The record-union., 1897-04-18
some RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
Copyrfghted by Memo.


If l were TO question each reader
there would be very diverse answers as
to what constitutes the greatest power
in the world. Electricity, steam, dyna-
mite, volcanic eruptions. would all
doubtless be prime favorites But I
mime greater than these-an idea.
Ideas are silent, but their power no
rending flash of lightning ever equals
| To speak Of material things even-the
house you inhabit, the clothes you wear.
| the prepared food you eat, the monu-
ments you admire, are nothing but
| ideas materialiZed. Far back in the
ages some poor shivering savage added
a riven piece of wood to the front side
of his cave as an extra protection An
| ether of these forgotten benefactors
| name a greater than these-an idea.
that held it in subsection, so that it
no longer destroyed but warmed
cheered and heightened his days Then
again one of these ancestors of ours
thought how to add strength to his arm
by means of "a club at the end of it.
And since ideas are orderly-much as
stairs by which we climb-the higher
one possible because the lower one has
been passed, so these early discoveries
are the actual precursors of the home
comforts we enjoy and the machinery
that puts puny man above all powers of
nature, organic or inorganic The old
methods may pass away, both of pro-
tecting ourselves from the inclemency
of the weather and of entering into con-
/ t1ict with opposing forces, but the new
methods are simply built upon the old
! that have served their purpose and led
; to higher things.
But when we come to ideas that are
Dot merely material but mental and
spiritual, the power to turn and change
and reform is even more remarkab BILE
and wonderful in it's silence and it's
might. The Government to which you
owe allegiance, the peace and orderli-
ness of life, the spiritual impulses that
sway US are all the outcome of ideas
that have taken their origin like some
mighaty stream in an obscure and hid
den spot that leads on to growth as it
flows. Take the idea of God, for in
stance-when the savage saw the pow
er of the wind and the water and the
seasons his idea was that they We're liv-
ing beings who could be pleased or ir-
ritated, and he named them variously
and worshiped them. But gradually
grew up the conception in the national
mind of a power over and above these
material signs of power, and that was
worshiped as the God over all other
Gods. Yet while the tribe or the ma
ton remained stationary God was for
it alone, and not for other peoples. Each
nation pre-empted to itself the right
and control of the true God or Gods.
For long ages the thought of the ia
therhood of God and the brotherhood
of man did not SO much as dawn upon
the human mind-not even the Hebrew
mind. But when fierce wars, followed
by peaceful administrations, broke
down the walls of partition between
nations, the idea gradually began to
grow among thoughtful minds that it
was possible for nations to cooperate
with one another, and this very tenden-
Cy to cooperate paved the way for the
prevalence of the All-Father idea that
how entered the human mind. And now
is sweeping through the heart of the
world the feeling that God and his rev.
elation is in some measure found among
all peoples and all religions. What
further ideas are yet to be regarding
the length, the breadth, the hight of
Gods nature of mercy and tender in
terest no man can yet tell. But this we
know, the human mind is growing
broader. and the human heart is warm
ing into brotherliness in our day; we
also know that you and L are living
low, and it is ours to live, think and act
broadly as becometh the dawn of a
new century,