St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-16
DR.. Vail Warns the Nation Of
the Danger Lurking
Around. =
1t Is the Improper Use Of the.
Great Wealth Vouch- :
Safed Us. :.
Our Only Hope Is That the
People Unite in One Com
mon Ideal. 800
- rs
The Battle Of Man Portrayed
in a Brilliant Dis 80
course. ~

Such was the theme taken by Rev.
W. s. Vail as his sermon Yesterday
morning before the First UniversalSt
society. The words: II have fought a
good fight Gil Timothy, w., y inspired
the address. MIR. Vail said:
Life has been variOusly viewed, and
in each case the person who looked
made an estimate limited by his point
of view.
To one it has been day with a rose
ate morning, a noOn-tide filled with
storm and cloud, but an evening bright
with promise. TO another it has been
voyage, sometimes with clear sky and
blue waves, sometimes with angry
winds and seething waters, and with a
future ever doubtful. To such men as
Cardinal Newman, Thomas Carlyle and
st. Paul it is a battle where you wear
your armOr and rest on your arms, and
never close your warfare until the
night of death comes on. In looking at
the battle of man with conditions. we
can estimate his ideals and see how
nearly he has accomplished the highest
result. His first ideal was the hope of
a victory over outer conditions. The
storm that
SWEPT THE MOUNTAINS
he avoided, by making his home In a
cave. The wild animals were barred
out of it, and later, on piles driven in
the lake, he built his rude hut, which
embodied the promise of the modern
home. He cultivated no garden, he
Subdued no animal, he built no allocate
dwelling, he wore no cloth. He simply
resisted packs of fierce wolves, the lion
and cave bear. But God planted in
man the ideal of social life. In that age
it was misty and imperfect; but next we
find marriage, because he saw all ideal
condition. Flax was spun, the tree be-
coming wheel and distaff; flint, bronze
and iron were worked into implements
and step of progress made. Should
you go into Central Ohio to-day you will
see on the top of hill, where the for
ests have grown for 1900 years, the
walls of fortress built by an ancient
race. Once those walls measured more
than two miles In length, were the home
of people that had hopes and fears
not unlike ours There, where the
plOwman turns his furrow, the watch
man stood crying "Ali is WE'LL" Where.
the Christian comes to his little church
to-day you find the mound represent
ing ~
GREAT SERPENT,
thousand feet in length, speaking in
symbol of ideas embodied but lost to
the world before Abraham led his peo--
pie to their encampment under the oaks
of Mamre. By their pictures and inn
plements we know they were great
hunters and delighted in war. And II
they left but little behind them of
high character. viewed from mental
and moral point of view, we must re-
member that they were valiant soldiers
in this first engagement and placed man
at point of vantage in his struggle
with the world. But mans ideal of life
is like the view of him who climbs the
mountains. AT first it is Limited by the,
overarching forest. Then it takes in a
strip of the near valley. Then the dis
tant valley and hill, with winding river
between and the valley beyond, with
the plain and the blue ocean dotted
with white sails. As man develops, his
present attainment is not enough. 1t is
his blessing that his hope ever WidenS.
But as we rise in our conception OF the
social ideal we pass beyond blind battle
to intelligent conquest, and our view
ever enlarges. Prof. Huxley has pointed
out the fact that methods of education,
methods in science, and indeed all in
tellectual methods, have been changed
since 1880. Like the Englishman Mr..
Dickens admired, even
THE AVERAGE MAN
of to-day wants to know, you know"
We have been dissatisfied with the
knowledge of the universe. The early
Greeks fancied it was fiat. and had
roots like plant. Aristotle believed it
was fiat; that the sun, moon and, stars
move round it, and he proved the same
in a logical fashion. The Hindu be-
lieved that first was an unknown ocean
with gigantic turtle floating thereon,
on his back twelve elephants, and on
these rested the world. But our tele-
scopes have measured the stars, our
biologists have read the stones, and in
our enthusiasm we may almost say as
we follow out each line of knowledge
and each law of nature, Il think COD
thoughts after him." 1t is not enough
that man has harnesSed the forces of
nature and learned many of the laws.
His establishment of the industrial so
ciety is good, but must not fail to con-
tinue the ideal life. At the present Ex-
position is a picture representing Rome
in the days of LucullaS. Music, dance,
the wine, the slave. were all supposed
to be necessary to our best life. And OH
that view of higher and lower classes,
wealth and
MILITARY GLORY ,.
as ends, and sensuous enjoyment as the
best good, city of palaces was built;
but to-day broken walls, columns
crumbling to dust, stories of failure and
wonder that such people could have
existed and failed, is all we have. They
cut off any large outlook for man: they
failed to teach him that when he rose to
true patriotism, true sacrifice and true
hope, he was already immortal: that
men of all time would tell the story OF
heroism: that the sacrifice of man will
live while the world lives; that all ma
tiOns will bless the tenderness of Christ
because it belongs to all time. The
particular danger of our nation is the
danger of wrongly using wealth. 1t
wrecked other nations, and 1t Will
wreck us if it once gets the clutch fast
ened Oh us. And our only hope is TO
extend the battle until our neighbours
interest becomes our interest; until our
nation has people with common hope,
the hope of an ideal society. This VIII
come when soldiers are like Gen. Cor
don-believers that they are heirs OF the
past, sons of God, with an infinite fut-
ure full of springing life; when bust
ness men are like Peter Cooper, not
only able to make money, butconstantly
planning to make the common people
comfortable and Self-reliant; when lead
erS of thought are like Browning. filled
with the feeling of God in the soul, OF
the infinitude of mans powers, and
the belief that his future is boundlesS as
the universe. )s
Truth and Poety.
Merchant Traveller.