The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-07-03

All that is sweet and persuasive should
be refined within him. He should be-
come marked, as one who holds COM
munion with the Highest. His face
should shine like an angels; his touch
thrill with miraculous power; his hands
drop blessings into the lap of need; his
voice echo like the trump of Gabriel.
His faith should be to him for genius,
for learning, and for experience, to set
him in the seats of authority, and in
vest him with the sceptre of rule among
men. Out of the groveling habits Of
earth, he should continually rise to
converse with heavenly presences, visi-
bly, redeemed from the power of the
world, the flesh, and the devil, into that
fellowship that is from above. Is it
not so, brethren And why, then, has
it not been SO? Why have the weak
vanquished the strong, and the slow
outrun the swift Why is it that men
can still doubt whether we serve God
or ourselves and that the great works
of humanity show so seldom our badge !;
and that we still follow afar off who
were born to lead l think it is be-
cause we have not yet reached, or, per-
haps, have just now begun to reach the
stage of realization.
Men may utter truths, may dissect
them analytically, and defend them log
ically, long before they appreciate their
inmost import. They perceive rather
their outline, their dimensions, their
orbit, than their intrinsic contents.
The apostles themselves were reporters
of more than they could understand.
In the order of natural evolution the
apologist, the scholiast, the theologian,
precede the saint. They are his fore
runners to prepare the way and make
straight his paths but he makes the
conquests. What they preach he prac-
tees what they teach he embodies !;
their distractions pass into the very
fibre and marrow of his being, and in
that concrete expression, 'speak as
never man spake." There is first the
period of preparation, of discovery, and
arrangement, and proclamation then
comes the stage of realization, when
men begin to think from the truth in
ward, from the law to life, and to raise
with augmenting solicitude the solemn
inquiry, "How does this new heavens
and new earth affect me What am 1
to do and to be in its presence ?"
Perhaps we should not charge it as
fault upon our fathers that they did not
pause IN tt,fiejn- wssfare, Is let 'rhe prl1s.
ciples for which they commended seize
upon heart and conscience with all
their Transforming power. But we
shall be very much at fault if, in an
era Of comparative peace, we fail to
step forward upon the higher plane
denied to them, but made possible by
their sacrifices. What might have been,
in the direction of opening every cham
Der Of our being to be possessed by the
truth We proclaim, may yet be. And 1
beg to suggest some of the methods by
which the advance may be secured.
No agent Of the wished for progress
can be more efficient than the pulpit !;
but even the pulpit is liable to have its
"besetting gins" The gaze of the Uni
versalist is constantly tempted towards
the future. 1t is very pleasant to close
the eyes and dream ourselves away into
that wonderland of recompense and
fulfllment of which all our oracles tell.
And there are unquestioned times
when all the consolation of that un-
speakably great hope should be invoked
and shed upon the weary and the bruised
heart. A mere consolatory gospel, how
ever, if made the staple of preaching,
is certain to produce spiritual enerva-
ton and sluggishness. Every descrip-
ton or announcem emit, therefore, of
those good tidings we are privileged to
bear, every emphasis of the divine love.
requires to be braced and balanced by
an equal emphasis of two auxiliary
truths. First, that the kingdom Of
heaven is at hand;" that every essen
tial element of that life which we are
apt to project only upon the screen of
the remote future, is already within us
or around US. Truth is here-all truth;
God is here, and here he is approach
able; duty is here; eternity is here. We
are living in the midst of heaven this
moment, blind to it's beauties, rebel
lious under its laws. OF what avail
would it be to be transported thither
and yon? The essential spiritual envi-
ronment remains everywhere the same,
a dull, unlovely picture to those who
cannot see, or cannot feel, but the sum
of all delight to those who have an
open vision and susceptible temper.
Dream no more Tomorrow will be as
to-day, the next world as the present ;
and this not to dwarf and shame our
high anticipatiors of what will come,
but to reveal to us the equal splendor
of what has come.
To this truth add another; namely,
that all Gods gifts are conditioned not