The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-06-16

word, as it passes from the lips, appears
like the most unsubstantial and vola-
tile of things, there seems something
almost audacious in this language at
tributed to the great Nazarene. Re-
garded from purely material stand
point there is no comparison between
an articulate sound and this terrestrial
scenery with which we are encircled.
Think of this great world-theater of
human action, with It's fretted roof, its
horizon wall and its solid floor, and
then think of the actors speaking their
brief lines in words dissolved in the air
almost as soon as they are uttered !
Why, at first thought it seems the
merest folly to affirm that the vapory
EXPLANATIONS are the more enduring !
OF the words that may be spoken here
this morning it would appear as the
widest dream to fancy that any should
be more lasting than the solid column
or the substantial wall against which
it strikes and yet, if that word be the
vehicle of truth, it shall exist as po-
tent and imperishable force among men
long after decay has seized upon this
temple to untwist its fibers into threads
of dust or to rebuild them into thou
sand new forms of beauty.
Among the curious discoveries which
comparative philology has made is
that of the life of the ancient Aryans.
They were prehistoric people. living
away back there in Central Asia, and
from whom all modern European races
are descended. They had their houses,
temples, Notifications, domestic and
warlike implements; yet these, doubt
less regarded as the most substantial
of their creations, were long ages ago
swept down into dust, so that not a
vestige of them remains. But the
stranger fact is that the only survivals
which have saved that people from ut
ter oblivion are the words which they
spoke and which they doubtless count
ed 'tri6es light as air." And just as
geology shows US occasional fossils, the
remnants of remote past that teemed
with life, from which an Agassiz or a
Lyell has been able to reproduce the
former condition of our earth, so out
of these fossil words embedded in the
Sanskrit language, philologists like
Max Muller have, after manner, re-
built the crude civilization of that ex-
tinct people.
Yet, striking as this instance is, it is
only one illustration of general law.
The seemingly most substantial is con-
tinually giving way to the superior
force of the apparently insubstantial.
In this new season upon which we
have just entered, how soon, as if in ODE
dience to the mandate of an invisible
potentate, the whole face of nature will
be changed To-day these are silent,
yet mighty forces, swelling rootlet
bulb and bud that ere long will give
us TRANSPORTED earth to look upon.
Throughout the entire living creation
the coarse and seemingly more sub
stantial is continually giving way for
the expression Of frier and more ad-
vanced type of being. Just as the
spring fashions in dress were in the
brain as pure thought during the win
ter season, but thrust aside the old
robes which they now replace, SO
throughout natures realm the intangi-
BILE continually comes forward to take
the place of the tangible that passes
away.
1t is in accordance with this law
that thought shows itself to be more
powerful than things. Thought in
deed shapes things and uses them as its
instruments, just as it shapes the car
penter's tool and with it carves those
creations that minister to mans COM
forts and necessities. The curious
words which man uses are his articu-
late instruments with which he changes
the face of nature and the character of
civilization. He arranges them in sem
fences and they become his caravans
and anon his steam-cars to transport his
merchandise over burning deserts
man thus speaking new enterprises
into existence. He marshals them in
columns and squares, and they become
his most effective soldiers to fight the
great battles of truth or to resist the
unavailing onslaughts of error. Again,
he gathers them into the form of a
book which proves the cornerstone of
a new era, grander than the empire of
a Charlemagne or Caesar. He pours
them forth in speech, and they become
torrent that turns the wheels of num-
berless industries. Again they stir a
whole people to some lofty and daring
action; or in gentler ministrations they
nurture and gladden. countless hearts
that feel their benign influence like a
benediction.
But if this is an indication of the
power of mere words, what shall we
say of them when they become the syn
onyms of living truths ? Then they
are the most enduring forces that oper-
ate in this world of ours. A true Word