The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-04-22
THE STRONGEST POWER
SILENT BUT MIGHTY,
THE WORLD is MOVED
IDEAS.
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMO."
SILENT BUT MIGHTY.
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMO."
(Copyrighted.)

| BY MEMO.
(Copyrighted.)
If / were to question each reader
there would be very diverse answers al
to what constitutes the greatest power
in the world. Electricity, steam, dy
Mantle, volcanic eruptions, would al
doubtless be prime favorites. But
name greater than these-AN IDEA
Ideas are silent but their power nc
rending flash OF lightning ever equals
To speak OF material things even the
house you inhabit, the clothes you
wear, the prepared feod you eat, the
monuments you admire, are nothing
but ideas materialized. Far back in the
ages some poor shivering savage added
riven piece OF wood to the front side
OF his caye as an extra protection. An
other OF these forgotten benefactors
found fire and conserved it by ideas
that held it in subjection, so that 1t 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 club at the end of it. And
since ideas are orderly,-much as stairs
by which we cllmb-the higher one
possible because the lower one has been
passed, so these early discoyerers are the
actual precursors of the home comforts
we enjoy and the machinery that puts
puny man aboye all powers of nature
organic or inorganic. The old methods
may pass away, both of protecting our
selves from the inclemency OF the
weather and of entering into conflict
with opposing forces but the new meth
DDS are simply built upon the old that
have served their purpose and led to
higher things.
But when we come to ideas that are
not merely material but mental and
spiritual, the power to turn and change
and reform is even more remarkable
and wonderful in Its silence and might.
The government to which you owe
the peace and orderliness of
life, the spiritual impulses that sway us
are all the outcome of ideas that have
taken their origin like some mighty
stream in ain obscure and hidden spot
that leads on to growth as it flows.
Take the idea of God, for instance -
when the savage saw the power of the
wind and the water and the seasons his |
idea was that they were living beings
who could be pleased or irritated, and
he named them variously and worship
I'd them. But gradually grew up the
in the national mind, of a
power over and above these material
signs of power and that was worshiped
IS the God over all other Gods. Yet
while the tribe or the nation remained
God was for it alone and not
or other peoples. Each nation pre-
smpted to itself tho right and control
If the true God, or Gods. For long ages
he thought of the Fatherhood of God
md 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
stroke down the walls
If partition between nations, the idea
began to grow among thought
ul minds that it was possible for ma
ions to cooperate with one another
md this very tendency to cooperate
paved the way for the prevalence OF the
idea that now entered the
human mind. And now is sweeping
through the heart of the world, the
Telling that God and his revelation is
n some measure found among all peo-
oles and all religions. What further
IDEAS are yet to be regarding the length,
,he breadth, the height of Gods nature
If mercy and tender interest, no man
:an yet tell. But this we know, the
human mind is growing broader, and
;he human heart is warming into
in our day; we also know
hat you and are living now, and it
is ours to live, think, and act broadly
as becometh the dawn of a new century.
Again look at our government. We
strive here for the maximum of liberty
and the minimum of restraint upon the
individual, but it would he absolute
Foolishness to assert that the breadth of
Du, constitution is all due to the clear
vision and emancipated minds OF the
founders of the Republic. Rather let
us acknowledge that the ideas they had
we're simply an orderly development
trom thoughts that had been stirring |