St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-10-21

doing this we are forgetting the deep
problems which the present hour brings
10 the troubled mind. What is
in the mind of the thinking
man to-day? Is he not asking you
il all the struggle of life is to end in any
good? Whether it is profitable TO try
to make the world better by joining
the minority who seek the good of man,
or whether after all it is not best to
join the gay procession, and float along
with a sharp out look for the main
chance? The interlOcked horns he
found one day in the forest remind
him of the struggle of man with man.
he is asking if this is a symbol of the
experience of his race. He is not asking
sOmuch abOut'recOnciliatiOn inlthe bible,
he is asking if there is any assurance Of
truth or of good or if the flowers on the
caSket of the child are symbol of a
fading life, and the dust on the caSket
of age the suggestion OF the end of per-
sonality. And if there is solid basis
on which to stand, what is it?
know there is much dispute over
questions of right and wrong. But the
tendency of the world in the centutieS
has been in one direction. and we rdad-
lily mark out d line of conduct for bur
neighbors. And the remarkable thing
line that is beyond question. Now, if
we were only willing to live on the lines
we mark out for our neighbors. would
we not get long way towards the MIL
lennium in short time? This Is very
simple. and yet it is one of the deepest
facts of philosophy, for the experience
of man in all ages has been work
ing on this problem: and we. after
the centuries of Christian teaching, are
living in enjoyment OF all that has gone
before. for the most ordinary man can
to-day mark out course OF life higher
than philosopher could have done
thirty centuries ago. Remember. then,
the first step towards the life that Christ
talked OF is TO live as we would plan for
another person. to do the things we
would commend in him aS becoming.
At the communion table Mrs. Stowe
had flashed upon her the thoughts of
great work that would destroy slavery.
Watching the audience of students
gathering, after agOnizing over his
lecture two days. Mr.. Beecher received
the whole luminous story as by a flash
of inspiration. And if you have stood
once on the mount of vision and know
the view of a promised land of better
life. it il better for you than if you had
not known it at all. Sydney Carton
lived long, evil life, but when, In a
moment of inspiration, he gave up his
life for love, and went to execution the
embodiment of kindness, his good deed
atOneS. in our minds, for the long, use
less life.
The best preparation for death then
is life with an ideal. And this Is to be
lived in ordinary avenues of our
daily existence. Not in dreams of
hQgnG
clOister of some deep forest as that of
ClairveaX, where the only companion Is
the bird on the limb or the wild deer at
tracted by curiosity, but in seeking the
ideals that Christ embodied and expert
ence has shown to be good. This IS our
work. And we are made to do our
work as it shall appear by our adapta-
ton. Nature prepares the quail to
guard her young against strong enc
mics. Nature has given the eagle an
eye that enables him to:see at great dis
tances, that enables him to see
at the end of his beak, and
that in every way is fitted, not
to the condition of the domestic fowl.
but to his condition. And | believe that
Jaw Gould. unless God made blunder,
was called at this particular time TO
make money; that Edison was called to
invent: that others are called to teach.
to solve social questions, to lead men i'll
higher ways of life. But remember that
in all this we are to see the life as ideal,
and that when we lose sight of this, we
have lost sight Of the one great fact of
our experience. Frederick Robertson.
once came to that point of experience
when all seemed very dark, and in that
time. as he paused in the shadow of the
Alps, he concluded: Even should all
hope be blOtted out, it is better to do
right than wrong; better to follow the
ideal than to deny it, and / will never
forsake the ideal life, and will live in
hope Such purpose is tine best
preparation for death.