The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-11-21
COMMON SENSE.
One OF the Most Uncommon Things We
Meet With in This World.


Meet With in This World.
One OF the most uncommon things
we meet with is plain common sense. 1t
is the possession not of one common
mind, but the possession of a sense
common to a thousand minds The
person gifted with common sense sees
things as they look to the average
mind when once their true relations
have been defined. To illustrate: The
late Chief-Justice Church was wont to
say in the early years of his practice,
when case came before him: ''The
law ought to be" thus and so; when his
partner consulted the books, the statute
invariably confirmed the view which
the Chief-Justice had taken. The great
law-givers of the world have been men
of supreme common sense. The blind
ness of passion. the mists of prejudice,
the bonds of bigotry, the narrowness
of conventionalism, could not warp or
dim or distort their clear and far
vision.
Common sense is not an aecretion
from without, but a growth from with
in. Schools and colleges can not endow
their pupils with common sense; many
a learned fool and crank and wooden
head rejoices in a diploma. Churches
and theological schools do not endow
their disciples and students with COM
mon sense. Hear this from the super
intendents of the Congregational Home
Missionary Society: 1--WE deeply regret
that not all our ministers have been
literally educated, and yet many who
have enjoyed all the advantages of col
lege and seminary training are hope
lessly inefficient; due sometimes to a
lack of common sense. The latter is
absolutely fatal to success in our work.
Learning may be acquired, an unconse-
Grated man may come to know a deep
spiritual experience, but in case of a
man born without common sense, we
know of no remedy but death.
We have little hope of relief from or
daining councils. From time to time
we hear Of man who is refused ordi-
nation on doctrinal grounds, but never
because he lacks brains, common sense
or force of character
Religion has been defined to be
'sanctified common sense" The first
requisite for successful minister has
been well said to be common sense,
then piety In all the professions, in
all the trades and industries of the
world, he who is most gifted with COM
mon sense will, other things being
equal, achieve the largest success.
We hardly agree with the sentiment
quoted above that in case of man born
without common sense there is no rem
edy but death. The blind learn to
substitute other senses, in a great de-
gree, for the sense of sight. The dumb
learn to speak mechanically. The deaf
read speech on the lips. Those born
without common sense may be taught,
if they are taken young enough, to act
as though they had it in some small
measure, and thus make it become a
second nature to them, and those in
whom it is but as a grain of mustard
seed may cultivate it with reasonable
hope of tolerable fruitage.
1t is only two hundred and fifty years
since ''Galileo, at the age of seventy
years, on his knees, and clad only in a
shirt of sackcloth," was forced to abb
jure his theory, based on scientific
methods Of inquiry, that the earth, re-
volYed around the sun. For all the
ages before him men had believed the
earth to be the center of the universe,
and that all the heavens revolved
around it. We laugh at the ignorance
and foolishness of those who could be-
lieve so preposterous doctrine, but
we are foolish as they. How many a
man and woman believe and act on the
theory that they are each individually
the center of the moral and social uni
verse, and that everything revolves
around them. Common sense is the
scientific method applied to the affairs
of common l:fe 1t gives man power to
see the true relations of himself to 9TH
ers and to the facts of life, and to act in
harmony with these relationS.-N r
T3.sba42ze