Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-12-14


systems OF thought; the divine and
eternal is still there in Comte's wor-
ship of humanity, in Spencer'S ''Power
that works for righteousness" in
George EliOt's Immortality of influence
and in the moral Ideal of the Ethical
Culturists.
Voltaire said. ''If there were. not a
God we should have to invent one;'
that is quite true, for every attempt
to explain the world shows how
impossible it is to do so without.
But these makers of new names are
sum up their knowledge and they
must do it in their own language.
The new knowledge has created a
new speech, it IS the speech of living
thought. A new and larger view of
the world has come to men, and men
do not yet know how to describe it..
the new language is yet imperfect, but
it is profoundly reverent; if
the new names are yet too abstract
they reveal that men are conscious of
an ineXpressible mystery; in this
respect the attitude of the modern
mind is preferable to that which was
always ready with definition Of God.
Goethe represents this deeper sense
Of the everlasting reality in these lines:
Him who dare name
And yet proclaim,
Yes, believe?
Who that can feel
His heart can steel
To say disbelieve."
Yes, if the modern mind is conscious
of inability to define God it is not
because it has no place for God in it's
thought. Atheism has gone never to
return, it was only possible in men
who were wilfully blind and hard
hearted. Wherever there is man of
deep thought and fine feelings there is
a believer A man cannot know the
world and study life without receiving
the impression of their divinity. he
has some vague sense of an Infinite
and would be willing to confess his
belief if left free to make it in his own
way. There are many who feel with
Ioubert when he said, ''It is not a
difficult matter to believe in God if we
are not asked to define Him."
Turgenief said, ''My faith is civil
iZatiOn." One man says "My faith is
in progress" another in Brother
hood" but if you look deep into the
heart Of these faiths. Or into that of
any thoughtful man you will discover
the divine element, it is faith in an
unseen, unrealzed possibjlity-in a
Power which fulfilS the dream.
And the more we look beneat' the
surface, and thoroughly undersG 4
the tendency of modern thought, tl,-
more we shall be convinced it is
essentially religious. | do not say it
is always consciously so, for we never
fully comprehend what we are doing,
in all our higher activities there is a
purpose beyond our intention. A man
may tell us, for example, he has
ceased to believe in prayer, that
science has taught him there is no
place for it in world of law, but he
does not cease to pray, he may have
given up the old, formal habit, but it
has taken on another form, he loves
knowledge now and is eager in his
pursuit of it, he is not conscious how
ever that he is praying all the time,
and Malebranche is right when he
says, the search for knowledge is a
kind of natural prayer" Yes, that
search is inspired by an unconscious
belief that the universe has answers tC
our prayers, we have unheSitating
faith we shall receive them.
And there is much more than uncon-
scious prayer in our life-in it's high
est activities the search for facts
in or growing knowledge-in the
expansion of mind, we are also learn
ing to speak the language of eternity
these various names are the sign that
some great truth is seeking expression
Our intellectual growth means some
| thing more than the knowledge of
| transient things, we are knowing
power and will and purpose, the
! thought OF God has been growing
through all ages, it has grown because
! the nature of man has it's roots in the
the eternal, he has been slowly learn
ing what the world is, he finds the
marvellous everywhere, heiS constantly
making words to utter the thought
which grows within him, when he has
spoken it he feels it is not adequate
and must 60 on to make others will
wider, richer meaning, and yet, how
ever imperfect human language may
be the voice of God is in it, it is like
those liSpingS Of the child which art
the beginnings Of wise and graceful
utterance and which reveal the hiddeI
resources and powers of its nature
and so the history of human languag,
is the history of great truths growing
up in the life of man and molding hi
words, when he speaks of law anC
order, his words take on an eterna
quality and become the witness of his
origin and destiny. The life whicl
can speak the name of God is from
God, yea, just as surely as it is th
nature you have given your child tina
gives it power to say father.
my darling boy. kissed but moment since
And laid away all rosy in the dark,
Is talking to himself. What does he say?
| Not much. in truth, that can understand
| But now and then, among the pretty sounds
That he is making, falls upon my ear
My name
| And what am !,
Here in my speech, but as little child
Trying to cheer the big and silent dark
With these poor words? But listen my God,
My Father, and among them thou shall hear
Thy name. And soon l too shall sleep:
When awake l am l shall be still with thee"
This. then. is the real meaning AM
outcome of all our llnowledge-we ar
learning TO speak the highest an
most precious name, when we can Sa
Our Father because we have seen a
infinite love in the law and purpoS
of life. the gloom and sadness c
doubt will pass into the light and jO