The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-12

have destroyed themselves through
want of unity with man. The poor
wretch who is slave to his lowest
propensities ultimately becomes a
coward. He is ready to accept any
thing rather than the punishment of
his own crime. But God hates
coward. The sacrifice of Jesus must
also be our sacrifice. If we would learn
that spirit which could pray for his
murderers we must learn to spend
ourselves in the highest duties we
owe to our fellow men. We can do
with less sleep, less wealth, less COM
fort if the peace of a disquieted soul
must come this way. To rely upon
some power or some gift outside of
ourselves will debilitate the soul.
Self-hood and God hood grow in the
same soil. Another's authority for my
belief does not lead one to ask ques
tons.
Our age and race are the subjects
of this disquiet. Humanity is seeking
peace and pleasure from a hundred
different sources. We are not asking
for a new God, nor new church, nor
new creed. Each new condition of
the advancing age must have firm
hope in that God which the soul mar
wells at the more we seek and know
him.
What Christ was to the despairing
Gentle world he will be to this age
of increased wisdom and better faith.
Strip him of those wrappings which
Ritualism and Romanism and hun
bred other "isms" have bound him in
and he will come to our humanity
with the same voice which spoke a
new era. He will bring us new
justice, new love, new earth and
new heaven. If amid all our dis
quietude a new messenger of I'M
doubted origin should come to our
race with message that would trans
form us from the creature of to-day
to one of million years of develop
ment. we would bend the ear to catch
every accent, but we need no such
messenger. We have not yet listened
to that sublime voice which says
Hope in God, and that is thousands
of years old.
It's music comes to the open grave
and dries the tear of the mourner; it
comes to the soul bereft of human
JOY and uplifts it to source that
never fails; it comes to the lonely
heart looking over pictures that time
has spoiled by disappointed hopes
and treacherous acts; it comes to the
shores of life's ocean where the last
sail on which our human hopes were
founded is disappearing. 1t bids us
look within the temple of the soul
and then up to God.
This age, of all the ages, should be
the most hopeful. He who remains
in darkness to-day prefers to live in
darkness rather than light. If the
magic of the ritual, whether in the
Roman or Protestant church, has lost
it's charm;if we can find no peace in
hundred conflicting theories of God
and his government, humanity is not
hopeless. Nature like lover stands
ready for the embrace of heart that
can enter into the depth which no
science has yet penetrated.
An old mystic priest, who knew
more, felt more and saw more than
his church had taught, has sung the
note of our higher Christianity. He
says:
The soul wherein God dwells (what church can
holier be?)
Be comes tent of heavenly majesty.
Though Christ thousand times in Bethlehem
were born,
If he is not born in thee thou art indeed forlorn.
Pause thee Whence runnest thou? Thy heaven
is in thee.
Seek it elsewhere, Gods face you'll never see.
Why travel over seas to find what is so ear?
Love is the only good; love and be blessed here.
Drops mnglng in the deep viii all become the
sea
SO souls once blent with God part of God will
be.
Let us hope in God He will not
betray our trust.