St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-03-06

doing, as there Is q reward for virtue In
peace OF heart and well-regulated
conduct. But the violation of the moral
law does not bring. as the violation of
physical law, swift plenary retribution.
In all its features the moral life of man
shows itself upon the earth rather as in
It's dawning. rather as In an early stage
leading 70 higher and more complete
form than what it now offers. The cum
ming OF men aids, too, i'll turning of the
penalty Of sin. Conscience becomes
scared through continued laWleSSneSs.
Room is allowed by the Creator forlthe
exercise of free will. God covets from
us service for the sake OF duty and love,
and the penalty Of the refusal is kept
at a distance, so that duty and love may
appear the sole Immediate impelling
motives. From whatever cause, wrong
doing often seems TO remain unpun-
ished; at times, even, it seems to tri-
umph. Virtue is not seldom relegated
into obscurity and poverty. The praises
and blamingS Of the world follow the
lines of success rather than those of the
commandments. The thoughts of the
mind and the beatlngS of the heart.
which are the truest tests of moral
worth. are altogether hidden from the
world. All earth's possessions and all
earth's fame cannot reward the heroiSm
of the martyr, who dies in the name Of
duty, while forgetfulness of it extends
before him the p;,Shway of the present
life.
If we judge virtue and vice by the
standards of earth, not seldom will vir-
tue appear as deluSiOn, and vice as
the dictate Of sense; net seldom will
the sole rule distinguishing the one
from the other be that which recent
on ri lie, he Ia 81 fba
pleaSurable or the painful. Without
sanctions, other than those of the pres
eht life, the definition of right conduct
as the submission to the eternal DEGREES
of order, to the supreme will Of the
Creator, does not hold. And yet this
is the sole definition WHICH reason al
lows and which puts virtue in regions
of the soul inaccessible to passion or
mere material profit. This, and this
alOne,iS virtue--to feel and do the right,
to feel and do it, were the heavens at
once to fall and all earth to vanish into
nOthingness. This alone is virtue, and
for this earth has no reward, as it has
no adequate punishment for acts con-
Trajectory Of it.
Purpose of the Present Life.
The question, more than all others,
which it interests mankind to solve is:
What is there TO. US beyond the grave?
The tleeting present is as nothing; the
permanent future is everything. The
future unveiled, the present becomes
comprehensive, and the purpose of
life is revealed. Is there no future, we
live to eat. drink and be merry or, a
somewhat higher aim being desired,
we live to secure somewhat decorous
felicity. and, meanwhile, without too
nf I'm
there few good turns to fellow men.
Is there no future, even purposes such
as those are scarcely prOclaimable,s since
there are millions who cannot be merry,
who can do no earthly good to them
selves OF others. and, in the light of this
fact, the present life is but worrying
dream, heart-aff1icting enigma. But,
a future proven, the purpose of life is
dellneated beneath the guiding rays of
the sun of the new world. Mankind has
always believed in another world, and
has gagged the value of the present by
reference to it.
Mankind, living beneath the direct
ing hand of all-wise Providence, cannot
have been led astray in matter so
serious, so necessary to rational exist
e nee as Is that of future being or nom
being. If reason and soul instincts
suffice not to give knowledge, God owed
to His own wisdom and to His love for
His creatures to speak in extra-natural
ways and indicate the meaning and the
purpose of this life. So-called phil
osophers persist in naming life riddle,
in telling us we know not whence we
come, or whether we are drifting, that
we are as aimleSs and as goOd-for-noth-
Ing as the moving sands Of the sea
shore, or the dying leaves driven
whithersOever by the autumnal wind.
it is not so, and it cannot be so, for this
is world Of reason and order and the
chief tenant of the creation cannot be
the solitary exception to the general
harmony, and moreover, despite our
sophisms, this soul, from its deepest
depths, gives the lie to the teachings Of
fatalism and chance.