The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-06-18

until forces that were hidden for age'
come to wheels and levers and shafts
and shuttles-forces that fly the air Oh
swim the sea or cleave the mountain
until the earth jars and roars and rings
and crackles and booms with strange
mechanism, and ships with nostrils Of
hot steam and Jokes of fire draw the
continents together.
say nothing against healthful curl
osity. May it have other Leyden jars,
and other electric batteries, and other
Voltaic piles, and other magnifying
glasses, with which to storm the barred
castles of the natural world until it
shall surrender its last secret. We thank
God for the geological curiosity OF Fro
fessor Hitchcock, and the mechanical
curiosity of Liebig, and the geological
curiosity of Cuvier, and the inventive
curiosity of Edison, but we must admit
that unhealthful and irregular inquisi-
tiveness has rushed thousands and tens
of thousands into ruin.
Eve just tasted the fruit. She was
curious to find out how it tasted, and
that curiosity blasted her and blasted
all nations. So there are clergymen in
this day, inspired by unhealthful in
quisitiveness, who have tried to look
through the keyhole of Gods myster-
ies-mysteries that were barred and
bOlted from all human inspection-and
they have wrenched their whole moral
nature out of joint by trying to pluck
fruit from branches beyond their reach,
Or have come out on limb of the tree
from which they have tumbled into
ruin without remedy. A thousand trees
of religious knowledge from which we
may eat and get advantage, but from
certain trees of mystery how many
have plucked their ruin! Election, free
agency, trinity, resurrection ii the
discussion of these subjects hundreds
and thousands of people ruin the soul.
There are men who actually have been
kept out of the kingdom of heaven be-
cause they could not understand who
Melchisedec was not
Forbidden Fruit.
Oh, how many have been destroyed
by an unhealthful inquisitiveness! 1t is
seen in all directions. There are those
who stand with the eye stare and mouth
cape Of curiosity. They are the first to
hear falsehood, build it another story
high and two wings to it. About other
peoples apparel, about other peoples
business, about other peoples financial
condition, about other peoples affairs,
they are overanxious. Every nice piece
of gossip stops at their door, and they
fatten and luxuriate in the endless
round of the great world of little tattle
They invite and sumptuously entertain
at their house Colonel Twaddle and Es-
quire Chitchat and Governor Smalltalk.
Whoever hath an innuendo, whoever
hath a scandal, whoever hath a valuable
secret, let him come and sacrifice it to
this goddess of splitter. Thousands of
Adams and Ewes do nothing but eat
fruit that does not belong to them. Men
quite well known as mathematicians
failing in this computation of moral
algebra: Good sense plus good breeding,
minus curiosity, equals minding your
own affairs.
Then, how many young men through
curiosity go through the whole realm
of French novels, TO see whether they
are really as bad as moralists have pro-
nounced them. They come near the |
verge of the precipice just to look off.
They want to see how far it really is
down, but they lose their balance while
they look and fall into remediless ruin, |
or, catching themselves Chamber up, |
and CHASTITY, Oh the rock, glib
bering with curses or grooming ineffec-
tual prayer. By all means encourage
healtbful inQuisitiveness, by all means
i'll regulated curiosity.
This subject also impresses me with
the fact that fruits that are sweet to the
taste may afterward produce great ago
ny. Forbidden fruit for Eve was so
pleasant she invited her husband also to
take of it, but her Punishment from
paradise and 5000 years of sorrow, and
and war, and woe paid
for that luxury. Sin may be very sweet
at the start, and it may induce great
afterward. The cup of sin
is sparkling at the top, but there is
Heath at the bottom. Intoxication has
great exhilaration for awhile, and it
illips the blood, and it makes a man
zee five stars where others can see only
one star, and it makes the poor man
'ich, and turns cheeks which are white
ed as roses; but what about the dreams
hat come after, when he seems falling
rom great heights, or is Frustrated by
)ther fancied disasters, and the perspi-
alton stands ON the forehead-the I
hight dew of everlasting darkness-and
Re is ground under the horrible hoof of
Nightmares shrieking with lips that
,rackle with all consuming torture?
Rejoice, o young man, in thy youth,
md let thy heart cheer thee in the days {
# thy youth, but know thou that for
III these things God will bring thee in
o Judgment. Sweet at the start, hor-
ible at the last. Go into that hall of ]
evelry, where ungodly mirth staggers t
nd blasphemes. Listen to the senseless '
'abble. See the last trace of intelligence
ashed out from faces made in Gods {
wn image. "Aha, ahap' says the roist- /
ring inebriate. This is Joy for you. {
ill high your cups, my boys. drink
0 my wife's misery and my children's t
a