Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-06
LESSONS FROM EXPOSITION
Rev. Trefs Comments on the Passing Of the
White City.
TEACHES THE SUPREMACY OF GENIUS
There Has Not Been n Heartbeat
Since Moses Time without Its
Effect in the Exposition's
Completeness.

Rev. Trefz preached Sunday morning at
Kountze Memorial church on Lessons from
the Exposition" He took his text from
Paule epistle 10 the Hebrews, in which the
apostle discusses those most serious ques-
tions OF the conscience, the inevitable pun
ishment of sin and the souls Immortality.
After a reference to the various manifesto
tions OF the ascendancy OF man over natural
things, both as shown by the material uni
verse and revealed in the inner conscious
ness OF man, the preacher said In part:
THE exposition with all It's beauties and
It's grandeur is thing of the past It's
influence will remain for all time, but the
thing Itself has been folded as a garment
and laid aside. 1t should teach us for one
thing the supremacy Of genius. 1t was not
the achievement OF this state or this nation
alone nor OF this year or the past few
years. Those who built it laid tribute on
every age and every people. The architects
cast their eyes back along the centuries and
borrowed here an idea from the Egyptians,
there one from the Moore and again one
from the Goths. The genius Of every man
who has wrought anything and the inventive
skill Of Faraday, of Edison and of all the
rest contributed to make 1t up. There has
not been a heartbeat since Moses time
without its effect on the completeness of the
exposition which we enjoyed How wonder
full is mans privilege to reap the benefit OF
all the genius of the past!
"The exposition also shows us that man
naturally loves and Graves the beautiful.
And II he turns from the beautiful and
seeks that which Is unbeautiful and degrad-
ing then he disclalms his souls own her
itage OF glory and power. II he thinks more
of material SYSTEMS than he does OF
the things of his soul he will go
beyond death and find nothing to satisfy
him. A great writer Of the present day
describes a dream he once had. poor
woman who struggled to feed and keep
alive six little homeless children died and
her soul came into the presence of God.
And it was Of such purity and beauty that
God marveled and asked her whence she
brought such power. And she answered:
Behold, l gave my life to Thy little ones
Then a king died and his soul went to
God. 1t was so small and shriveled that
God asked him what he had done on earth.
He answered: Il gave my life to the glories
Of the world
eve are to have an election next Tuesday
Now don't become uneasy because am going
to touch politics. Anything which you
call politics and which has an ethical side
this pulpit will handle. What is a pulpit
for? Too many men have become so the
slaves OF system that they never look al
the man. Suppose the exposition man.
ayers had placed man in charge Of the
art gallery because he had worked faith
fully for them as chimney sweep, or hat
assigned to the government exhibit a mar
who had done good work digging the
lagoon and they thought he should be re-
warded. Did you hear any talk Of tha
kind? No. They looked for men will
genius, with the ability to do the work re-
quired Of them. No city or state will eve
be great and good until its affairs hav,
been given into the hands of men VIII,
have proved themselves honest and thel
CAPABLE"