The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-20
A LITTLE SERMON.


Jesus. talking with His disciples, prepar-
ing them for their coming tribulatons and
His death, said: "a woman, when she is
in travail, hath sorrow. but as soon as
she is delivered of the child she remember
eth more the anguish for joy that a
man is born into the world
1t is not the purpose of this article to
discuss the question of sexes if there
was, is or should be equal joy when a
woman is born into the world, but this
quotation is chosen because it illustrates
the two inf1eXible conditions of all BIRTH
namely, anguish and the limitations the
boundaries of life. Creation is but scale
after scale of life boundaries; the fish cam
not leave the water to fly through the air.
birds cannot glide beneath the water;
plants cannot leave their fixed locations
while beasts, however docile and intelli-
gent, cannot enter the realm of man. and
man himself, the highest being in nature,
has numberless complex boundaries from
which the lower beings are exempted.
Even at the very threshold of existence a
mortal is confronted with the inexorable
boundary of sex. These visible and invisi-
BILE boundaries make paradoXical, to a GER
tain extent, that lofty sounding clause in
our written Constitution declaring that all
men are born free and equal. None of us
are free; the life is in the blood, and not
only when we come into existence, but
prior to birth. we are made slaves bound
ed in brain and body capacities by the
ancestral blood within our veins. Our an
cestors, by their life and deeds, have
placed US within unalterable grooves of
soul character. We are ushered into life
bearing within US that which shapes soul;
shape implies limitation, and the soul has
ria
it's limitations of flesh. Then, after birth
arise the more external boundaries of
rank, wealth, health and length of days
each and all having part in mans limita-
tions, SO that one easily perceives the alb
surdity of claiming all men to be free and
equal.
1t is almost frightful to consider the
combina tons, the evolutions, the bounda-
ries which go to create the Individual; it
is amazing that nature never repeats her
self; that, among the millions of beings
on this globe, no two are alike; that each
has his boundary, over which he may not
pass. We have all heard lamentations
made over these mountaineering and that
individual would have been so and so if it
were not for environments; but the fact
is that there are no haphazards either in
birth or life. both being fixed by immuta-
BILE laws, and if we 60 not become by our
own efforts wealthy, Intellectual moral, it
is because in our bodily and spiritual or
ganization certain elements are lacking
which contain the power to crystalline
these things. This incompleteness of our
being makes it worse than folly to re-
proach a man for what he has not; it en-
phasizes the need of forbearance, one to
another, and shows the justice of that di-
vine impartiality of sending rain alike
upon the just and unjust. 1t is the
subtlest of ethics to determine which part
of mans imperfections is due to faults
that can be remeded, and which part is
the boundary of birth over which he nor
we have any control. William Black
aptly illustrates the impossibiIity of lift
ing one over their birth boundary in his
short story, 1.-THE Man Who Was Like
Shakespeare 1t describes a generous the
orizng. elderly physician who meets with
a young, illiterate Irishrnan possessing
large head and high forehead, bearing
great resemblance to Shakespeare.
Thinking it to be a of fettered
genius, the physician undertook through
agency of money, counsel and books, to
cultivate and TO bring out the latent fac
ulty of poetry that undoubtedly existed in
the soul of the man who was the image
of Shakespeare. The Irishman, when in
IoIIHeu VI lfle pIODdDiilly OI his IutuFo
poetical career, exclaimed: 'Bedad, and
tbs a poet Oh am! Me mother knew MOTH
ing about it; me father, rest his sowl
bate me if liver Ord pen in me hand -
As might have been expected. the expert
ment was a failure; it was impossible 20
lift to the Shakspearean domain the enc
whose parents bequeathed nothing poet
ical. and although the dazed fellow made
frantic endeavors to please his patron by
scribbling rhymes. the only result was
brain fever that brought him to the verge
of the grave.
And yet, despite the fatality of our
boundaries, we are responsible beings. In
our political Constitution is a clause near
er truth than that one of being free and
equal" 1t is the declaration that each
individual has the inaliena BILE right to the
pursuit of happiness In like manner
each one has he right and the duty to
extract the best existence from his en-
vfronments 1t is his right to accept in
this sense the goods the gods PROVIDE"
it is his duty TO wage war with the twists