself down from the pinnacle even to prove
that He was the Son of God, in the hope that
lie would be miraculously held up. The man
who puts an intolerable weight on his brain
throws himself down in such hope; and the
man who gives up his real high mission for a
while in the world in order to grub money or to
set his family on fashionable basis, III the
hope that he can go back to it at will, has
thrown himself down suicidal height, from
which no angels will bear him up.
Each man and woman is set down here in the
world with "A stock of physical and mental ca
pacity subject to inexorable laws to which or
dinarv common sense will enable him or her to
submit If he chooses to break them, not all
the faith of the patriarchs and apostles will
save him from the punishment. If the son OF
saint tippes brandy every day, his fathers
Righteousness and his own late repentance may
bring his pardon from God but will not keep
off delirium tremens. When PattisOn, the Al
rican missionary, exposed himself to storm and
tempcst for years in preaching Christ, he doubt
less won a heavenly crown, but he was racked
no less with neuralgia and deyoured with fever.
Gods mercy is infinite in dealing with the soul,
but, oddly enough, it is the sceptic only that
expects it to interfere with physical laws which
are inexorabe. The earlier in life we recog-
nize their strength and unaterable fulfilment
the better we shall serve the purpose for which
we are sent into the world.