Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-10-08
HORIZONS.
Tho Worst Thing About Human Slavery
of Amy Sort.

OF ANY Sort.
An American author whose most IA
mous novels were based upon the insti-
tuition of negro slavery and the social
conditions which accompanied it, AL
bion w. Tourgee, says that the most &C
curate characterization of slavery he
ever heard came from the lips of an old
negro after the war, who said: "The
worst thing about slavery, in my jedg
ment, sab, was that it took away all the
termorrers." Took away all the to-
morrows-the tragedy of a race is
summed up in those words. The
phrase passes over all superficial sor-
rows, all pains of body, all hunger and
lashings, and lays bare the heart of the
slave. In the extreme of misery, as in
the extreme Of joy, life is centered in to-
day. The slave remembers, but does
not hope; yesterday and to-day blot out
tomorrow. The rest from toll that
comes with the evening twilight is the
goal upon which his vision rests. Be
yond that, ambition and Imagination
do not penetrate. GAS O servant that
earnestly desireth the shadow, and as
hireling that looketh for his wages"
his days are passed, in a world infinite
ly narrowed by the ceaseless bondage
of soul and body.
The slaves horizon is not more con-
tracted than the horizon of servant Of
sin. The effect of willful defiance of
the commands of God and conscience is
to blunt the imagination, as well as
o+h h;rrln 70 Nf ho
to lessen the power of gaining pleasure
and incentive from the future. That
very weakening of hope acts in turn
as a new source of temptations; for all
sin may be considered as, in one aspect,
willful shortsightedness. The man who
has nothing to lose by sin does not ex-
list; but the men who have long since
become blind to what they have to lose
by sin are all around us. Their horizon
shuts out all high ideals and possible
achievements which they once beheld
with the keener vision of innocence.
Beyond the pleasure and gain of the
present and the near future there is
nothing to draw them on; how seldom
does a wicked man think willingly of
his old age. One cannot imagine a
youth deliberately planning so years of
crime, or even of cold-blooded selfish
ness within the bounds of human law.
His horizon is too limited for that.
Gradually, as sin gains mastery over
him, the look ahead is shortened until
it may be truthfully said that at takes
away all the morrows"-except the
to-morrows of retribution.
But leave the valley and begin 10
climb. How the prospect widens and
the mists disappear; how far the Chris
tan gazes into the future when he has
reached the height. His outlook pierces
the years, and is not limited even by the
bounds of life. Even the life beyond
becomes the subject of his reverent and
joyful anticipation. No attainment of
character, no perfecting of spiritual
perception, is too distant to be q part OF
his hope and prayer for the future.
Life is still a thing of to-day, but it re-
ceives its deepest and most sacred joys
not from the recollection of yester-
day, but from the. possibilities of to-
morrow. This broad horizon is the
privilege of every Christian. 1t is true
that such views do not come every day,
nor are they expected when one is
strenupusly laboring for some imme-
diate result; but in the quiet hours
when one considers the general sum of
daily triflen, the future becomes as real
as the present.
Not only in conduct do we observe
the Importance of wide horizons. In
the apprehension of spiritual truth
nothing is more essential than a due
respect for tomorrow" Things which
seem inexplcably to-day need not be
set aside as impossible, if we remember
how often similar difficulties have dis
appeared beneath the clearer light of
other days. The wide horizon shows
q world all whose parts are consistent
with one another; a future which is
the fulifilment of prophecy and the per-
tecting of present incompleteness. Be
ing free aen, let us no longer be con-
tent to live, like the slave, without a
tomorrow. Standard.
Great Ideas and Small Duties