Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-11-14

tendency of all high spiritual excellence
to try to incarnate itself. "a kind of
analogy | might draw, if were fond
of such things, between the incoming
into the world OF the divine nature and
the inclosing itself in the human flesh
and being, subject to the law of time
and space and matter, and that which
is in us is forever seeking to incarnate
itself. We seek to give our thoughts
form. We seek to give our feelings
an expression in conduct We are
seeking incarnation of that which is
rarest and noblest, so that it shall have
some physical and outward expression.
So of conduct; Whatever graceful,
noble, free, large, manly, lordly in cour-
age, is beautiful; and because it is
beautiful it belongs to the religious
projection Of man. And all conduct
that has in it the element of heroism-
how beautiful it is The fidelity that
cost self-denial that finds its reward
in the fruitiou of that which is served
the angels of the cradle and crib; those
Protestant saints, maiden women, that,
having no family, adopt the children
and the household of those with whom
they dwell and spend love and time
all service, and pain even, and watch~
fulness for the sake of others. How
beautiful is this quality of conduct.
We are fond of calling them old maids,
and shameless representations are
Astounding in poetry and in the Illus
trative magazines, gaunt and long.
featured, undesirable in physiognomy,
and yet tell you that these are the
Protestant saints whose life may be
externally most humble, but whose
want Of the things that comfort ordi-
nary life is Gods great grinding wheel
by which is brought out in them the
sanity qualities, patience, gentleness,
sweetness. We don't usually call those
of our own family cold maids" l
have been brought up by an aunt as
full of knowledge, as full of moral
quality as l have ever met, full of
sanity love, full of service. l look
upon her as next standing in order to
to my blessed mother, and no one
should dare in any trifing manner to
call Esther an old maid. She is an
unmarried angel, that is all. There
, may be some that have lacked the
wedding and lacked the other quail
ties, too; but there be multitudes
enough to redeem the kind from the
reproaches, from the innuendoes, from
an unmannerly ridicule, and you shall
find all through society scattered
instances, for you never find pearls in
heaps, but only small and usually
homely shells-instances of heroism
and Indignantly in conduct that should
excite the admiration of mankind.
Religion seeks to enrich all the feeling
and carry them by education to that
! point in which they themselves are in
. trinsically beautiful, both in their mel.
odies and in harmonies, for the com
binations of emotions are to be thought
; of as we'll as their individual beauty
{ and so also their excellence, and sc
. their whole conduct until the man il
, established in his outward and inwsrC
life in sucn way as that everybody tha
= sees him may say: Il don't believe
. in the Bible and | don't believe il
i religion, but believe in that man."
u Well, that man is an embodiment o
. you and a very imperfect embodiment
. of what the essential spirit is. 1t EN-
It bodies all that is Hottest in life, all tina
e is purest, all that is most movable, al
e that is most enduring, all that is mos
II aspiring, all that is selfdenying for tn
% sake ofIbenefcence. That is religion
d and wherever you can combine tn
% outward and inward, there you hav
}, saintship-beautiful conduct with tn
y beautiful originatiOn of it in the emo
1t ton and soul and intelligence-an
P whosoever lives so as not to produce il
s, some one or other the impression G
n the beauty of religion falls short of tn
ID genius of the New Testament.
+, A letter written in Galveston an,