The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-05
THE CHARITY THAT NEVER
FAILETH,

another by various pursuits, hopes,
fears and ideals.
Subdivision seems to be the law
that dominates all modern life. In
mechanics, each man has his one little
part to perform, and leaves the other
processes to other workmen. The
mass Of knowledge is SO great, the
multiplicity of labor so immense,
that no one man can possibly include
in his knowledge or his sympathies
more than a small portion of the af
fairs of his fellow-men. If any one
should do his best to be inclusive and
comprehensive, still the vast ma jority
OF the good and praisewortby efforts
of his fellows will escape his notice.
As there is many a flower that is
"born to blush unseen" so there are
mines of goodness and abysses Of
evil which wholly escape the notice
of observing men, actively engaged
in doing the work of the world, and
quite possessed with the idea that
there is but little which is worth
knowing or doing outside of their
world One result of this limitation
of knowledge is to be seen in the
characters of many noble reformers.
Whoever gives himself with enthu-
siasm to the study of any problem of
good or evil in human life will soon
pass into new and strange world,
quite unknown to him before, in
which he finds things demoniac or
angelic, of which before he had not
suspected. To him the knowledge is
startling. To others it may be only
commonplace. He rushes out to
arouse the world, that it may admire
the new vision of beauty which has
dawned upon him, or be shocked by
the revelation of horror which has
startled him. The world is apathetic;
either it does not believe what he
tells, because the report is so strange,
or believing, does not heed, because
other things absorb all it's attention.
Each reformer is apt to exalt his own
scheme, and forget or ignore the
plans of his fellows. 1t needs a
large charity, as well as wide know
ledge of the world, to enable one to
work with all his might in his own
department of the kingdom of heaven,
while he sees and confesses that
others may be doing the same work,
although they differ not only in ad-
ministration, but in direction of pur-
pose. The kingdom of heaven of old
prophesied, and now longed for, will
come not by the breaking down of all
narrow associations, but by the null
DUPLICATION of them; not by protesting
that it makes no difference what one
believes, or what company he keeps,
but by insisting still more upon the
absolute necessity of narrowing effort
and specializing power, that each
portion of human life may be accu-
rately summed, and skilled labor be
brought to each special task. We
must learn lesson from labor and
from science. We must confess that
no human mind is large enough to
know everything.
The effect of this admission will
not be an increase of bigotry, but the
very reverse. If one narrows his pur-
pose, not through ignorance but as
a confession of ignorance, and in
ability; if he restricts his efforts, not
because he thinks he does all that can
be done, but because in his poverty of
energy and resources he sees that he
must select and confne himself to
some little part of the vast work of
humanity, then out of his narrowness
and intensity of purpose, there will
arise a sweet and comprehensive
charity. He will gladly admit that
others are doing what he cannot, and
that even those who refuse him fell
lowship may be doing not less than
he, only that he can see what they
cannot. To do away with all dis
tinctions, break up all associations,
abrogate all fellowships, is not the
method by which charity can be es-
tablished. The need of better I'M
Outstanding is sore. The kingdom
cannot come without it, and it only
waits for the time when men shall
see that the world cannot be united
until the spirit of brotherhood is
written not only in the creed, but the
heart, of Christendom. The charity
that never faileth is broad enough to
include all good, even that which is
unknown to us, charity not born of
indifference, but of earnestness, of
an earnestness intense enough to mar
row one down with vigor to the
special task which matches his OPP
portunity and his power. The quar-
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