The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-03-20
THE VICTORIES OF SPIRIT.

"THEBE is a spirit in man." says
the patriarch Job, "and the inspira-
ton of the Almighty giveth him I'M
derstanding." The almost univer sal
verdict of experience is that this faith
in spirit is somehow wrought into the
structure of human life, and the con-
viction appears all along the ages in
the history of man, that the body is a
sort of tent, or temple, in which
dwells a superior tenant; that the
flesh is vestment or garment of the
soul, given it for temporary service,
which is at length to be laid by as
something worn out and untitled to
do service as the spirit passes into a
higher and more purely spiritual
stage of being.
This is the general sense of the
human race on this matter; a sense
appearing in the dim outlines of the
savage mind and not disappearing
from the most civilized, thus linking
in common tie all members of the
same human race.
Among the great instincts of man
kind none is more self-assertive and
dominant than this; none has left a
clearer record of it's presence and
sway among men in all past ages;
and none is more conspicuous at the
present time. The temple every
where rises to view, and the voice of
prayer is never silent. The great
thinkers still, as in the days of Plato,
carry the sacred themes in their
minds; and the daily converse of
men at shop and Preside, turns upon
the interests of the soul. Even
the atheist, who assumes that the
spiritual realm is fiction, can never
succeed in crowding it out of his
thoughts, but comes round to this
point with a singular frequency in
his interviews with his fellow beings
as if his instinct in this particular
was so strong he could not hold il
down; or. rather, as if in the midst OF
his mental negations, the soul still
caught views of its finest delights
and of the great affirmations-God,
Heaven and Immortality. AS the
further we go from home the more
the dear spot rises to our view, so il
would seem the more that we strive
to escape the higher realities, the
more they pursue US. Hence atheism
does not, and cannot, enter it's own
realm of insensibility and silence in
view of the divine sphere; and the
atheists heart, like the sea shell. con
tinues its murmur of the unseen
ocean, and strives ever to return te
the region it renounces.
Robert Ingersoll, perhaps the mos
eloquent exponent of denial in oul
country, in one of his uplifting mo
ments, when the inspiration of the
Almighty gave him understanding
an d enabled him to see beyond the
confines of his own doubt and scepti
cism, touched this point and ex,
pressed it in ever memorable words
THE idea of Immortality, that like a
sea has ebbed and flowed into the hu-
man heart with it's countless waves beat
ing against the shores and rocks of time
and faith. was not born of any book OF
of any creed or of any religion. 1t was
born of human affection, and it will con.
tinue to ebb and flow beneath the mists
and clouds of doubt and darkness as
long as love kisses the lips of death. II
is the rainbow of Hope shining upon the
tears of grief"
When this faith in spirit becomes
a permanent and unquestioned pos.
session of the soul, we can readily see
how such an enlargement of our Wis
ion were like multiplying the best
and grandest conceptions of earth by
a million numbers. We pass thus
through the spiritual gateway of the
soul into another and transcendent
universe. 1t is evident that such a
higher and better view must lift up
ennoble, and greatly inspire human
nature as a merely temporal view
could not. Hence after caref III read