The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-05-26

| DlOSSOmeQ lnGO Dolng or many
capacities. He has imagination and
taste that demand beauty, conscience
that demands righteousness, intellect
that searches every accessible realm of
the universe for nowledge, affection
that Graves love, aspiration that rises to
the Infinite in prayer and worship.
These constitute the larger and better
part of his nature. They are stronger
than we know. A man once said,
when my house was burning, 1 stood
over across the way and looked at it
without any very great trouble of
mind. said, Thank God, that house
burns as well as any rich man's' 1
stood it very well till l saw the bed
room burning where my children were
born, where the cradle was, and where
used to kneel down and pray. L cried
them" He could see the kitchen 60,
he knew that burning Goals were fall
ing into the cellar; but when the room
went in which conferred the memories
that touched the higher nature of the
man, he broke down in tears. That
sight was too much
We all know something about this.
Men and women have stood the loss Of
property amounting to thousands.
Everything, real estate, houses, horses
and carriages, money in the bank, all
have gone, and the heart has braced it.
self, hope has not died, and strong
resolution has remained. But some
where among the treasures that were
hidden from all eyes but yours, treas
ures among which you sometimes spent
an hour in solitude and memory
was a little tress of hair in an old
locket, a bit of faded ribbon, a copy
book with irregular letters in it, or a
pair of little shoes, worn and tattered-
was ever anything more sacred and
pathetic than those baby's shoes ?-one
day these were lost in fire or destroy
ed in flood, and then you refuse to be
comforted. Any other loss you could
bear with greater resignation and
fortitude We live in our affections.
Man does not live by bread alone.
In our great cities where the roar
and smoke of business prevail, birds
instinctively seek the highest buildings
that they may make their nests beyond
the noise and dust of human traffic.
In New Y ork, in the shelter of the arm
of the figure of justice recently remov-
ed from the cupola of the City Hall,
birds built their nests for years. Church
steeples are invariably haunted by
sparrows. The hooks and crarnies in
those elevated structures offer the
safest refuge for the rearing of bird
families. Men fly, like the birds, very
: often, from the noise and rush Of bust
3 ness; their aspirations for something
!. better than material things afford,
r their yearnings for the infinite, take
wings upward. Man does not live by
bread alone; he lives in his ambitions
: and hopes and longings. He lives by
t other words that proceed from the
mouth of God.
s II. These are the capacities witt
D which we are endowed, They exist, il
l possibility, within the lowest and
/. worst of our race. They show them.
, selves in such instances, here an6
there in noble impulse or generous
4 deed, like mountain peaks above the
r waters of flood.
, THE REAL PROBLEM OF LIFE is TIC
BRING THEM INTO PLAY AND FULLY
DEVELOP THEM.
Living" says one, sis the norma
activity of our whole nature. He who
lives least is he who uses the least Of
his nature. He who lives most is ht
who uses the most of his nature" A
violin in the hands of simple peasant
who could only play few tunes fol
rustic merry markings, was very
: different affair from the same violin in
the hands of Ole Bull, whose skilled
t touch drew forth its vast resources
! The human soul is an instrument more
wonderful, but how few of us know
| how to bring out its possibilities. We
: play few Intellectual strokes upon 9
single string.
! Narrowness, in one way or another, il
> the common fault of humanity. Leav
3 ing out entirely those who live in the
r very basement and cellar of their being
8 the lower senses, with whom the graft
fication of appetite is the principal
, thing, there are multitudes in the scale
above these who just as effectually de-
feat the higher purposes of life.
) ID This is done by those who are
, merely what their professions or avoca'
t lions make them. We are preachers
) and business machines, and lawyers
} and physicians, and mechanics, but
r very few of US are MEN, in the broadesI
and best meaning of that term. Each
) one is shut up in some little corner OF
! his nature and there he lives and dies.
/ We understand, of course, that every
one in this world must have his special
J pursuit, that he ought to devote him.
self to it with whole hearted enthusi-
asnn that he oupht TO be able TO saw.