The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1889-12-05

fnists that gather about the spider
webs, dot hillside and vale, until
the sun gets above the tree-tops,
and then they are gone. Are they
lost
The fogcomes up from its spring
beds, reaches ont its arm in the
tangled forest and gnlch, and sits
brooding over the valley, goes
away az poisIessly as it came. Il
it Iostl
The rivnIet prattlcs its way to
creek and overwhelming with il
+nnmultiplied thousands Of things
adrift. Arc they lost!
The ocean, surging against the
rocks Of ages, huggine islands and
beating upon mainland, playing
with the dolphin and the whale,
are myriad-laden, and their beds
the uneasy resting place Of the
gifts Of countless centuries. Are
they and theirs losts
Nothing is lost. Not the little
crystal that is washed from the
granite mountains not the mote
that dances in the sunbeam not
the leafiet that goes eddying past
us in the whirlwind i; not the old
oak that yields to the tempest and
kisses the earth; not the smoke
that eurls from the kissing mouth
Of a volcano--nothing perishes.
They come back to play their part
in nature.
If they7tlo not where have they
Comet What supplies the was
tage? Are they like lost spirits,
drifting with the clouds and pass-
ing away in some form beyond
this to another worldi The law
Of graviation, imbedded in all
matter, says sNo.!n Otherwise lit
tie by little the world would wear
out.
Whence comes this self-sustain-
ing or reproductive principlea Il
antedates humanity and passes to
the Infinite, Reasoning according
to the Amanner#ef-nan-What
resting place has athcisms An
limitation is its twin-sister. Nei-
Their can be supported BY any
known rules Of logic, and both are
opposed to the worlds laws. Z
Grant that there is nothing in
the common belief of people, in q
higher power, than man. Say
that all We know is matter. Wht
made it? Man can resolve, but
cannot create it. Suppose he
could. Who made hima If he is
the development of some lower
order of animal, who made the
germ from whence he sprang
Atheism plants its feetinowhcre
has no home hereafter, reaches
forth its hand to grasp something
and catches nothing. 1t denies
everything and demands proof
when, the burden rests upon il.
Who tinted the cloud fringes
with fading sunlight? Who
built the snowy peaks and planted
tho forest? Who starr ecked the
heavens! Who made the greatest
Of all luminaries, the SUM- Athe-
ism says "nobody.r And who is
this nobody that can do these
great thingsa SO far above us and
all that haze gone before that We
cannot measure the distance and
yet nothing. An about US We
can see something, we can feel 1t,
Does it spring up from nothing
If so, what is nothing? Where
is its seeda
All races, in all times, have had
their religious ideas; there has
been a never-ceasing yearning to
look beyond this to another life.
Froms~this have come theories
and practices in multiplied hun
dreds. What test should be APP
piled to determine the best
Surely that which does the most
to refine and exalt.
Confucius taught philosophy
greatly superior to the prevalent
religion of the country in which
he lived. So did the Greeks.
Roman pantheism wove itself in
to poetry and looked far back on
mere idol worship. So with Is
lamism. But these and all others
give no such refined social organ
izations, no such elevated civilix-
atoms as those which are the out
growth of christianity.
Then, the fundamental tenets
of christianity, aside from its
rituals, exact the highest order Of
moral duty.