The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-09-23
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
copyrighted by Dave & Tabor

copyrighted by Dave & Tabor.l
TO THE RELIGIOUS:-The great sin
of the good and the weakness of the
strong is this:-that having gained a
glimpse of the truth they demand
that others shall see eye to eye with
them. Hence come disputings and
warnings between those whose ener-
gies instead of being directed against
each other, should be unitedly pro-
PEELED forward into the real battle,
the battle against incidence and sell
! tishness in human hearts.
/ What absolute nonsense it is for
anyone of us to claim perfect know
ledge of any subject, or to announce
that we have at last discovered a sub
ject 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 con
ception of a subject. These are they
who dwelling in grimy coal mines,
deny the existence of sunshine and
trees; or who rattling 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 God is narrowed down to the
range of their own short-sightedness
and they live and die content to be
ignorant of the infinite breath of an
infinite Creator whose works to Justify
him and whose vastness is only com
pretended in tiny fragments by the
best of us.
~
How dare anyone of US stand up to
utter the whole of Gods truth and
then place little limitations on it?
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 all who
from profound purpose and realiza-
tion Of their own Importance as Gre
ated parts of the univers, throw out
all the powers they have if by any
means they can improve some. 1t is
the narrow and shrunken men, who
as self-constituted toll-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 con
| stitution of mems minds, always be
those who, holding certain views, will
flock, settle, or fly together like swal-
| lows in Autumn. But even granting
| ism between them and their neigh
bors than between different regiments
of the same army. If you want some
really pitiful reading, take up Sir
Walter Scott's "Old Mortality" and
see how the COyenanters 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 ClaverhOuse
and others, was absolutely disregard
ed and lost to them forever. If you
need further proof of the hOrrid stu
| pidity of squabblers who, blind to a
common danger, insist on triumphs
over one author, read Josephus and
his account of the fall of Jerusalem.
hood one of the most frightful stories
in human histOY, 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
outside the walls was no longer posi-
bic. The abuses of human rights,
the torrents of human blood, the
wrenching asunder of all human ties
by those who insist on agreement
with themselves makes dreary read
ing; but it is one of the chapters OF
the human record and must be read if,
in order to appreciate the heights
possible in our nature, we must com
prehend the depths to which it can
sink
*x*
1t is so frightfully human to flee
persecution and then lay the iron
hand on those in turn. who do not
agree with us (our New England his
tory sadly confirms this that even
though we concede that days of more
liberality have come, yet each of us
must look within to watch for symp-
toms of illiberality. 1t is easily nur.
tured, and it's influences spring at
once into vigor, if we criticise this OF
that work for good The world is a
great harvest-tield, and therein grow
by different methods of work the
various 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 NOR
al effort no one can measure in its in
,,-o, a., ,J > 8, -,