The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-06-03

have called to your side. no matter
what age of the world you may have
surrounded yourself with, everywhere
and in all time you have found religion
summoning mems deepest feelings,
calling forth their best efforts and
thus greatly influencing their doings.
To-day every profession, every condi-
ton of life is brought into contact with
its practical workings. from the king
on his throne to the poorest digger
in the ditch, whose rights are acknowl-
edged and protected by laws founded
in pure religious faith such as the
world has never known before.
1T is, and / think safely claimed for
religion, Notwithstanding the supersti-
lions by which il has been corrupted.
the honor Of having more than any
thing else helped man in his
for religion in her purer
forms, the simple sense of a divine
presence, and the relation which man
bears TO his God, the absolutely sole
honor OF raising mankind. freeing the
enslaved and instructing the ignorant.
What has been the prime mover in
all that has tended to freedom. to
knowledge, to happiness? What was
at one time the sole guardian of the
wisdom of the ages? You who have
studied the records of past ages will
give but one answer. and that is reli-
glon. And that being the case no man
or woman can be cc'i-I a student, a
seeker for knowlede Garner. who
fails to study the rel. IS instincts of
MS nature. But as a man of old has
said, all wisdom is humble, those who
nave known most have been most con-
scious of the vast stores of knowledge
which as yet lie untouched, the vast
spheres of being into which man may
never enter. And as you pass out from
the shadows of the school of your
youth into the larger school OF life bow
your heads in humble thankfulness
that thus far you have been upheld by
Him whose chosen instruments you
are, perhaps for some great thing.
which If you prove true learners will
be pointed out to you in His own good
time. 1t may be here, IL may be in
that bright beyond. 1t is most note
worthy, l think, that those who have
been most diffident are those to whom
the greatest revelations have been
made. Men must become as like chill
dren if they would enter the kingdom
of knowledge in either things of heav-
en- or things of earth. Let your reason
for seeking knowledge then be the
highest of all reasons. st. Bernard has
said in words which describe our own
time as accurately as they could have
described his. and which place the
mark where it ought to be placed, on
all inferior ways of working, on all
poor reasons for seeking knowledge.
Those there are who desire to know
that they may know, and this bears
the faint of curiosity.
And those there are who desire to
know that they may be known, and
theirs is the shame of vanity.
And those there are who desire to
know that they may sell their knowl-
edge; mean for wealth or for honors.
and that is a shameful trade.
And those there are who desire to
know that they may build up. and this
is wisdom.
That they may be built up. That
strength of conscience, of will, of love
for all their brethren may come to
them. That they may be perfect in
struments in His hand who uses all
knowledge and wisdom for eternal
ends. That they may be built up in
the Lord.
And therefore let us ever pray to
the truth, which is God, that what we
known not He will, step by step, teach
us. That what we know of truth He
will keep us in it. That what we are
mistaken in, as we must be, He will
correct. That when we fail, as we oft
xviii, He will strengthen us, and from all
things that are false and all knowl-
edge that may be hurtful, let us pray
He will deliver us forever. Amen"