St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-12-17
UNFINISHED LIVES.
Our Being Is Incomplete Unless
We Have Religion.

Rev. Marion d. Shutter preached to
the congregation of the Church of the
Redeemer, at the Grand opera house,
upon. the subject, diminished Lives"
taking as his text: "But when that
which is perfect is come, then that
which is in part shall be done away"
There are ancient temples whose
domes and walls and arches have crum-
bled away, leaving here and there but
solitary pillar to mark where once the
completed structure rose in its pomp
and splendor. Such a pillar is Love.
1t will stand when all that is now asso-
ciated with acknowledge. prophecy.
marvellous spiritual equipment-shall
have passed away. These things exist
only i'll part. I'VE know in part and
we prophesy in part" knowledge and
prophecy exist with deficiencies and
limitations. They are not perfect and
final. What is true in these specific in
stances, the next verse indicates is true
of all things else. Everything in this
world is fragmentary. Nothing is COM
pleted. No character or work. or civil
ization is fully rounded. The force of
this fact is felt most keenIy in the spir-
itual life. How many find in themselves
the experience of Paul repeated daily:
'When | would do good, evil is present
with me-" When we have done our
utmost we are yet improbable serv-
ants. In some point our work is want
ing; in some direction our characters
lack. In all this, however, there is no
ground for encouragement. The clouds
are not so dense but that ever and anon
their parting folds reveal star. Thrice
blessed is the soul that from the dregs
of disappointment can bring some drops
of the wine of hope: that turns its
mistakes into sources of wisdom, and
lays its old failures as foundation stones
of grander fortune; that finds in its
imperfectlonS suggestion of some
thing better and marshalS all adverse
forces into line of battle for victory.
We find in the actual state of imper-
lection with which we are familiar an
intimation of life hereafter. Rude be-
ginnings, by the law of development,
point ever onward to higher forms.
Expectancy is the attitude of the whole
creation. We think of this when stand
ing by the new-made grave of one who
has been cut down In youth or early
manhood. The broken pillar is COM
mon device in the graveyard. 1t SYM
bolizeS the unfinished life of him over
whom it is placed. But if we could see
with keener than our outward vision
that column would appear completed.
The life it symboliZeS must also be COM
pleted. Against some brighter sky
must rise the structure whose founda-
tious only are laid upon the earth. 4
strong sense of imperfection shows that
our ideals are high. The loftier these
are, the less likely are we to be satisfied
with our actual attachments. The same
feeling promotes charity among men.
We are not a community of angels.
None OF us have wings. Most of us,
when we take up stones to cast at
neighbours window. drop them in con-
fusion, remembering that our own
houses are glass. There is an inspira-
ton in the thought that we shall not al
ways be what we are. We are on the
road to something better. We are not
Satan'S perfect work; we are Gods rude
beginnings. We are not purple clusters
mature for the wine press of wrath; we
are unripe grapes that need the sun
shine of Lowell