The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-08-28
HIGHER USES OF THE MAGMA
TIUN.
BY MARION d SHUTTER, DID.
IL.


TON IN RELIGION?
The answer to this question is in
volved in what has already been
said; but there is something yet to
add. This divining and picturing
faculty of the soul is the most impor
tant factor and instrument in our
moral education. Noprogress is pos
sible without its help. We do not
walk, let me repeat, we do not walk
by sight, but by faith. We are not
shaped and nodded so much by the
seen as by the unseen.
l. The Imagination is indispensa-
bic IN forming ideals of life.
In order to progress one must con-
stantly see before him something he
has not achieved. The imagination
opens his eyes to the possibilities of
life. He beholds, by its aid, fairer
lands than any of which he has yet
taken possession. There are green
grasses, waving flowers, sparkling
waters-the whole bright realm of
better life. The things of religion
are not appreciate by the senses.
They are not discovered by the sight
Of the eye or the touch of the hand.
Salvation, or character, newness of
life, righteousness, justice, purity,
hope-these are not creatures of mat
ter or images of clay. They can not
be seen with the natural vision. They
are the mightiest things in the uni
verse, but we can not weigh and
measure them. They are realities
most tremendous. They are stronger
than tornado or volcanic outburst.
But they are spiritually discerned.
The soul is drawn towards them by
the idealizing faculty which per-
ceives in them something higher
than the old life has held--some
greater moral beauty to be attained,
some loftier peak of courage and
strength to be scaled
2. The imagination penetrotes be
yond the Visible earth and heaUens,
and beholds back of these "the great
aUhite throne, and him tUho sits upon
it,"
To the imagination, the material
universe is but a manifestation of
something we do not see, some mys-
ferrous power that operates through
it. Gall men believe in God," says
French philosopher, "unless you
undertake to prove his existence"
when we try to bring God within
scientific formularies, he vanishes.
He cannot be confined by them. He
breaks through all definitions, as
Samson breaks the green withes of
the Philistines. 1t is only as we
give the wings of imagination to our
souls, that they rise above human
limitations and repose in the bosom
of the Eternal.
3. The Imagination as necessary to
bring as into sympathy Nth our
fellolO men.
We cannot judge others truly I'M
less we can put ourselves in their
places, understand the way in which
they have come to be what they are,
and appreciate their circumstances.
There is one of the Dreams of
Olive Schreiner which illustrates this
An angel came down and led a man
whose heart was bitter against his
neighbor to certain spot. They
looked upon the soul of that neigh
Dor. They sawits past, its childhood,
the tiny life with the dew upon it; they
saw its youth when the dew was melt
ing, and the creature raised its tired
mouth to drink from cup too large
for it, and they saw how the water
split; they saw its hopes that were
never realized; they saw it's hours of
intellectual blindness, men call sin,
they saw it's hours of l-radiating
insight, which men call righteous.
ness; they saw its hours of strength
when it leaped to its feet crying, 81
am omnipotent;" its hour of weak
ness when it fell to the earth and
grasped dust only. The angel asked,
"Who is it," The man answered,
at. is myself" Again the angel
babe the man look, and he saw with
in his neighbor the stirring of a
strange and beautiful life; and the
man bowed his head and whispered,
sit is Godp The angel covered the
mans eyes, and when he uncovered
them, there was one walking from
them little way of, for the angel
had re-clothed the soul in it's outward
form and vesture. "Do you know
him?" 81 know him. And the angel
said, Shave you forgiven hint" The
man could only exclaim, "How beau
tiful my brother isp' The angel
looked into the mans eyes, and he