The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1896-11-27


so far will be hurt or wrong others,
md so far will he be wanting in a
due appreciation of his Maker.
TO thine own self be true,
And it must follow as the day the night,
Thou canst not then be false to any
man."
/ Seeing that mans nature is
threefold- physical, intellectual, and
moral that the first is the basis OF
the second, and the second of the
third; it becomes his duty to study
and inform himself of each in its or
der, and to seek the highest develop
ment of them all. We cannot be
perfect, and so we cannot be sinless,
but we can aim at the greatest pos
sible perfectibility, which involves
the minimizing of sin, and this is
our bounden duty. Our bodies are
not sinful, although we may make
them instruments of sin. So far as
we know they are the perfection OF
Gods physical handiwork. Those
are false to Nature, traitors to hu-
man dignity, and slanderers of the
Most High--blind leaders of the
blind--who asser. that there is in
them anything obscene or unclean.
From the germs Of life to the
moment of death they are beautiful
ly and wonderfully made. We
should cherish and preserve them
carefully, honoring all our organs
in just measure, bringing our best in
tellectual faculties to the work, by a
careful study Of their right functions
and requirements, and makir
body and mind assist in the pro-
duction OF moral excellence. 1t is
not in artificial laws that progress
must be sought, but in observing
and utilizing natural laws. What
ever opposes Nature, opposes God
and humanity, for nature is God
revealed to man. Nature is the
true Book of Revelation. Nor is it in
Sabbaths or sacraments, in observ-
ing or neglecting rites and cere-
monies, in accepting or refusing
dogmas, faiths, or creeds, that we
aie saints or sinners, but in oppos-
ing or corrupting our Unborn facrl-
ties and natural instincts, we dc
violence to our being and sin
against ourselves. Immoral indul-
gence vitiates our moral taste and
then our moral rectitude; belief in
manifest improbabilites, no matter
on how high authority, produces
intellectual obliquity. Those who
juggle themselves into a belief that
three ones make one, may easily
learn to think that two times two
make five. AS with the mind, so
with the body. If we debase it to
unworthy uses, we sin against the
foundation of our b eing. These
lives of ours, so short, hut so preg-
nant of good or evil, on which each
New Year makes so large an inroad,
are not alone to eat and drink, to
marry and give in marriage, but to
develope to their utmost every facul-
ty Of our being; to march in order and
harmony as the soldiers of progress,
making every advantage won from
error and falsehood step towards
the general advance ment OF human
ity. Mortality is for the individual,
but Immortality for the race, and
the quality of the everything line
must depend upon the sum of the
qualities of the individual units. III
we can learn to know and love our
selves, the race will be stronger,
wiser, and better from age to age.
Our happiness will be guarantee
of greater happiness to those who
come after. Let those who will
grovel and burrow, crawl and sinu-
ate, with heads low and hearts inl
the dust; it is for all great souls to|
march as they best can with fore
heads to the stars though with feet
on earth. Let those who will plague|
themselves and others with suppo-
sitious sins, it is for us to 90 steadi-
ly onward, brushing aside the meta
physical cobwebs of theologians and
the distractions Of folly, knowing|
that none can sin except against
himself by thwarting, starving, or
violating his own nature, and that
if we do our duty to ourselves, the
perfect day will come--slowly, it
may be--for all true progress is by
infinitesimal degrees; but surely,
nevertheless, even though it be, as
the poet sang,
"while the eternal ages watch and wait"
Toxi,ny E~cIANp Nov 1905