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

life shall catch the ray of that eternal
gem and guided by its purest light
shall find rest and thegreat Parent of
all humanity with heart as tender
as mothers.
Man has other desires beside that
of immortality. The problems of
his present existence are unsolved.
He may penetrate into the depths of
the external world, almost hearing and
feeling the pulsating of the worlds
heart, but she furnishes no key by
which he can unlock the mysteries of
his destiny. AS the sweetest ties of
the human race, those of friendship
and sex, are broken by the hand of
death; as we helplessly watch the
gasping of loved one for a little
more life and few more words; as we
look into the CLASSY eyes out of which
intelligence and consciousness have
departed, our best love bleeds in tears
and our emotions become scourge
and the whole of life seems like a
changeful dream, and we wonder
what the morning will say to us.
Hope in God brings the lily and
the rose and forms garland round
the head of our loved ones sleeping
in death. If SO much beauty can
grow out of the dust of a material
world, man need not fear death. He
who sends the frost also makes the
sunshine. He who planned such a
universe and controls it's forces is
worthy of our highest hope and he
did not make soul SO full of aspira-
ton to mock it's call by the blight of
hopeless death. To hope in God is
also to trust in his wisdom and love.
What we regard as cruel fate today
we shall learn was the wisest provi-
dence; mans reason does suggest
beautiful probabilities but Gods fore
sight is so much in advance of our
faith that the growing child would
be an abnormal development unless
Gods plan was to make perfect man
before he made the child. The mas
sive stairway leading to the infinite
mind must be assembled step by step
AS tired humanity looks up through
tears because the way seems so dark
and so far, the voice of the ages
echoes down, Hope thou in God"
But the world is not all darkness.
We are so easily discouraged by our
little environments that the posi-
bilities of life are only half under
stood. AS the Psalmist looked with
in and asked questions, SO the race
has been repeating the same ques
lions for thousands of years.
The letters of an unthinkable the
ology do not have tendency to bring
out the highest moral forces which
humanity is capable of. If higher
philosophy of life shall lead men to
look within for what they cannot find
in their text books, the race will not
suffer, nor will Christianity lose its
hold upon man. AS the mind be-
comes illumined by prayerful reason
the sepulchre and the cross will be
less worshipped, but the beautiful ex-
ample of moral force embodied in
the virtues of Jesus which has made
him the ideal of all ages and all ma
tions, will be reflected in the life of
every follower who strives to walk
with God as Jesus walked. If in
looking into the soul man meets with
no picture save that of foul lust and
awful confusion of forces not under
stood, he may we'll sink into despair
But the heart that has been touched
with the divine spirit is not disquiet-
ed very long. Contact with a world
of humanity driven here and there
by SO many jangling voices, with
humanity, which has not caught the
music of love, these and hundred
other things have tendency to bring
disquietude. If we desire the ele-
ments which bring divine enthusiasm
and render life worth having we
must often seek the solitude of the
souls inner chamber.
In this soul chamber each soul may
find the reflection of all human
wants. The soul is the perceiver and
revealer of truth; what is false and
what is true may not be found in
polemical controversies but that
which fills the wants of a hungering
soul, deserving righteousness and
peace, cannot be far from truth. No
man attempts 20 prove that the sun
shines. Why should we care about
our beliefs if we feel the divine spirit
working on the chaos of natural man
and giving light and harmony? A
more abundant love will make us
less critical. The great soul has no