The record-union., 1897-09-19
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY Memo"

copyrighted by Dave & Tabor)
To the Religious: The great sin OF the
good and the weakness of the strong
Is this: That having gained a glimpse
Of truth they demand that others snail
See eye to eye with them. Hence come
disputings and warnings between those
whose energies instead of being dl-
rected against each other, should me
unltedly propelled forward into the real
battle, the battle against Incidence and
selfshness in human hearts
What absolute nonsense it is for any
one of US to claim perfect knowledge OF
any subject, or to announce that we
have at last discovered a subject that
has only one side to it. And mark you
this The chief sinners in Intolerance
are those who ultimately are found to
have the narrowest conception of OF a
subject. These are they who are
dwelling in grimy coal mines. denied
the existence of sunshine and trees; or
who rafting in their narrow cells OF
thought like empty milk cans in
wagon, by their noisy protestings drive
from them those whom quiet thought
would reach. Their view Of life and
of God is narrowed down to the range
Of their own short-sightedness, and
they live and die content to be ginorant
of the infinite breadth Of an infinite
Creator whose works do justify him
and whose vastnes is only compre-
hended in tiny fragments by the best
of US.
How dare any one Of US stand up to
utter the whole of GODS truth and
then place little human limitations on
il? We dare it because we are so
small and so narrow that we scarce
can see ourselves. Great men welcome
to the great army Of world-betterers
all who from profound purpose and
realization of their own Importance as
created parts Of the universe, throw out
all the powers they have if by any
means they can improve some. 1t is
the marrow and shrunken men, who as
self-constituted tou-gate keepers along
the highways of life demand of us the
surrender of this and that coin of
thought if we would traverse their
section of the road.
There will of necessity, by the consti-
tuition Of mems minds, always be those
who, holding certain views. will flock,
settle. or fly together like swallows in
autumn. But even granting this there
is no more need of antagonism be-
tween them and their neighbours than
between different regiments Of the
same army Ifyou want some really pit
iful reading, take up Sir Walter Scott's
"Old Mortality" and see how the Gov
enanters. harassed by their oppressors,
snarled and snapped at the hands that
would have aided them, so that, at the
last. whatever advantage might have
been gained from armed resistance to
CIaverhouse and others, was absolutely
disregarded and lost to them forever.
If you need further proof of the horrid
stupidity of squabblers who, blind to
a cornman danger, insist on triumphs
over one another, read JOsephus and
his account of the Fall of Jerusalem.
You will concede it to be, in all likeli-
hood, one of the most frightful stories
in human history where, in sight of
a danger that threatened to engulf all
in ruin. the sects flew at each other in
unexampled fury and slew of their own
people until resistance to the foe out
side the walls was no longer possible.
The aouse of all human rights. the tor
rents of human blood, the wrenching
asunder of all human ties by those who
insist on agreement with themselves
makes deary reading; but 1t is one Of
the chapters Of the human record, and
must be read if, in order to appreciate
the nights possible in our nature, we
must comprehend the depths to which
it can sink.
1t is so frightfully human to flee per-
secutiOn and then lay iron hand on
those in turn who do not agree with
US (our New England history sadly con-
firms Jhis) that even though we con-
cede that days Of more liberality have
come, yet each of US must look with
in to watch for symptoms of illiber-
ality. 1t is easily nurtured, and its in
fiuences spring at once into vigOr, if we
crticise this or that worker for good.
The world is a great harvest-field, and
therein grow by different methods of
work The varied crops that keep life
in The body of man. The world of
thought is equally wide, and its crops
even more diversified. The world of
moral effort no one can measure in its