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

slumbering in the earth. Indeed, if
we trace it further, our truth when
expressed in lettered phrase is in but
one form of its ceaseless transmigra
ton; for all higher and better life is
evinced in the transmutation of quail
ties into superior shapes and values.
The tree standing in the orchard rep
resents something more than the visible
object of trunk and branches and root,
that might sell for so much fuel within
the city gates. Its higher Office is to
take the crude elements of nature and to
work them up into greater values. So
it absorbs the sunshine through its sur
face, and breathes the air through its
leaves, and drinks the rain up by its
innumerable capillaries, while down
into the crude earth it reaches its roots
to feel in the dirt for some of the
chemical elements that it needs. And
thus it adds to its height and girth and
strength; thus it takes sunshine to
weave it into beauty of leaf and BIOS
som, and rain and heat and light are
wrought over until the sweet and
rounded fruit hangs pendant from the
branch in the autumn day. Thus when
we live rightly we take up into our
selves the spirit of love and truth, and
the words spoken in olden time become
converted into the flesh and blood and
character of to-day. Consider, for in
stance, how many men and women are
represented in you. Why, first there
are the qualities of your progenitors;
then of their ancestors far back to prim-
tive man. Unconsciously you have
laid the entire race under contribution
to your making. Even as the princi-
pal branches, together with the innu-
merable rivulets and springs become
tributaries to the great river that
pours through the city to turn its
wheels of industry and bear it's COM
merce on to the wider sea. Take such
a man as Emerson. Why several cler
ical ancestors alone, with all their
sturdy love Of truth and religious train
ing were worked over into him; and
besides these, there were countless
lives from whom he drew vitality as
the watersheds pour their rich and
varied contributions into the Missis-
sippi. We look back and call these
people dead, and say that the truths
which they voiced have become old;
but they live over again in US in every
throb of the heart or concept of the
mind. According to the Morse myth
ology, the ghosts Of the old chiefs still
fought in every battle with their sur
vivors in the flesh, and the warriors on
the sanguinary field fancied that they
could see the shadowy forms hurrying
to their relief, and hear their voices in
the upper air encouraging them to
more heroic daring. May we not say
that in true sense thus the immortal
souls of the past enter into our labors
and conflicts and become participants
in our triumphs Think how a nation
is made up of its great minds; is the
present incarnation of the choice spirits
that have given their lives to it and
built it up, even as the coral insects
rear the foundations of the islands of
the sea, not only gathering the mater
ial but contributing their very bodies
at last to form that wonderful mason
ry! Consider how we realize this in
a great national crisis. When supreme
duties require all of our strength to
perform them, then we call upon the
spirits of the past, and Washington and
Hancock, Jefferson, Webster and Lin
coin, like figures emerging from the dim
ness Of the early dawn, become living
beings again in our midst, speaking
words that nerve US to do our part as
becometh men
No true word ever dies. no true heart
beat ever sinks away in silence upon
oblivion's echoless shore. Since these
are the breathings of the eternal, they
become the everlasting possession and
power of us who share their immortal
ity. They perish not, but in higher
and more glorious forms receive new
incarnations and TRANSFORMATIONS. This
earth which we inhabit and this starry
heaven above our heads shall in time
pass away. Not by sudden convulsion,
nor rolling together like scroll as was
formerly believed, for science tells us
that this globe itself-like yonder
moon-shall at last lose its vitality
and roll lifeless thing in the ocean of
space, as dismantled and deserted
ship is tossed in the trough of the sea.
But long before that, all life which it
contained shall have been taken up
into higher forms in accordance with
that process which we see going on
from the dawn of life upon our globe.
From that time each lower living form
has turned it's contents into a superior
one. We are thus absorbing the lower
life energies and transmitting them into
higher forms of expression. We are
living off this old globe, cutting and
grinding and re-molding its material,
sucking its juices and continually