Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-18
HELPS FOR THE BETTER.
WRITTEN FOE THE prspArnH.1

| 4 \
| WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH
"A FRIEND of mine who is an Ethica
Culture Lecturer In St. Louis has come t,
the conclusion, after five years of observa
tion and experience, that everybody desires
to be better. The desire may lie very IA
back in the neglected corners Of the soul
and may not appear at all in the life, YET
there it is in everybody, waiting to bt
developed. believe that even better things
! may be said Of man. l will hazard the
assertion that everybody wants to make
somebody else better.
The truth Is, of course, that q considerable
! proportion Of the human race is not only 60
ing to the devil. but is taking a friend or two
along for company. The newspaper every
day is a revelation of human depravity. All
the cases of demoniacal possession that are
recorded in the four gospels are outnum
| bered in the chronicle of the doings of a mod
| ern day. 1t is hard to believe that some
people have any vestiges Of original right
! eousness remaining in them. Calvinism can
| find stronger proof texts in the daily papers
| than can be discovered In the canonical
| epistles. As for the old doctrine of hell, the
new theology may say what 1t will, there is
| hourly proof that we cannot get along with
out it. If there is no hell there ought to be.
There is nothing else that we can think Of
that is capable Of making "the punishment
| fit the crime" Attentive readers of the cur
rent newspapers may rather find 1t some-
what difficult to believe in anything else but
| hell.
Nevertheless, every human animal does
desire to be better, and in his sane or sober
moments does desire to help somebody else
to be better. Anyhow, let us try to believe
that. All decent people, at any rate-we are
safe here-have O real preference for q
decent world about them, and would gladly
do what they could to lift up other people
into nearer approach to decency.
Three Ways of Looking and Thinking.
THERE are three directions in which
the better portion of the race, in modern
times, has looked. Some have looked up,
and some in, and some out. Some, that is,
have thought more about God than about
anything else; and some have thought more
about their own souls than about anything
else; and some have thought most of all
about their fellowmen. With some people
the most emphatic word in religion is
worship" with other people the most en-
phatic word is the word "sin;" still others
set the supreme emphasis on the word
"help"
OF course, these lines are not lines OF ex-
clusion. Every good man looks in all three
of these directions. The difference, as
have suggested, is in emphasis. And the EN-.
phasis depends largely upon temperament
In these three ways, with these three tenn
peramental tendencies, people are made. It
is notable, however, that these attitudes Of
up and in and out characterize not only in
dividuals but whole centuries and eras.
Roughly speaking, the majority of good
people in the Middle Ages looked up and
emphasized worship. They built the great
cathedrals. The majority of good people
since the Reformation have looked in and
emphasized sin and salvation. Religion has
been individualistic and subjective. And
here we are now on the threshold of the
Twentieth Century, and the third great at
titude seems to be coming in for its turn. 1t
looks as If we were entering, in these days,
upon an era when good people will emphati-
cally look out and be helpers.
The reason why more of us are not helpers
already is because we do not know how to
help. We are ignorant of what to do. Most
of us really desire to make life better and
happier for some other less favored brother
or sister OF ours. but we know not how to
set about it..
Humanity Needs Pleasure and Variety.
AND yet, there is no end to the good
things which might be done.
Take the matter not on its religious side,
nor on its physical side, but from the point
of view of simple happiness, and mental and
aesthetic enrichment. That is, mean, let
us for the present think not so much of con-
verting the souls, nor of increasing the
wages, of the poor, as of bringing q little
more pleasure into their blank lives.
Human beings need pleasure, and color,
and music, and entertainments. Life is bound
to be worse for the lack of them Man de-
pends greatly upon environment. Everybody
knows how difficult it is to be dignified in
ragged suit of clothes. No man or woman
can live a cab horse life, driven all day long
and sleeping in a stable, without getting to
be like a cab horse, dull, stolid, without
ambition, without intelligence.
Some of the traction companies last sum-
mer gave band concerts in several of the
parks. They did an immense amount of
good. They were not conceived as a public
charity, so far as I know. They looked
rather toward an increase in three-cent and
five-cent fares in the Golfers of the COM
panies. So much the better. Nobody was
put under obligation by them. But they
were really a most practical and effective
charity. hope they will be resumed this
summer and multiplied.
Why Not Musical Missionaries?
Il WISH that some of the big churches
might be made to minister more than tbey
do to the musical needs of the people. They
have medical missionaries out in the for
eign field, why not have more musical mis-
sionaries here? If there could be au oratorio
every Sunday afternoon, or even once a
month, in the Cathedral, and in Trinity, and
in the first Presbyterian Church, it would
do as much good as twenty sermons-and at
tract much larger congregation. mean
an oratorio rendered by fine solo singers,
by a large chorus, and a full
orchestra. Some of our excellent musical
societies might help in this way to better the
whole city.
A great deal of good might be done on a
smaller scale by Sunday afternoon singing
in the hospitals. People who have voices, |
and who are persuaded that a good voice is
given to be used, and to be used not for |
personal or social pleasure only, but as one
Of the uplifting influences of our common
life, might do more good than they can
easily imagine by this kind of beautiful
charity.
A Suggestion for tho Art Society.
Il WISH that the Art Society, which is
1oing such excellent servics in providing |
profitable evenings for appreciative people, |
would take into consideration the adorn- |
nent of the blank walls of our hospitals, |
sheets and pillow cases and money are all |
very we'll, but these poor sick people need |
more than q bed and q doctor. |
The long bare rooms are dreadfully depress. |
ng. Mural decoration would be medicine
FOR weary minds. Pictures would be capt. |
,al complement to pills. There are artists |
IN Pittsburg who could make these ugly, |
nonotonous wall-spaces glow with color,