The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1894-06-20

stood the rude blasts of storm and
tempest, and which had gathered size
and strength all the while, there has
come the encouraging and inspiring re.
fection, that it sprsng from the tiny
acorn which mil ght easily have been
crushed between the jaws of u pig. ]
have thought this, too, proclaims the
power of environ ment. There are more
soil and rain and storm aud sunshine
in it than there is acorn. It has drawn
on the external world for its support
and it is the embodimenta and reflection
of its Surroundings.
AS I have stood in my yard aud ex-
amined some on ee beautiful buds that
never blossomed, because nipped by
the tardy frosts of April, have been
thrown into a moralizing mood, and
tt thoughts that came were not pleas
ing and refreshing. Sterile lands and
fertile fields; buds that never blossomed
and giant oaks; what lessons they sug.
gest, what reflections they awaken! 1
irust that it will not be regarded cyni-
cal aspersion to confess that, as have
come into close contact with different
grades of men, similar thoughts have
been aroused; and they have filled my
heart With joy and sorrow, with hope
and dependency, with sunny cheer.
fulness and with gloomy foreboding,
according to the standpoint from
which the observations were made.
With JOY and hope and sunny cheer
fulness as have witnessed the wonder.
fully liberating aud Transforming power
OF truth in lives that have been respon-
sive to its magic touch, in characters
that have been achieved through obedi-
ence to it's elevating and ennobling and
purifying principles in the noble ambi.
tions and holy enthusiasms impaired
by it; in the manly virtues to whose
attainment it hiss led; in the true nobi-
lity of conduct to which it has melted,
and in the mounts of Trans6guration
that it has discovered and made accesi-
BILE to humanity. With sorrow, des-
pondency and gloomy fo:ebodipgs as
I have witnessed the degrading and
epslsving influences under which many
seem content to live, and the tenacity
with which they cling to debasirg
idols; and the persistence with which
they reject and resist every disenthar.
ling and emancipating factor; and the
pitiable stupidity which they exhibit
ic permitting themselves to become the
victims of the turmoil and strife and
blind ambition, before whose blighti1g
and withering power no lovely bud of
promise can ever flower into noble ac-
tinn or high achievement. And yet
with joy and hope and sunny cheerful
ness have I been filled, as I have come
firmly to believe that:
"An we have willea or hoped or dreamed OF
Not its semolance but itself; nor beauty nor
good nor power
Whose voice has gone forth, hut each sur
wives for the melodist,
When eternity afhrms the conceptions Of
an hour.
Thehigh hat proved too high, the heroic for
earth too hard.
The passion that left the ground to lose Itself
in thesky.
Are music sent up to God by the lover and
the bard;
Enough that be heard it once; we shall hear
1T by and BY"
Hence, the more I have thought on
lie subject, the more fully convinced
have l become that our great need is
education, which. is thoroughly aud
positively Christian-the modifying
word denoting the environment, Ende.
whose ennobling influence sll the
fac. lilies of being are to be developed
and trained.
l fully agree with one who has said:
"No definition of man is large enough
to accommodate the facts of his nature,
that does not embrace what he is object
lively as we'll as what be is effectively.
It must not only embrace the INTEL
lect, bat the truth which it thinks;
not only the will, but the right which
corresponds to it; not only the eye, but
the light which gives it meaning; not
only the ear, but the sound which
matches it; not only the lungs, but the
atmosphere to which they are correl-
lated"
Such definition of man will most
assuredly emphasize the vital impor-
tanee of right environment, and will
make prominent the fact that mans
conduct must, as rule, be the result
of the principles which have been in
stilled into him by the instruction
which he has received, and must be
the reflection of the Influences under
which he has been reared.
Such definition of man will make
conspicuous the truth, that, while "hu.
man nature is duslly constituted" yet
the "larger half Of itself is outside of
ITSELF" and, hence, it will point out the
necessity of ChristiaDizing this larger
external half, in order that there may
actualize q well.rounded symmetrical
character as the product OF this unfold
ing and training of all the powers of
mind, heart, conscience, and will, un-
der these benign influences.
= I suppose that we all agree that the
normal advancement of civilization is
through evolution. Hence, it must be
confessed that progress ought to be
made without violent conflicts and
without. bitter antagonisms. Steady
and gradual development ought to be
the law of growth here as we'll as in the
natural world. AS fact. however, we
have occasional catastrophes, and mar
t, rdom becomes the price of the good
sought; and ends have to be gained by
revolution that ought to have been
easily and quietly achieved through
evolution.
AS civilization advances circum-
stances change. Hence there is an in-
creasing necessity for constant adjust
ment of the relations that subsist
among the different parts of our social
organism. The protracted and painful
conflicts by which such adjustments
are frequently effected only proclaim
the fact that anti-christian influences
have interfered with the normal law Of
progress. And anti-christian they are,
even though they enanate from prin-
ciples, conscientiousIy held and sim
cerely propsgated by those who claim
to be guided and actuated by the spirit
of truth. It must be confessed that
facts are amply sufficient tn support
the observation Of Canon Freemantle
that it sometimes happens that "while
men on one side are saying Lord, Lord,
il is on the other that the things are
done which Christ said"
The mighty revolutions of history
have, I think, very generally been
brought about by unwise attempts to
repress the irrepressible.
MANS inhumanity to man
Make countless thousands mourn"
But the counties thousands" have
novor foilo6 to r1,oto tboDnooluoo oasp