The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1891-07-03
WHOLE NO. 588

more vital is the cOmpanionship which
comes to us from history and biography.
Characters in history or biography do not
stand like cold monuments for us to gaze
upon, but these living characters of history
cone forth to meet us, greet us, touch us
with the warm hand of helpfulness.
Napoleon may have the centuries looking
down upon his troops from the Pyramids,
but the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews
had himself ''encamped by cloud of wit
nesses," not the dead effigies of martyrs and
fathers, but the living ''spirits of just men
made perfect" and 'the general ASSEMBLY
of the church of the first born, which are
written in heaven" On the Appian way,
where, amidst the bowers, Cicero bowed his
head to the sword of Popilius, there Paul
met his brethren at the 'three Taverns,"
thanked God and took courage. So along
this same journey of life, where the mer-
cenary and foolish meet their hard fate, the
intellectually industrious meet companions
of the mind who bring them divine courage.
Then again, modern intellectualism has
phase of humanism in it which gives it an
interest and romantic tinge. 1t is not
mere mental gymnastic, turning i'm upon it
self. The movement of mind is toward man,
man is discovering his fellowman, and the
great intellects of this day are the men that
mind and minister to the problem of the peO-
pies good.
Intellectualism today unlike the scholastic
day is no mere speculation on abstract
theories but it is profound realization of
an actual condition. The higher processes
of thought conduct the great souls along the
lines marked out by the one great incom-
parable thinker of the world--the Son of
Man. 1t leads along the royal highways of
the world of living souls and needy bodies
of men, women and children. The student
of mere art walks with uncovered head
through decorated galleries. The specialist
in music. with elated spirit, revels in con-
certs and OratOriOs, but the great intellect of
to-day dwells ameng men, deals profoundly
with their natures and their conditions.
There are specialists and pretenders,
whose minds move in the direction of one
narrow acquisition. Their whole intellectu-
al trend is under the dominion of one i'm
pulse, they invent a telephone, form a trust,
or, if they lack brains they write book or
discuss theory, or follow the philosophy of
the declining school of Germany in abstract
speculation entirely remote from actual
life.
We have entire races of people who fur
nish examples of such specialists. The Ital-
ions as people have strOlled away after
a a
have forgotten man so that vermin and de-
cay cover the human specimen of sunny
Italy. The French have dreamed the dream
of the passion i'm romance and of the novel
until luxury and moral decay threaten them
as nation. The Greeks have glOriied the
false beauty of physical form until they can
offer this large world nothing of interest but
the dead ideal now dug from the ruins of
| their past glory.
SO Germany may go on discussing schol-
astic phases of philosophy and burying its
great men. But the intellectualism of the
Anglo-SaxOn, especially the practical Yam
kee with God and man, meeting in the per-
sonalty of their beings-this intellectual
life will dwell on the relations and condi-
tions of man; as in his life he responds to
the profound thought of God. Here intel
lectualism in the highest form comes forth
in golden fruit, beautifying and enrichng
the life and condition of man; it becomes an
expansion of the Christ Life: misery is re-
lieved, despair is driven from the track of
man, laughter and gladness comes to hungry
children, hospitals for the sick, schools for
neglected, fresh air for the invalid, flowers
and fragrance to the home of the sufferer,
and intellectual pursuit is swallowed up in
that divine fellowship where God himself is
the light to the very life of man.
The mind turned i'm upon itself without
this outward applications of its mental pro-
cesses soon falls into abnormal theories and
then melancholy br0Odings which yield no
fruits of the spirit while the mind, in course
of true intellectualism, falls into grand
procession where movement becomes majes-
tic and effective, so that social fellowship,
common, mutual helpfulness, becomes one
of the divine laws of strength in the intel
lectual pursuit. The mind of man becomes
strong, mastery and all cOnquering when
linked in thought and sympathy with bis
fellows.
The trooper, after long and careful drill
ing in guidance of his steed is no longer en-
numbered with the reins, with others, i'm
solid rank, his steed sweeps on to the
charge. So when one touches this process
sion of modern intellectual life among us,
impeled and pressed about on every side,
he moves in touch with God and man.
Such an intelectualism is heritage, they
who have it often, come into possession of
| il like heirs to the old homestead of large
estate; much has gone into it, many have
shared i'm building it up. Intellectualism in
the individual, in its origin and growth, is
something like the origin and growth of an
institution, 1t has its roots in the past, and
grows slowly. The mental processes that
have permanent power in themselves do not
only cast their roots deeply into the past in
hereditary sense, but often in the sense of
environment and the endurance OF the men
tai powers is measured by the remoteness
| from which they draw their inspiration.
The old teacher, grand i'm his intellectual
powers and history, is something like a
spring fed by large body of water, lying
elevated and remote. So 1t often comes to
be that intellectual individuals are greater
than mere schools.
When one of those luminous comets comes
into the night sky to stand as streaming
star, it proclaims history of its own splen-
dor, glory of long standing. Ii came into
the range of the glass after inconceivable
excursions through space. Halley's comet,
supposed to have been seen IL b. c., must
sweep distances in its unseen travels utter
| ly inconceivable; 1t must come out from the
infinite there to to stand for a moment over
our finite here, and we should gaze upon it
in wonder not only at its appearance, as it
differs from other stars about it, but in won
der at its home for centuries amid
unreasonable distances. So we must learn
to revere that Intellectual manifestation
which constitutes the true mind not only