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

in his nature, to keep down the ancestral
sins lurking in his blood: his duty to con-
tons of his soul-inherited boundary
Most of the pathos, the anguish of life,
comes from the continuous struggle to
pass beyond the limit of capability or
dained at birth. What then? Does God,
with His everlasting, infiexble laws, mock
our futile attempts for deliverance from
inherited bondage and boundary? Has He
no compassion on our groans and tears?
Yes-"The Lord is good to all; His tender
mercies are over all His works" and these
very boundaries over which we so often
bewail are our protection. our life itself.
If we cannot go beyond them, neither can
any foreign power intermeddle in the realm
of our individuality. The birth boundary
constitutes the human Il am" and causes
the heart to know its own joy and bitter
ness. 1t is the barrier against fnfinity COM
ing in to overwhelm, sweep away, our
1t is of no avail to be righteous overmuch;
that is, to make our days, both to ourselves
and others. burdens of lamentations and
fearful prayers over our shortcomings. Our
subtlest ethics cannot determine how much
We are really to blame for our wrong-do-
particle in our composition Is known to
Him and He holds the balance of our deeds
with strlctest Judgment of justice yet tenn
pered with compassionate mercy; there
fore we are to rejoice. instead of weeping
that our destiny is not in our cwn hands:
10 feel thai 1t is WELLS blessed for the
soul to sow beside all waters and in hope
being.
But this logical truth of imrrerfection con-
sequent on inherited tendencies to wrong
ana to the necessary limitations of exist
from endeavors after righteousness; in
Iact, 1t calls for a wider. more unselfsh
scope of religion-not merely a personal
question of our own chance of getting to
heaven, since knowledge of birth bound
aries and inherited evil commands us to
have tolerance and forgiveness 'Or how
wilt thou say to thy brother Let me mil
out the mote out of thine eye and behold
a beam is III thine own eye?' This sort of
~ a1N,r IL.
and others limitations, would extend our
tolerance; we should be not so ready to re-
t buke person for his lack of certain quail
ties. while our compassion would approach
the divine merely far as to lenientlv
judge even the thief and the murderer.
10 sum the whole, are to regard Our
tecting us in the house of individuaIitv and
TO bring the most possible good from out
the narrOWneSS. and to strive to overcome
not TO eliminate, besetting SINS or in other
words, hereditary tendencies to evil Not To
10 change the contour of body or brain: the
vase may not strive with the potter il
must retain the shape given it until broken,
And so death comes to break us-not like
the vase broken beyond redemption-but to
break our narrow boundaries and to usher
us into longer individuality; in this new
back at the conflicting forces of its earthly
existence and behold its travail and be sat
Dec5 use of joy that a mortal clothed II,
of God. 'ii'
therefore: being found in the flesh. let us
be submissive to its God-ordained bound
airy, obedlent even unto death to it's best
capabilities. This is the gospel of salvation.
this is all the Father requires of us till in
the fullness of time We arrive to that birth
where there is no more need to surround
us with earth limitations, where no more
anguish is remembered because a seraph
archangel, Christ is born.
He who made your life span
VIII judge as never judges man.
Do not sigh,
Do not cry:
All will come right by and by
ELIZABETH BOURNE POTTER.