The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-10-16
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY sINEaIo. y


To TIE RELIGIoUs:eTh great sin
of the good and the weakness of the
strong is this:-that} having gained a
glimpse of truth they demand that
Others shall see eye to eye with them.
Hence come sdisputings and warning
between those whose energies instead
of being directed against each other,
should be unitedly propelled forward
into the real battle, the battle against
Incidence and selfishness in human
hearts.
=.
What absolute nonsense it is for
any one of us to claim perfect knowl-
edge Of any subject, or to announce
that we have at last discovered a SUBJ
jeet 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 concep-
tion Of subject. These are they who
dwelling in grimy coal mines, deny
the existence of sunshine and trees
or who rattling in their narrow cells
VI OboubHo iihC ttnpul MIN CduS III d
wagon, by their noisy protestings
drive from them those whom quiet
thought would reach. Their view
of life and of God is narrow down to
the range Of their own short sightsed-
ness and they live and die content to
be ignorant of the infinite breadth of
an infinite Creator whose works do
justify him and whose vastness is
only comprehended 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 it? We dare it because we are so
small and so narrow that we scarce
can sec ourselves. Great-men welcome
to the great army of world betterere,
all who from profound purpose and
realization of their own Importance
as created parts of the universe,
throw ,out all the powers they have
IL by any means they can improve
some. 1t is the narrow and shrunken
men, who as self-continued toll-gate
keepers along the highways of life de-
mand of us the surrender of this and
that coin of thought if we would tray
erse their section of the road
~
There will of necessity, by the con-
stitution of mems minds, always be
those who, holding certain views, will
flnply sattla nr fiv fonafhar lil1a cruaI
lows in Autumn. But even granting
this there is no more need of
antagonism between them and their
neighbors than between different regi-
ments of the same army. If you
want some really pitiful reading,
take up Sir Walter Scotts sold
Mortality and see how the Coven-
anters harrassed 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 Clavorhouse and Others,
was absolutely disregarded and lost to
them forever. If you need further
proof of the horrid stupidity of
who, blind to common
danger, insist on triumphs over one
read Josephus and his &C
count of the fall of Jerusalem. You
will concede it to be, in all likelihood
one of the most frightful stories In
human history, where. in sight of
danger that threatened to engulf all
in ruin, the sects few at each other
in unexampled fury and slew Of their
own people until resistance to the foe
out side the walls was no longer DOS
sible. The abuses of all human rights.
the torrents of human blood, the
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.
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
history 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
and its influences spring at
once into vigor, if wecriticise 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 equ-
ally wide, and its crops even more di-
yersifled. The world of moral effort
no one can measure in its influence,
and over it and its multifarious active
tiles sits the Lord of the Harvest who
being able to futher the effort of
the negro in his corn, the South
Sea Islander in his cassava, the
in his rice, has not His pow
er shortened so that he cannot reap
from diversified methods in the doing
Of good. e
~
Do | urge an age of loose beliefs?
Not by any means. Grow more and
more intense in what you believe, If
you will, but leave other workers
alone, for they are watched by wiser
than thou. Let your test of good
man be by his energy in living out his
beliefs, and having found in him the
ring of the true metal of good purpose
that has brought us onward hitherto,
turn that super abundant energy
that might in other days have been
wasted in convincing him by force,
into exertions to awaken those who
sleep, to energize the weak who do
not believe anything and therefore
have nothing to work for.
First fight the enemy outside the
gates of wholesome usful life, and then
not till then-will you need to settle
the trifling questions within. Make
your life a protest against selfish
sloth, and you will in some degree
show just how high human nature
can rise If we do but ''hitch our char
lots to the stars"
Though DER the veil OF northern night
The myriad stars are flung
Yet clear above, to others sight,
The Southern Cross is hung.