St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-05-09
Social Problems Touched
Upon by DR.. Smith. Of
the Peoples.
The Right and Duty Of the
State to the Rising Gen.
Grafton.
A Well Fed and Well Edu-
Gated Man Cannot Throw
Bombs.
How Church Work Is Clicked
by Commercial Environ
mentS.

There was a large congregation at
the Peoples church last evening, when
DR.. Smith occupied the pulpit. His
subject was Faith and Miracle" He
said: zone day during the past week
l was in the country, and though we
have not had much spring weather yet,
Nature seemed in tumult of endeavor
to express the life that is in her. In
the woods the blOOdToot sent up its
white flowers OF purity from its red
heart of passion. and the dicentra
waved its little spray of twisted beauty.
while along the edges OF the marshes,
in the rank young grass, could be seen
clusters Of yellow marigolds. As for
the trees, they were swelling well
nigh to bursting in an effort to
wake up from their stupor, and get
leaves flung out to breathe in air and
sun. And every day when the sun has
shone, lone robin in tree up back of
the church here has insisted on weaving
his strains of Iissome melody into all the
work that has been done in my study.
Now the rich earth has been waiting for
weeks to put forth her floral miracle of
beauty, and the impatient birds have
been waiting to come with their meIo-
dies for interludeS to our toll and care,
but they could not for lack of sun and
warmth and welcome. The cold. gray
skies of doubt made fragrance and song
impossible. So even the tongue and
hand of Christ were sterile in Caper-
naum for lack of welcome, and long be-
fore our modern lessons he taught the
world that miracle must needs have
An Age Of Faith.
Not needed was the age of faith. as
some would have you think, that
the critical faculty might be dumb. but
MIRAGE leaps forth to greet faith out of
the divine possibilities which are in all
history. just as woodland blossoms and
woodland choralS leap forth to meet
the summer.
In the midst of gay and SeIf-conscious
Paris you may find the great church
known as the Madeleine-a temple of
the Greek school, with its great marble
columns upn0lding the wide and spIen-
did OlticoeS. Near the church are all
sorts of incongruous buildings, across
the way cabstand Of large proportions,
and the whirl of omnibus and carriage
defies the flower market opposite. 1t is
wonderful church. You study it and
however, you will go to Athens
and climb the Acropoiis through
the ruins of the once glorious
gates of entrance. you will find upon
the plateau of that hill, not temple,
but only few columns and fragments
of the Parthenon. but that ruin i'm
presses you far more than the Made
iene with all its completeness. 1t is
located in the right place. The purple
haze on the mountains i'll the distance,
the mystery of the shining but many
voiced sea speaks to you, and that tenn
pie on the highest point of Athens
reaching towards heaven speaks not
alone of physical fitness, but it speaks
of Pericles and the climax IN the history
of the glorious Greeks. The law of ell
vironment belongs as much to art and
history as it does to nature. The relig-
lOuS history of the race is also full of in
struction. My Bible class was consd-
ering the other Sunday the strange phe-
nOmena of the beginnings of prophecy
in Israel. When the Struggle was on
between Saul and David for the king
dom. Saul went to Ramah to visit Sam
uel and the
School of the Prophets.
He had before sent messengers to
seek out the fugitive son of Jesse, who
was supposed to he there in hiding, but
the messengers had been overcome by
the power Of the place and had fallen
into prOphesying instead of using the
power of the search warrant. In wrath
Saul concluded to 20 himself, but David
was safer in Ramah than in any hauItS
of the wilderness. for no sooner did Saul
reach the place and commence his in
Quiries than the spirit of the prophets
came upon the king himself, so that
thereafter it passed into proverb in
Israel, rs Saul also among the proph-
ets?' 1t was the atmosphere and tone
of the place that made prophecy as en-
demic as a fever.
During the civil war some of you who
were too young to enlist did the next
best thing and ''played soldier" Long
after the veterans are dead the rever-
ence for the flag, the martial spirit and
the spirit of patriotism that was begot-
ten in that time, and was so contagious !
that out of the mouths of babes praise |
for the nation came, will live on, and !
the commercial spirit can not blot it out 4
for generation to come. You will see !
what was the matter with Capernaum |
in the incident of the teXt--there was |
no magnetic power of faith to stir up i
the gift of miracle within the Messiah. |
He was as divine at Capernaun as when |
he touched the leper coming down from |
the mount of blessing, but the leper |
had faith, the multitudes had faith, the !
disciples had faith. and the Christ had |
power. In the chill Of Capernaum His |
strength was changed to patience and
His
Grace to Grief.
There are some lessons that want to
draw from the fact and the law under
lying the fact which | have elucidated.
The first lesson is in our social prob
lens. If we would rightly develop the
economic man we must, put the child
under proper conditions. This gives
the state the right and duty to take the
child from criminal or pauper parents
and give the divine in it chance by