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

- 49, -O~@OSNSS =
it takes the form Of some great enter
prise that becomes fruitful of inesti-
mable blessings to mankind, and it
works slowly under institutions and
civilizations until it transforms them
as by Magma Chartas or French Revolt
utions.
Consider various ways in which this
is illustrated. 1t was three centuries
ago that an obscure monk spoke words,
declaring the right of private judgment;
yet, although at first despised and then
feared because words of truth, they
have echoed and re-echoed throughout
Christendom until there is no church
in the Protestant communion which
they have not at least partially recon
structed; there is no earnest thought
full spirit which they have not made
more Independent and bold-and their
mission is not half completed yet. The
trainers of our immortal Declaration
of Independence wrote these words in
that great charter Of American free
dom: "All men are created equal and
are endowed with inalienable rights to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness" They did not mean all of that;
certainly they did not intend to convey
the broader meaning which we find in
that language. They simply meant
that white men were equal in political
rights before the law. But it was a
truth mightier than they Thought and
the applications of which they could
not limit. For those words, dropped
into our country's organism, expanded
in meaning until, like the swollen
wedges with which the Egyptians split
the great stone blocks in their quarries,
they tore false union asunder; they
fell upon the manacles of bondmen I'M
til every slaves shackle was broken;
they armed million men for deadly
strife; and then, having made the old
order yield to new, they gave us a re-
constructed union upon the lasting
basis of common freedom and equal
rights. Think again what an illustra-
ton the author Of our text has fur
nished US. In imagination we hear a
humble and unlettered peasant speak
ing his simple message of love to few
Galilean fisherman, or to common folk
gathered out Of curiosity to hear his
strange utterances; around him a proud
Roman power holding its conquered
provinces together as if by bands of
iron, whose legions made the very earth
tremble with the shock of their arms,
and whose magnificent walls and pal
aces rose in their strength as if to defy
all the ravages of time. All this ma
terial show has passed away, but his
words have not passed away. They
have penetrated lands that never saw
the cleaning eagles of Caesar, and
have literally gone forth to the ends of
the world. They have reared hospitals
to save life in place of Colosseums where
it was destroyed. They have bound
men together by the stronger tie of
brotherhood. They have sent them
forth to conquer each other with deeds
of charity and messages of goodwill,
and still working in the hearts of hui
manity they are the living agencies
that shall prove the final arbiters in all
strikes and in conflicts between men
and States.
They shall not pass away because
they are true; but they shall conquer in
the power of him who said, $50 shall
my word be which goeth forth out Of
my mouth, it shall not return unto me
void, but it shall accomplish that which
1 please, and it shall prosper in the
thing whereto 1 sent it." Other words
shall die, not indeed because they fail
ed to find utterance through the MAJ
arine's lips, but because they are false
words having no vital part in the uni
versal order-having no enduring
strength because underived from the
central source of truth, God. There
fore they shall fall out and perish since
all evil shall disappear when the truth
comes to occupy its own place. Car
lyle tells us that in the rendering of a
Scotch psalm in the Highlands the true
notes alone support one another, "all
following the one true rule" while the
false notes, each following its different
false rule, destroy one another, SO that
the psalm, discordant enough when
heard near, becomes perfect melody
when heard afar. Thus all truth is
destined to triumph, every falsehood
or wrong falling out because of its in
herent unfitness to survive. AS the
best policeman in our cities is known
to be the light, so the true word needs
but to get spoken and all falsehood
shall flee from IFS radiant presence.
Nor need we be misled if the form
of expression changes. Admitting that
we have accurate reports, jesus words
are not the very phrases that fell from
his lips. One may repeat them like a
parrot and be not a whit better for the
exercise-yea, may be worse, if hypo-
critic. 1.-THE words that 1 speak unto