Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1896-07-15
Spiritual Possibilities.

Spiritual Possibilities.
For, behold, the kingdom of God is within
There is an immense amount of I'M
make-believe in our accept I
ance of religious truth. We assent to
it theoretically, but make no use OF it
With most of US religion
is up in the clouds; we have not yet
learned its value as dynamic force in
daily life. What we most of all need
is to really believe what we say we be-
lieve.
If one tells us that we can "abide un
der the shadow of the Almighty" we
regard the expression as very beautiful
rhetorically, but repudiate it as the
statement of a simple fact. Ii the
preacher recites the text in which the
Master says greater things than these
shall ye do, it seems impossible to be-
lieye that He meant exactly what He
said. TIL ough the statement is con-
stantly reiterated that angels guard
our footsteps and are always within
hearing distance of our cry, we merely
think we believe, for it is a belief with
out full appreciation. 1t is all more or
less dreamy, and we are very far,
though the world has been bordering
the subject for two hundred genera
lions, from accepting the nearness of
heaven, or the ability and willingness
of God to exercise a providence over
our lives. Ina word, we walk around
the outside of the temple and admire itf
architecture, but we have not yet open
ed the door and explored its interior.
1t is not so in some other matters.
For example, when some gifted seer ex-
periments with steam or electricity,
and tells us how they can both be
utilized to make life more comfortable
and to furnish us with unexpected con-
yeniences, we always take him serious
" and literally. We apply steam as
means of transportation AMI use it in
the ten thousand ways in which it will
subserve our commercial and domestic
purposes. We accept the assertions OF
the electrician literally, and in full con-
fidence stretch the mystic wires from
ocean to ocean. That confidence is re
paid by series of miracles. for the
harnessed lightning is willing servl
tor, carrying our words under Atlantic
waves and across continents with In
conceivable speed. In this way life is
practically prolonged, for we can &C
complish in our seventy years more
than the old sages dreamed OF in their
seven hundred.
There have been those who have had
the same kind of implicit faith in re
ligious truths, and who have utilized
them in the same way. We look at
them with wonder. and with something
of envy also, confessing that, while
physical laws properly applied may
produce admirable results, it is still
more admirable to capture spiritual
law and make it the servant OF divine
purpose. In the early days of Chris
tianity strong men and weak women
were cast into lions dens OF tortured to
death by devilish contrivances. They
faced their fate with smile, because
their faith was an omnipotent reality
They believed in God just as we be
lieve in the law of gravitation, and
we are that the sun will rise to morrow
so sure that they would not com
promise one jot or title in order to
save their lives. If you say, as the
agnostic does, that their faith was
nothing but dream, my reply is that
the dream which can make such heroes
of men and women is worth all the
so-called truths in the world if they
serve no better end than to make us
towards. These men and women died
with God in their hearts, and human
nature never rises to such a pitch of
heroism unless it has that kind of faith.
The divine in humanity is developed
by faith rather than by intellectual at
tainment. The most important part
of man is his soul, and if that stands
plumb nothing can go crooked.
l believe that we should all have
what the martyrs had-not a conven
tiOnal, but a real trust in the Almighty,
trust like that which the sea captain
has in his compass. It may not be easy
to attain, but we ought to be satisfied
with nothing less. Without it we drift.
but with it we weather all storms and
are headed for heaven.
You need it in all the emergencies of
life, and there are many which try the
soul to it's utmost. 1t is not easy to live
we'll, to resignedly put your shoulders
to heavy burden, to meet temptation
squarely and thrust it from your path,
to bury dear one and feel the best
thing has happened for all concerned.
Easy? Is there any task that will
compare with it? Do you not know
that it is harder to acquire an athletic
soul than an athletic body2 Because
it is harder you need to take certain
simple religious truths and feed on
them until they are thoroughly assim-
Hated with your spirit. If God is
taken from the realm of myths and
made downright fact, if heaven is
not up in the clouds, but all around
you; if love never dies, and cannot be
destroyed by death or changed in any
manner, and if these glorious revela-
tions are not guesses, but certainties,
what is your life but a school in which
angels are teachers, and what is this
old earth but spiral staircase leading
to eternity? If religion is good for
anything it is good for everything. and
no man is at his best until spiritual
truth is just as practical and practical
BILE as any fact in physics. After that
all will go well, but not before.
GEORGE Fl. HEPwoRTH