The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-07


the inventor; and the world was right-they had
something better than sense.
1t does not disturb this doctrine that the men
who discover truth are often weak and wicked
Treasure may be carried in an earthen vessel
The message of Jonah was better than he was
so much better that he tried to away from it
or lose it in the sea. But to Jonah there is no
road that does not lead to Nineveh. Embarked
in any water-craft to Nineveh he must go
What God cares for is the message 1t must be
delivered.
The tact that these men used by God are often
exceedingly human in their quality
they utter is not theirs, but His who
sent them. The message is so much purer than
they are that they must be only the channel, the
medium, the urn for heavens lighting
Trace back the poems and find the poets.
They are of the earth, earthly. These lines
were not written from themselves-on the low
mortal level of their daily lives-but from some
mount of vision, in some happy hour when the
eye was unclouded and beauty passed by
The true worker is lifted up above himself as
witness, and reports panorama that the I'M
seen hand unrolls. So it is that we can account
for sweet poems from bitter poets; words of love
and duty from men hateful in life What they
give to us was given to them. The sanity song
Come Ye Disconsolate," was written by the
careless sinner, Tom Moore, in an hour when
the gospel found him. 1t sings like a redeemed
one, because redeemed one sung it to him. He
was good enough not to suppress it; he was not
good enough to tell us whence he received it.
How do you account for the pages of Christian
experience in the Wilhelm Meisterl Read the
poems of Burns and then look at him worn and
wasted; dead at thirty seven. You see there
the source of some of them; but the other, the
immortal ones those must have higher source
than that The breath that is breathed in the
ballad was not made out of common air
Here is the daguerreotype, the photograph.
The sun has been in the heavens long time.
All the materials were ready for the man to use
them. One day he comes, sees what the sun is
willing and waiting to do What was done only
for the rich now the sun does and has an oppor-
tunity to meet the poorest at every village. Is
it little thing9 There is world of comfort in
the invention-the face of mother. and wife, and
child went with the soldier in camp, and march,
and battle, and now that he is in his grave these
sitting by a lonesome hearth, have the comfort
of his face. Now shall the sum of consolation
that springs from this invention be credited to
the poor sinner of Frenchman who let us know
about it,
Upon this point the New Testament is a great
help. In it | read the promise of the gift of a
spirit that shall lead men into all truth. Since
l read that whenever l see men led to bless
the world, am bound to confess that l think
done, believe l know that God is not very far
off; especially when the man who does good does
not mean to do it.
1t seems to me mistake to divide truth into
sacred and profane If only some truth is Gods
whose name is on the restl By the Southern
planters etiquette, the master Of the house was
forbidden to enter his kitchen BY some
such notion of what is proper, we have been led
to think Of God as always in the temple and
never in the world. The workshop has been
suffered to be too dusty.
We have taken bits of earth here and there
and consecrated them to be thereafter holy
ground. We have taken certain men, and with
various ceremonies set them apart to be holy
men, priesthood. One building in a thousand is
dedicated to be henceforth Gods house, subject
to mortgage of an insurance company and per
haps mechanics lien Certain days of the year are
decreed to be holy So, in effect, the Lord Jesus
Christ is shut within certain limits, allowed the
freedom of certain days and places and men.
Now, we see the effect of this A man walks
into church, and walks softly, with head I'M
covered, for it is Goods house" So in a ceme-
terry for it is Goods acre" But once off Gods
premises, as his foot strikes the worlds pave
ment, just so much as the others were holy, in a
special sense, the outside world is profane. 1t
seems to you that the Lord is not on the pave
ment, nor in the market nor about at all
Monday You would not know the man for him
you saw on Sunday.
Setting apart a territory in which God especial
ly is tends to make the Christian commonly seen
in the Middle Ages, or the South American
Christian, devout in the church and riot
Gus at the fandango. 1t makes religion have
the relation to the whole life a priest
to the census, a church to the buildings of q
city or holy day to the year. A religion that
only touches man here and there-now and
then. The history of the Jews being sacred his
tory, all other history is called prOfane The
history of the English race-that is profaue
Moses leading out the slaves of Egypt under
the cloud and through the sea-that is sacred
history. Abraham Lincoln signing the enamel
patton proclamation, and so leading out the
slaves of America-that is profane history. The
war of the covenant, the voyage of the May
flower, the successive steps toward liberty of
body and spirit-the history Of these is still
called profane.
Now, what is the effect upon people who are
Of Crbpic xuba no ab11po
have drawn the lines, and set up the cross, and
entered into possession in the name of
the Lord, and they proceed to claim
all outside of these boundaries-that is the most
of the EARTH the chief part Of its dwellings, all
its business and most of the population, all I'M
baptized persons, all shops, markets. railroads,
factories, schools not parochia all books not the
Bible, the whole course and movement of his
tory that is not classed as sacred, every inven-
ton that lessons toll or that spreads the light,
the art of printing, the loom, the swift ships all
that is done by steam or lightning
That is admitting freely all that the church of
the past claimed, allowing the Lord all the bits
and corners which the church said were his, dis
putting no mark or sign of ownership. They
have taken the mighty remnant and have en-
tered it in the name of civilization, and now they
are very willing to compare results. You, they
say to the church. with your Bible and your
priest, and your Christ, and your Lord-you,
working only on holidays have not done very
much-converted here and there man, bap
tized now and then an infant, built few new
churches, nunneries, theological schools. But
you really have had very little to do with the
world Civilization-human, unbaptized, unre
generate-has wrought all around you, done
great deal even to bring you along and then they
point to the triumphs of steam commerce 1t is
our merchant ship that is kind enough to carry
your missionary to the islands of the sea that we
discovered, that we are civilizing. If the mis-
sionary gets into trouble our cannon will speak
for him, not because he is a Christian, but be-
cause he is a citizen.
John Stuart Mill makes Christianity found
ling Having had our grounds chosen for us by
some old monk or other, these men insist that
we keep on it. For instance, | see the inventors
of the art of printing and the wonderful power
of the press. Forth from that iron threshold go
the thoughts that have been in prison 1t releases
the chained Bible, sends abroad to every creature