St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-06-11
READY FOR DISAPPOINTMENT
Rev. S. G. Smiths Sermon at the
PeOple'S Church..

Peoples Church.
A large audience listened to Rev. S.
g. Smith at the Grand opera house yes
terday morning. He took as his subject
''Ready for Disappointment" He said:
Much of the heroism of life consists
in expecting success. Certain men by
physical organization, full veins, thick
neck, and lion-like body, as well as
plenty of nerve and a certain radiant
expectancy, seem appointed to victory.
politics, of war. No generous soul can
fail to give to these natural leaders
certain tribute of admiration and re-
spect, but it is very superficial reading
OF biography that recognizes only the
larger and palmer events of the out
ward human life. An achievement can
only be really measured by the degree
of resistance which is overcome.
Most biographies tell US more lies than
truth, however honest may have been
their authors; and we ourselves see
through the miStS of uninterrupted
conditions the movements of our friends
and foes. Common men stumble and
fall again and again, but the very great
est at the last weld. It is a del1sion to
suppose that those who deserve success
are always sure to have it. Every page
OF history writes down this truth.
mere was no greater general on earth
than Hannibal, and when an exile from
his country, and hunted by Rome, he
took poison in Bythinia. Men say that
had this OF that happened Napoleon
had not fallen at Waterloo. But the
fall of Napoleon was decreed by his
strength too great for Europe to endure,
and smaller men must combine and
throw him because he was so colossal.
Man is strange and complex being,
he has dreams as vast as the sky, desires
as luminous as the morning. Could we
achieve what
THE BRAIN MAY THINK
and what the heart may long for, how
| great thing were man. But the re-
SultS OF life are out of all proportion
small as compared with effort and in
| tentlOn. We have indeed head of gold.
| but like Daniels vision. there are feet
| OF clay which predict our downfall.
something like this is the true thought
| in regard to every individual human
| life. Not untruly therefore did the
| gifted and lamented Matthew Ar
mold criticise the hurry. rudeness
and bluster Of our American life.
and the general tendency to elbowing
| Which marks American manners. But
| let it be remembered that a greater than
| Matthew Arnold, in discussing 'sthat in
| finite terror from which a man strug-
| giles with his whole soul tOescape" asks,
what is after all the Establishments
! hell" and answers his own question:
with hesitation, with establishment |
pronounce it to be the terror of not sue
| ceeding, of not making money, fame or
! some other figure in the world, chiefly
OF not making money. Is not that a
somewhat singular hell?'
But let us turn from this picture of
the good and bad in the individual hui
man life, and let us try to comprehend
in one broad view the scope of human
history in which the individual is lost
III the achievements of the race. We
behold here with establishment and Joy
that throughout all the ages there has
been perpetual ontiowing of the good
in human history. There has been a
continuous and spiritual upbuilding of
humanity i'll which nothing fails, so
that we are the inheritors OF the sum to-
tai of all sacrifices. and of all Sainthood.
God is in human history, and this is a
needtul and sufficient explanation.
From this point of view we may see
that the individual himself in never
broken or defeated; his life is only
transformed and enters into human life
as the rivers into the sea. We hear
much just now about certain Bacon
who wrote, we hardly can say what.
But before him there was a Roger Ba-
con, perhaps far greater than the one
by whose fame he is overshadowed: and
this Bacon of the thirteenth century
waited 600 yeers for the world to grow
up to appreciate his writing and to print
his manuscripts. Much human thought
and action lies dormant in social win
ter, but the time comes when sun and
soil are ready and they grow into
strength and beauty.
The transcendent is therefore the true
life. 1t is life OF allegiance to what
ever truth we see, whatever convictions
we experience, whatever opportunities
we have; but 1.-THE true life is essentially
unseen, as the true man is. 1t is a life
of reason, life of faith, life of love
for man is shirt