Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-12-28

Liz lOOl udLu Sdlu Ill Ills ue1rt,
There is no God" 1t may be SO. Most
things said or written have been the
work of fools.
/ This thing is certain-he is fool
who says, mo man hath said in his
heart, There is no God"
1t has been said many thousand
times in hearts with profound bitter
ness of earnest faith.
We do not cry and weep. We sit
down with cold eyes and look at the
world. We are not miserable. Why
should we be? We eat and drink and
sleep all night, but the dead are not
colder
| And we say it slowly, but without
signing: Eyes; we see it now. There
is no God"
And, we add, growing a little colder
yet: 'There is no justice. The OK dies
in the yoke beneath Its masters whip
1t turns its anguish filed eyes on the
sunlight, but there is no sign of recon-
i pense to be made 1t. The black man is
shot like a dog, and it goes well with
the shooter. The innocent are accused,
and the accuser triumphs. If you will
take the trouble to scratch the surface
anywhere. you will see under the skin
sentient being writing In impotent
4 anguish"
4 And. we say further. and our heart
Is as the heart OF the dead for GOODNESS:
"There Is no order All things are
driven about by blind chance"
What n soul drinks in with its moth
er's milk will not leave it in n day.
From our earliest hour we have been
taught that the thought of the heart,
the shaping of the raincloud. the
amount of wool that grows on n
sleeps back, the length of a draft
and the growing Of the corn depend
on nothing that moves immutable. at
the heart of all things; but OH the
changeable will of a changeable being
whom our prayers can alter. To MS.
from the beginning. nature has been
but poor. plastic thing. ito be toyed
/ with this way or that. as man happens
to please his deity or not. to go to
church or not, to say his prayers right
or not. to travel OH Sunday Or not
Was 1t possible for us in an instant to
see nature as she is-the flowing vest
ment of an unchanging reality? When
a soul breaks free from the arms of a
superstition. bits of the claws and
talonS break themselves off in him. 1t
Is not the work of a day to squeeze
4 them out.
And SO, for us. the humanlike driver
and guide being gone. all existence. us
we look out at it with our chilled. Won
dering eyes. Is an aimless rise aud
swell of shifting waters. In all that
weltering chaos we can see no spot so
= iarse as IA mans; hand ON which we
may plant our foot
u Whether n man believes in human
like God or no is n small thing. Whetb-
err he looks into the mental and phys
lcal world and sees no relation be-
tween cause and effect. no order but Il
blind chance sporting. this Is the
mightiest fact that can be recorded in
any spiritual existence. 1t We're al
most mercy to cut his throat. If in
decd he does not do it for himself.
4 I'VE, however. do not cut our throats.
\ To do SO would imply some desire and
& feeling, and we have no desire and no
feeling. We are only cold. We do not
4 wish to live and we do not wish. to die.
4 One day snake curls itself round the
waist of Katfir woman. We take 1t
In our hand. swing it round and round
and fling it ON tie grountl-dead Ev-
cry one looks AT us With eyes of admi-
ration. We almost laugh Is 1t wonders
full to risk that for which we care
nothing?
In truth, nothing matters. This dirty
little world full of confusion, and the
blue rag stretched overhead for Il sky
is so low we could touch ii with our
hand.
Existence is a great pot. and the old
fate who stirs it round cares nothing
what rises to the top and what goes
down and laughs when the bubbles
burst. And we do not care. Let it
boil about Why should we trouble
ourselves? Nevertheless the physical
sensations are real. Hunger hurts. and
thirst: therefore we eat and drink. In
action pains us: therefore we work like
galley slaves. No one demands 1t. but
we set ourselves TO build great dam
In red sand beyond the graves.
In the gray dawn before the sheep
are let out we work AT 1t. All day.
while the young ostriches we tend
feed about us. we work on through the
fercest heat. The people wonder
what new spirit has seized us now.
They do not know we are working for
life. We bear the greatest stones and
Feel a satisfaction when we stagger
under them and are hurt by pang
that shoots through our chest. While
we eat our dinner we carry on baskets
full of earth. rs though the. devil drove
is. The Katiir servants have story
that at night witch and two white
oxen come to help us. No wall. they
say. could grow so quickly under one
mans hands.
At night. alone in our cabin. we sit
4 no more brooding over the fire. What
should we think of now? All is empti-
ness. So we take the old arithmetic,
and the multiplication table, which
with SO much pains we learned long