Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-07-02
MORAL DIFFERENCES.
They Make the Separations That Are
] the Most Sad and Significant.

the Most sad and Significant.
Nothing is more apparent than the
physical differences that exist among
men, in respect of stature, figure, ex-
preston, complexion and gait. HUI
mainly is composed of all manner OF
styles of physique. No two men are ex-
actly alike, and some men are extremely
unlike. Racial distinctions are some
times very marked; and in the same
nation, or even in the same family, in
dividual peculiarities are often very pro-
nounced. That the physical constitu-
tions of men are very various anybody
can discern by just looking.
Not quite so evident, but still recog.
nizable, are the intellectual differences
that obtain among people. Not all
minds are by any means equally power
full, keen or active. Among those of
equal mental power some are good for
one kind of thought, while others are
quick to excel in other lines. One man
is a mathematician, who can roam in
thought among the stars, and calculate
an eclipse centuries before it occurs;
another is a born linguist, who while
yet hardly out of his cradle prattled in
half a dozen languages; third is pos
sessed of logical mind, and shines as a
lawyer at the bar or wins distinction in
debate in the halls Of Legislature; while
another individual is an artist whose
brush paints wonders, or a musician
whose execution thrills all who hear
him play. These differences of mental
endowment. or of intellectual training,
are evidenced by the words men say, the
books they write, the questions they dis
cuss and the pursuits they follow, and
are so plain that none can mistake
them.
But there are other differences be-
tween people which are none the less
real, though more difficult to recognize,
because they come of qualities and dis
positions that are hidden from sight
and often purposely concealed from ex-
amination-and these are moral differ
ences. There is as much difference in
The characters Of various men as there
is in their looks, their clothes, their
speech or their bank accounts. No one
man is just the same kind of man moral
ly as another. Every man has his own
special faults and foibles, as we'll as his
own particular virtues and excellencies.
The same man is not always good, nor
good in the same ways at every stage Of
his life.
There are, however, two great lines Of
moral distinction which mark off the
good from the bad, and divide Chris
tians from unbelievers. On the one side
are those who are trying sincerely,
though it may be against great discour-
agements, to become good and godly;
and on the other are those who are maxi
ing no resolute effort, with Gods help,
to become better, or who are positively
intent upon being as bad as they can be.
These moral differences run through
all life, and signify in the sight of God
its chief distinctions, Moral separations
are of all separations most sad and sig
niticant. Two persons may be very near
each other in position who are worlds
apart IN point Of character and sympa-
thies. There were two Judases of old.
who walked, talked and perhaps prayed
together, but whose nearness one to
the other was only a seeming union,
since between the two there was all the
while the infinite distance of moral
difference.
There are interests from which it is
never safe to be separated. in this world
or the next. Moral sympathy, when
that can be on just and holy grounds, is
better than moral separation. And of
all unions, the most blessed is COM
munion with the Lord of all-N. Y. OBJ
server.