The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-08

ferent from the affirmative of the old man.
Doubt Is not characteristic of life at its be-
ginning or end. But there is this difference
The young mans yes Is based a belief
that he reaches easily; the old man believes
because he must. There comes a time when
the life of any man may be turned upon the
thing the Affirmative, out of his life. But
at the end we all come through the disci-
pltne of life to the things we experienced in
youth.
Doubt may be the most serious use to
which one may put the truth. Honest doubt
only aids the truth. The man who, like
Jacob, wrestles with doubt until he has salts
Ned himself has reached the truth. But
there are some phases Of doubt that are
misleading and harmful. One man is en-
shaved by pride of intellect which betrays
him. another is led astray by the opinion of
the world; another becomes doubter through
loss of faith in his fellow man, yet another
drifts from doubt into downright disbelief
Inc result in each case is simply negative
Whether man in his doubt cries out to God !:
1 cannot, or I will not the result is the
same. The duty is not done.
Many persons give hard powerful, pa
tient thought to things other than religious
They put 1t off to things less material to
their interests, and find that they are
living in world that is remote from re-
lglon. Huxley, with all his respect for re-
Hgion, lived, as he said, in an extra world
In his world there was no cross of Christ
In early life great vital questions come to
u.s. Later we ask how they will affect this
comfort, that luxury. We come to be crea-
lures of circumstance, so that when any SUI
preme duty challenges we are not prepared.
Inc years of great temptation come not in
youth but in middle life, and men. locating
their temptations wrongfully, fall because Of
unsupported weakness.
81 remember not long ago meeting in the
heart of the mountains of my state an aged
man OF my acquaintance who said that his
physician had given him SIX months of sight.
After that period he would be hopelessly
blind. He said to me: L came here to read
the psalms Of David, the words of Christ
and to see these waving his hand to the
grand old hills about him. Those hills knew
he would come back again. They had been
waiting patiently for the return of the man
who as a boy, had left their shadow. So
it is with US. This great question, these
things of tremendous reality, stand waiting
our return-and blessed is the man who does
return, and who says Yes.
Many persons lose the power of the affirm
ative through association. The tendency is
for man to become more afraid of his fell
low man; he loses his individuality; he is
afraid to speak and act; he utters only pub
lie sentiment. 1t is hard to get any man to
tell his inmost thought or belief Ask him
and he gives you the answer of the street or
of the church. We have lost ourselves, not
by design, but by natural processes. There
are times when one wants to know more than
what lies down deep in the heart of your
ne1ghbor, but as face answers face in the
water, so heart answers heart The tendency
of earlier life is from originality to the COM
monplace; SO that If in later years we come
back to ourselves it is because our compan-
ionships have lessened, our companions have
dropped away, and man learns to walk again
alone with his God.
Thus mankind Is weakened in faith and
the power Of affirmation by doubt, by be-
coming involved in detail that clouds the in
intellect or becomes overborne by associa-
ton. He loses the power of thinking and
Of giving immediate response to God. He is
not able to rise into the glorious elevation of
faith or to the still more glorious heights of
duty. You all know where the personal dan
ger may be, but how shall we avoid that dan
ger. You may say, life in the natural or
der begins in the Affirmative, why not let it
take its course. l answer reckon the differ
ence between the affirmative put permanently
put into life at the end. The young mans
yes covers two worlds, the other but one.
How unspeakable the loss to the who
has lost out of his life forever the oppor
tunity to call God his own"