The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-08-03

UOne anu the WOrlu is met dC the
gateway of another morning and an
other week, may feel, in measure
rested and find the duties which the
world demands easy and their dis
charge pleasurable.
3. There is yet another quality of
the rest of Jesus,-a purpose of his
rest, we may say-which we should
consider. Jesus often sought the
quiet for communion, for thought, for
meditation. He would fit his life to
the eternal will; he would live truly
his life; he would recruit it alone with
God; he would let, at times, the ST.
lence surround him, alone on the
mountain or in the desert place, that
his personality and his individual
duty to God and man might get en-
phasis in his thought, that the voice
of conscience might speak the clearer
against the silence, that his own be-
ing might be magnified against the
solitude where no other human being
stool.
After his public ministry began, he
went almost at once to the desert for
assurance and strength in doing the
will of God. And from the first to
the last he chose moments and hours
apart from others for prayer, for med
itation, for quiet.
He sometimes sought human COM
partnerships: as in the home of Laza-
rus and the two Marys. Here he
often went tired of the disputes of
the Scribes and Pharisees at Jeru-
salem, fatigued by constant strain
upon his bodily energy in the
midst of the multitude. In this
home he found peaceful compan-
ionship where he might restfully
mediate and talk of things in which
there was mutual pleasure. This
was Strengthening. But oftener he
was alone.
So must we all be at times alone.
So must every man seek the still mo-
ments and restful attitudes in which
the soul learns itself, learns that it is,
learns it's powers and sees its service
able way to the world. Goethe says,
"A talent shapes itself in stiffness"
1.-THE best minds require a certain
amount of solitude, as bodies require
Sleep" reflects Lowell. "The more
civilized the mind, the more luminous
the life, the greater is the need that
man should in some way secure his
escape from the trivial round"
The poet would go to the hills
where none but God could overlook
him, and where he loved to be alone,
and where he worshipped. The old
monasteries, we have been told, guard
ed in times of war and plumber treas
ures of literature which have become
the heritage of the civilized world.
1t is said that we might not have had
Virgil, Homer or Plato-not even the
manuscript copies of the Bible-had
it not been for the monasteries. But
this is again symbol of truth.
There would not have been these
treasures of literature to guard, they
would not have been to enrich the
worlds thinking and living, had not
souls retired from the crowd to medi-
tate and to let the being give its own
to the world. The crowd is herd
like. Individuality is lost for the
time in it, or in subjective relation
to it. Originality of thought, fertility
of personal resource and benefit are
made fruitful in seasons of solitude.
''The poets who have lived in cities
have been hermits still, wrote Elmer
son. "Inspiration makes solitude
anywhere. Pindar, Raphael, Angelo,
Dryden, De Stael, dwell in crowds, it
may be, but the instant thought
comes, the crowd grows dim to their
eye. They are alone with the mind"
At Wellesley College, for young la
dies, in Massachusetts, there are
twenty minutes each day reserved
for quiet. There is to be no passing
through the halls, no laughter, no
conversation for the moments, but
each girl is expected to remain quiet
ly in her room. She may do as she
likes there, SO she is quiet. 1t seems
to be observed in neighborly rege I'd,
while the stiffness affords each one
the opportunity for reading, for think
ing, for praying, or other spiritual or
intellectual improvement. Perhaps
better is the provision of our Young
Peoples Christian Union with which
we promise to devote some portion OF
each day to Christian study, to whole
some reading, to meditation or pray
er-better, that is, if we are true; for
surely our own lives shall be en-
riched, and the world shall be the
better for the place we take in it.