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

is in the quality and breadth of feeling, |
and that man lives whose moral and |
intellectual hand stretches over the |
continents, down into the depths, up
into the heights. and brings the treas
ures of the universe to him.
BUT HOW SHALL THIS CULTURE e
SECURED 1t is not enough to state the
problem we must know how to solve
it.
~ First of all, one must have the
resolution to make more of himself
than he sees in the average of man
kind. He must realize that there is
something more to be done than to live
by bread. When that conviction
thoroughly burns itself into his soul,
when his will arouses and puts on its
armor, ways will open and means will
be found Of which he does not dream.
GA good Intention says Emerson,
'clothes itself with sudden power.
When god wishes to ride, any chip or
pebble will bud and shoot out winged
feet and serve him for horse"
~ With this resolution, every man
will see in his ordinary work, not sim
ply a means of obtaining his daily
bread, but divinely ordained means
of discipline or culture. Let him use
his conscience so that he will scorn to
do that work in any but the most faith
full and perfect manner. Let him feel,
at the same time, that it is to benefit
others, and let love enter into every
stroke. Let him think that the little
task upon which he is engaged, -even
though it be digging earth, or mending
a fence,-is in some way connected
with the larger work of the world in
all ages; and thus with the divine plan;
and let him lift up his heart to the
Great Architect and Designer in thank
fulness that it is permitted him to bear
his humble part. One of two things
our work must do; it must either be
such a drudgery that it will hang
weights about our higher powers, drag
ging them down and degrading them in
the mire, or our higher powers, con-
science, aspiration, love, must clap
wings to that work and bear it to the
mount of TRANSPORTATION
(3) In other ways God has album
dainty provided to meet these higher
wants which bread will not satisfy.
In the social and domestic relations, he
provides to meet affection. The works
of nature, the records of past ages, the
Investigations of science, meet the de-
mand for knowledge. The things
wrought by poet and artist and sculptor
and musician, meet the demands of
imagination and taste. Philosopher
and prophet, Socrates and Moses, and
Isaiah and Paul, speak to the inner
most spirit. The best religious book
is the best literary book; not that
which aims directly at certain facul-
ties or feelings, but that which ad-
dresses the largest number of faculties
and feelings. The best religious book
is, first of al, the Bible, in its devo-
tional and aspirational portions after
that Shakespeare and all the great poets
and thinkers.
(4 And God himself is accessible
to him who seeks. What, after all, is
this much mooted question of inspira-
ton ? Every man is capable Of inspir-
alton, to greater or lesser extent, capa-
BILE of being lifted from lower to higher
moods, capable of receiving the divine
inbreathing, capable of hearing in his
conscience and aspiration the divine
message. Is not that inspiration ?
Some men, to be sure, have had more
Of it than others, some have caught the
divine tones more clearly and recorded
for us what they heard, that our own
hearing might be rendered more acute.
But the canon is not closed and can
|, not be, until the Almighty has spoken
, ; himself out, or man has persisted from
! every star
| IV.-Two OR THREE POINTS IN
} CLOSING.
) Q) The soul groooS like ,chat it feeds
upon.
l ''Let me know" says thoughtful
} observer, "the outward and inward life
of man, where he goes, the compan-
ionship he seeks, the conversation he
| listens to, the books he reads, the paths
| in which his thoughts travel, and l will
paint his moral portrait for you. 1
know the man. For if the soul feeds
on lust, it grows lustful; if on trivial
; ties, it grows trivial if on iattery, it
grows vain; if on the earth, it grows
r earthly. But if the man feeds ON broad
sympathies, pastures in wi de fields Of
thought, lives upon the grand, bread
, words of God, his soul grows broad,
/ beautiful, rythmical as the oak which
, sucks up the juices of an acre into its
mighty mouth"
~ The cords of our tert giue strength
, to euery soul that Is tried and tempted.
, Some one said to me the other day,
"You do not know what some people
have to endure; You are not tempted as