Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-05-09

hdI u ulluco we're dU buc uOOT,
For be the tariff high or low,
Our income great or small,
We care not when we go to see
Our club play ball
Gods Love and Mans.
And now abideth faith. hope love, these
three; but the greatest of these is love.-I. Cor
1nthians, xiii, ID.
A man cannot live long in such a
world as this without having his curios-
ity excited. He sees the clouds float
ing above his head, and the stars in
the illimitable ether beyond. At one
period the earth springs into new life,
and the fields and orchards break into
blossoms; later on the sun pours out
his torrid heat and blossoms are magi-
cally changed into fruit; with the pass
ing of the months the chilling frosts
stay the flow of sap in the forest, and
nature acts as though she had done
her days work and was preparing for
rest; then the SHOWS fall, like warm
coverlid, and hills and valleys sink in
to profound slumber.
1t is all a mystery, and man cannot
rest satisfied until he has partially ex.
plored it. He gathers countless
multitude of facts, arranges them in
logical order, draws from them host
of differences, the most conspicuous
among them being that the arrange
ment of the universe indicates a plan
Accident and chance are at once
abolished, and in their stead is estab-
lished universal law. Chance, cries
the student, is to be found nowhere
law is to3be found everywhere
AT the moment when accident retir-
ed-and law stepped to the front the
key to creation was found, and thence
forth science began to unlock door after
door and to guess the puzzles which
were hidden behind.
But the thoughtful took another step
and declared that where there is plan
there must also be Palmer. If you
look at the intricate mechanism of a
watch it is impossible to believe that it
made itself. The watch presumes a
maker; the universe presumes a God
Ii there is Being behind matter, thev
said boldly, If an obvious arrangement
leads us back to One who must have
made the arrangement, then it be
comes important to know what rela.
lions may possibly exist between us
and Him, what His plans are respect
ing us, what our manifest destiny il
and on what conditions that destiny
can be achieved.
AT that moment religion was born
and its mission is to go hand in hanC
with science on tour of constant dis
covery. Shoulder to shoulder the two
can solve the great problem. Work
ing apart, with distrust of each other
they are comparatively powerless anc
can achieve but slender results.
One step more and the divinest I'M
pulse that ever thrilled human nature
entered the soul with it's transfigurins
power. When religion stood before
the assembled hosts and announced
that the relation of this Palmer to al
was one of encouraging, plying, for
giving and console G love, that as gravi
tation is the omnipotent energy of thj
physical, so love is the all copuuerins
force in the spiritual world, we were a.
once equipped for the battle with vary
ing circumstance and changing fort
une.
Religion when reduced to it's las
analysis, therefore, puts lust these
facts before you, and appeals to YOU
common sense for strict obedience
namely, that there is plan, and you
Are conspicuous part of it; that the
Planners sole desire regarding you i:
that you shall be all you can be, an6
the best you can be; that in the Naza
rene He has furnished you with a
standard of moral measurements; that
in the Bible He has given you certain
rules which will make your task easier,
and that in His unbounded love He
has prepared a place for you when
life's titful fever is over. Religion is
thus simplified and put within reach of
the humblest man to whom the creed
of the Church may be puzzle and a
disappointment. Gods way of saving
the soul is one thing; mans theological
amendments and addenda to that wav
are a very different thing.
Take love away and life would not
be worth living. Blot out the sun and
our system would fall back into chaos.
In all it's various forms our human love
is the dynamic force of progress and
civilization. The martyr dies at the
stake for love of truth; the patriot dies
on the field for loye of country. Men
become heroes when they love, and
fiends when they hate.
The young man is in the swirl of
passion, careless of moral rectitude and
Indifferent to the demands of personal
honor. Love comes, pure emotion,
and takes possession of his soul. 1t
restraints him, gives him only the
noblest aspirations, makes the former
life distasteful, because the music of
the new life is better than any song
the sirens have sung. He has a pur,
pose, an ambition. The fairies have
visited him, and like Cinderella he is
clothed in new garments.
No man can be his best self until
this enhancing mystery has over
Swallowed him. Not all the world can
give him the equivalent of one true
and loyal woman's love. Neither fame
nor fortune can take its place, for they
only serve to emphasize the fact that
the one thing needful is not his. With
that sublime possession, however, he
builds home, becomes the custodian
of grave responsibilities, broadens in
to higher conception of citizenship,
listens to the claims of charity and is
ambitious for that integrity which will
be the chief inheritance of his chill,
dren.
Gods love is our religion; human
love is all there is of happiness, while
1t is also the prophecy of a hereafter
The grandest picture which the imagi
nation can conceive is that of the
cross, with the legend above it, "God
so loved the world that he sent his
only begotten son." and the next
grandest is that of an earthly home in
which the same kind of love draws
father, mother and children around
the hearthstone, to live their little
lives in mutual helpfulness and look
forward to another Home, where there
are no tears, by whose door no hearse
ever rumbles, in whose vicinity is no
churchyard, but where the departed
wait for the coming of those who have
not yet been summoned.-Ne5C York
Herald
Don't sicken people with that bad
!, Nalr i To-