The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-07-14
THE GREAT MEDIATOR,


tion." We are built up, in the begin
ming and all along, out of the elemental
ry substances of the air that is above
US and the soil that is beneath us, and
when our temple of flesh falls down,
then we dissolve again into the same
elementary substances. But while this
is strictly true, it is just as strictly true
that we are not built up out of these
elementary substances in their element
airy forms, pure carbon, oxygen, hydro
gen, nitrogen and whatever else enters
into our composition. We live on the
soil and in the air, but between these
two and our bodies there is a constant
mediation needed, the mediation of veg
etables, fruits, animals. Until these
elementary substances have become
vegetables, fruits, animals, they do not
appear upon our tables or in our pan
tries. And thus nature is constantly
at work mediating for us,-mediating
between our physical wants and the
substances that will supply those wants.
Even in the winter time of northern
ATTITUDES, when the earth seems torpid,
there is process going on in the secret
laboratory of nature, whose end is the
making-up Of the human race. Some
times it goes on quietly, out Of sight,
all the changes yelled from us by the
Ir;ff &c M
violently, some of the changes percept-
ible, as when the hard frost harrows
the soil with seemingly cruel force.
The process is more perceptible in the
spring and summer, when termination,
growth and fruitage are going on, the
full results of which are seen in the
autumn when the sheaves, the vintage
and the orchard show off their gold and
their purple and their crimson. The
mediation of nature is indeed subject
vast, instructive, wonderful, showing
that we are in the hands of Father
who never forgets or neglects to make
suitable provision for the physical
wants OF his SroaV family.
Going up step higher and looking
at human life in another aspect, the
intellectual and emotional, we still find
ourselves in this System of media
tion." We have thoughts and feelings,
but how are they to be changed to
othersp Only by some mediating pro-
cess. An individual clasps your hand.
If the clasp be warm, tender, clinging,
akeen. sweet, subtitle thrill goes up and
down your nervous system with electric
speed, and you know you are in the
presence of friend. The hand is the
mediator of the loving heart. On the
contrary, if the clasp be cold, rigid,
short, a keen, harsh, cruel thrill goes
up and down your nervous system with
the same electric speed, and you know
you are in the presence of an enemy.
The hand is the mediator of the hating
heart. And how much these hand
clasps do in real life can never be told.
Lovers meet in crowd and are made
supremely happy by the contact of their
palms and fingers; and enemies meet in
the same crowd, and are filled with de-
moniac rage by the contact of their
palms and fingers. And just so the
eye is the mediator of mind and emo
ton. There is the soft light of affec-
ton burning in it, and there is the mad
glare of passion cleaning there. The
voice, too, is wonderful mediator, it's
every tone expressing change of
thought, from one that is vindictive or
careless to one that is affectionate or
intense. Indeed the voice is the great
and common mediator between the men
women and children of the race, as all
can speak some language, and language
| interprets the secrets of one to the
other. And we may add the mediator
ship of gestures, as when person of
one nationality meets person Of an
other, each ignorant of the others spo-
ken or written language, then the ges-
lures come in and do wonderful me-
diatorial office. And indeed there is
often mediatorship of the whole per-
son, the general aspect revealing the
inner tone, kindness, gentleness, hui
mility, expressing themselves in one
way, and cruelty, harshness, pride, ex
pressing themselves in another and
their own way. Some people affect US
by their presence as does flower,
flower that not only shows beauty of
form and delicacy of color, but radiates
a delightful fragrance. Others affect
us as does a stone, a stone that shows
only rigidity of form, dullness of hue
and fills you with strong desire to
skip it into deep river, or kick it out
of your way =.
But the mind and heart has yet other
mediators. They reveal themselves
through written words, in literature of
various kinds; and some Of these
minds and hearts reveal not simply
their own thoughts and feelings, but
the thoughts and feelings of their coun
trymen. There are great thinkers and
great feelers, if 1 may use that odd ex-
preston, who are the mediators of ma
tional thought and sentiment, and their
L.