The record-union., 1899-10-25

And II you and I only really came to
be believers. In a rational sense, do
not Know what more we might desire
IN order to make a heaven for US "a
heaven Of content, a heaven of infinite
peace, a heaven of power. We are be-
ginning to see that we have a choice
between absolute faith and unlimited
negation, between the profoundesr hope
and unmitigated despair
The problem of evil is not SO dis
| tressing as it used to be. We do not
| feel that We have to prop up the moral
| order of the universe. We are getting
more In practical sympathy to the old
| lady who was always at peace, al
| though her circumstances were not
conducive to peace: and when some
body asked her how it was that she
| could always seem to be so happy and
content in the midst of trial and suf-
fering, she said: well. for one thing,
l never take my housekeeping to bed
| with me. and can always arise in the
morning, and lie down and sleep at
night, confident that at the heart of
the universe there is a great heart that
is friendly to me- And this is the
ground of hope; this is the basis of
hope.
/ The marvellous transformations CT the
past-did you think overestirnated 1t
when | said I supposed that in the last
| fifty years there had been more dis
coveries and inventions of value to the
race than in all the worlds previous
/ history. l wonder if you have read
Alfred Russell Wallace's very sugges-
tive book on 1.-The Wonderful Cen
tury.' 1t is worth reading. 1t is a
compendium of the revelations of the
science of our times. and hints also
at the great gospel that is yet to be
uttered by the voice even of what we
have called material science.
| Doctor Wallace points out to us in
that book that in all the worlds his
tory-and we have a record of the
World%a history of the world. for
something like thirty thousand years
that in all these thirty thousand years
there have not been so many inyen-
tions and discoveries of blessing to the
world. as in our own century. He sums
up among the chief discoveries, 7 think
nineteen. and out of those seven of
them belong to all the previous CEN
turies. and twelve to our own cen
tury: and he sums up twenty great in-
ventions that have blessed the world,
and out of the twenty there are only
seven that belong to all the preceding
centuries. and thirteen belong to CUR
own. So that. if we would compare this
century with the past. we have to COM
pare this century not only with any
preceding century, but with all the
/ Haxy hoH "a
yet become with US. as we are told
it is with the Lord. as a thousand
years, one century has certainly be-
come as three hundred centuries of the
past, and every hour that we live, we
move forward faster. and faster, and
faster.
The earth is not SO solid as it was
it begins to melt-we look through it.
We speak through the mountains. We
read the records of our boats skipping
upon the seas, even before some of
those standing almost under their very
shadow have comprehended the signi-
ficance of that which they are doing.
We have engines now that can carry
trains easily two hundred miles in an
hour. We have electric apparatus that
can cause a piece of soil to produce
four times as much as has been known
before in the worlds history. Within
the last two years. for the first time,
man has successfully navigated the
air. We have harnessed Niagara. I
read only yesterday that some COM
pany had arranged to take the power
of the mighty tides. sweeping UP and
back through your estuaries to do
the work of California. The time has
almost arrived when drudgery will be
banished from the world forever.
Great spiritual forces are being re-
leased. Professor Richard Ely tells
US that in one of his books he made
a prophecy of something that he
thought would be of great benefit to
humanity, and he said Il do not know
that my readers will believe it, but I
think that in ten years. some expert
ments will be tried in America along
these lines" Before that book could
go to the printer and the type be set
up and the proof come back to him,
and the book printed and bound and
put in the hands of the public, those
! experiments had been successfully
| tried. and had been introduced as q
| permanence in three different States
in America.
! Three years ago this past summer,
I sat in the Peace Conference at Lake
| Mohawk, and DR. Edward Everett
| Hale was making some of his magnifi-
cent predictions as to what might be,
and he uttered this word. which has
! been one of his greatest words for
years: "A permanent tribunal Of arbi-
tration." A venerable Judge of the
! Court Of Appeals of New York sat by
my side. and he turned to me and said:
''Oh, sphaw. how ridiculous!' He said:
Have we come up here to fritter away
/ our time listening to that kind of
thing?" he said. why don't the man
/ get the people to conceive of what a
permanent tribunal of arbitration
means for at least another hundred
years-probably for several centuries" "
And yet, inside of two years from that
time, the great treaty of arbitration be-
| tween the United States and England
had barely failed of being adopted, and
the New York Bar Association was
sending its committee around the world
with a plan practically outlined, that
was adopted as a feasible thing by the
great congress of the nations-the first
really practical. but not the original
that met at The Hague last summer.
'''This weary waiting wave by wave
But yet the tide heaves onward.
/ We climb like corals grave by grave,
! But pave a path that's sunward.
We're beaten back in many tray,
| But newer strength we borrow,
And where the vanguard camps to-day,
The rear will rest tomorrow"
My flesh quivers with the touch of