The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-06-20
PULPIT EDITORIALS.
,,.rsd by Dr. Frank Crane at Trinity
chicago. Preceding the Usual
sermon Sunday. June 49, 1903
ppILAMY: THE MISSION OF THE
DREAMER.
copyrighted. 1881

xrAa fame of Edward Bethany rests
.,a,v upon his Looking Backward"
f.'s earlier writings will be. as they are,
aotically unknown to the masses, and
r. later work Equality" attained
opIv because of the interest awak-
od nv his more striking and original
son,ance. The life-work of the man con-
.,s,s substantially in his one dream of a
,r,onian social condition. The question
sr,ses. Was ii worth while? His the
ary Of "nationalism" has been shown
os imnracticable as it is beautiful. The
s.orloIs attempts to put his suggested
,Ions into operation have all failed. No
me can lay his hand upon any consid-
erahle tangible result of Bellamy's book.
II created no political party; it got no
man lob; il made no employer raise
NE mems wages; it inspired no states
man 70 seek to legislate its ideas into
immediate effect. And yet, for all this
II has done, and all the idealists do,
real work in the world.
When Joseph's brethren saw him COM
ing TO them as they watched their
Aocks. they cried in contempt: Behold,
the dreamer!" So they put the wide
eyed how into a pit and sold him into
bondage and returned to their business,
satisfied that the visionary youth was
well out of their way. But his dreams
stood him in good stead, and the day
came when the hard-headed brothers
bowed down to him, and from his hand
took bread. The young Messiah was a
dreamer who uttered His golden Wis
ions TO an untoward generation and
gave UP his life, leaving no legacy be-
hind Him but the memory of His burn
ing words. As it's founder was an IDEAL
ist. so Christianity and the civilization
II has produced have always given a
high position to the seer of the unseen.
Few realize the immense effect of the
IMAGINATION upon the realities of life.
Not only those who follow fads, those
who are subject to superstitions, those
who suffer imaginary ailments. and
those who are cured by faith, but all
the rest of the world, even the most
matter-of -fact of men and women, owe
their progress, their ambition, and the
main portion of their joys and sorrows
to their fancy. The ideal governs us
all. Vivid pictures of the mind lead the
youth into disgusting debauch, or in
spire him to climb the heights of at
tainment by the rough path of self-sac-
rifice. The toiling clerk, the energetic
merchant, the tenacious student, the
soldier, the sailor and the housewife
live not for the humdrum common
places Of their poor environment, but
for the bits of hope and the prismatiC
anticipations which they constantly en-
terrain. If we could see only what is tC
be seen, If we could perceive nothing
but facts, if we could not throw the
rare coloring Of idealism over the dull
actualities about us, no soldier would
ever enlist. no man would labor a life
time to lay up competence, no mother
could endure to rear her children, No
lover would be enamored Of his mis-
tress face; indeed the whole race would
sink into the despair of drudgery, anC
the lamp of human JOY would be ex'
tinguished.
The ideal is the best part Of our work
No sermon is so good as the one tina
was never preached, that floated as al
elusive possibility before the preacher
mind. No painting is so fine as the on
whose evanescent color the artist coulC
never catch upon his canvas, yet which
swung as bright cloud in the sky >
his mind Every great musical com
position is but a compromise between
the ravishing melodies that flood thu
composers soul and the stubborn
instruments which labor under tn
chafing harness of reality. The best o
life is the illusion that hangs constant
ly before us. which we never catch
which, as'w die, we still sigh for AM
look toward, trusting that in anothe
world we can reach 1t.
thus 1t Is that the masters of tn
ideal are the directors of progress.
20 the prophets, bards and seers,
In the horoscope of nations,
Like ascending consultations,
They control the coming years"
The march of civilization is led by tn
dreamers. They are the scouts, the ad
vance guard, going before. Behin
them come the hopltes, the heavy
armed soldiery, composed of the or
ganizers, the doors, the pragmatic peo
pie. In taking an inventory of our age
therefore, we should reckon our dreams
and the dreamers of them, as our bes
possession. For they are the suretie
Tor the future. What the age to com
will be, is determined by what this ag
dreams. Our institutions now are tn
result of the ambitions and imagina
tons of yesterday. Had no prophet
Messiah gone about doing good; ha
lie not spoken the parallels and apoth
Gyms that idealized fraternity and a.
truism, there would be today no churcl
no missions, no democracy and no free
dom. The ebullient writers of the day
or the French restoration did not pu
forth their brilliant theories In vail
nor were those theories quenched in til
violence OF their time, but hundre
years afterward the civilized world ha
quietly moved up attempting to occup
by institutional and governmental rea
lty what was once deemed the cloud
land of liberty, equality and fraternit.
L place Edward Bellamy, therefor
among that most useful class of men
the dreamers. Whether his particuls
plans will ever be realized 1t matter
not, he has helped us by giving guit