The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-04-18

of destruction or the lake of fire.
Somewhere, somehow, and sometime,
the work he has begun will be COM
pleted. We believe in Immortality
because we believe in the sanity of
the universe.
II. CLOSELY RELATED TO THIS FIRST
is ANOTHER CONSIDERATION THAT FEEDS
THE HOPE OF IMMoRTALITY,-THEA sPIRA-
TIoNs AND LoNGINGs OF THE HUMAN
HEART ITSELF.
Everything in nature contains en-
folded prophecy of something
higher. The plant is wrapped up in
the germ.
Can you imagine grain of corn,
after it has begun to sprout, saying
to itself down in the dark, moist
earth, "Why, find that 1 have tiny
white leaves; but there is no place
for them here. They cannot wave
and rustic in the ground. What do
they meant What use can make of
them7" Be patient, little grain of
corn, you shall not always live here.
A great change awaits you. Do not
sigh and moan when | tell you that
you must die to this present condi-
ton, and be born into world of
light, and color, and music. Then
you will find the meaning of those
tiny leaves you cannot now explain.
They are prophecies of the green
fields and the yellow grain. They
mean blue sky, golden sunshine,
rushing winds, and the reaper's song!
Suppose the butterfly, rolled in its
cocoon, when its wings begin to grow,
should ask: "What are these? What
do they mean?" You answer, "Those
wings point onward to another world.
You must die to this old world, die
to the grief and be born again. Sup
pose it should reply, "Do you mean
to tell me that there is another world?
Prove it," The only answer would
be, "These coming wings are them
selves the indications. They cannot
be confined to these narrow limits.
Soon this old shell will crack, and
that you will call death; but then
your wings will find the world for
which they were made,-the world of
sun, and trees, and flowers. Thus
through the whole range of nature,
the lower form contains the prophecy
of the higher; one world points on
ward to another above it and beyond.
The course of life is from the dust to
the stars.
So it's with the human heart. Who
will interpret for us its aspirations and
desires9 What mean those high
thoughts that leap like angels from
our souls and wander forever unsat-
isfed, finding no resting place on
earth2 What mean those dreams,
those beautiful ideals, SURPRISING
with their loneliness the possibility
of earthly achievement? They beckon
us onward and onward, disappearing
sometimes, only to shine again from
loftier SUBMITS of more inaccessible
mountains. Are they not the spirits
own predictions of larger fields of ac-
tivity and more perfect work?
Every really able man," says
Emerson, Gin whatever direction he
work, man of large affairs, an in
ventor, poet, statesman, an orator.
a painter, if you talk sincerely with
him, considers his work, however
much admired, as far short of what it
should be. What is this Better, this
flying ideal, but the perpetual prom
Use of the Creator?" Raphael ex
presses the same idea when he says,
"Naught that has been written is
really, truly beautiful and the heart
of man never discloses its best and
most divine portion. 1t is impossi-
BILE. The instrument is of flesh and
the note is of fire." eyes, o God," ex-
claimes Richter, 'thou wilt and canst
give us one day reality which shall
embody and redouble and satisfy our
present ideals"
ION the earth the broken ares; in the heaven
perfect round
All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of
good shall exist;
Not its semblance but itself; no beauty nor good,
nor power.
Whose voice has gone forth. but each survives
for the meodist
When Eternity affirms the conception of an
hour.
The high that proved too high the heroic for
earth too hard.
The passion that left the ground to lose itself in
the sky,
Are music sent up to God by the lover and the
bard.
Enough that he heard 1t once; we shall hear it
by and by"
III. The THIRD CONSIDERATION is
THIS: HE IMMORTAL ToPE IS ALSO
FosTERED BY THE SENTIMENT OF JUS
TICE.
Let us admit, once for all, that the
law of compensation holds in this
world; that the innocent unjustly