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

WA.PELLO &C
get. The physical world recedes far
ther and farther from us. Truly we
love not the world, neither the things
that are in it. Across the bounds Of
/ sleep our grief follows us. When we
wake in the night, we are sitting up in
bed weeping bitterly or find ourself
outside in the moonlight dressed and
walking up and down and wringing
our hands, and we cannot tell how we
came there. So pass two years as men
reckon them.
Then new time.
Before us there were F.-.-e courses
possible-to go mad, to die, to sleep.
We take the last course, or nature
takes 1t for us.
1 ALI things take rest in sleep. The
beasts, birds. the very flowers, close
their eyes, and the streams are still ia
winter. All things take rest. Then
why not the human reason also? So
the questioning devil in us drops
asleep. and in that sleep a beautiful
dream rises for us. Though you hear
all the dreams of men, you will hardly
1 find prettier one than ours. 1t ran so:
In the center of all things is a
Mighty Heart, which, having begotten
all things, loves them, and, having
born them into life, beats with great
throbs Of love toward them. No death
for his dear insects, no hell for his dear
men, no burning up for his dear world,
his own. own world that he has made.
In the end all will be beautiful. Do
not ask us how we make our dream
tally with facts. The glory of dream
is this-that it lespses facts and
makes its own. Our dream saves us
from going mad. That is enough.
Its peculiar point of sweetness lay
here. When the Mighty Hearts yearn-
ing of love became too great for other
expression it shaped itself into the
sweet Rose of heaven, the beloved Man
god.
] Jesus, you Jesus of our dream, how
we loved you! No Bible tells of YOU as
we knew you. Your sweet hands held
ours fast. Your sweet voice said al
ways II am here, my loved one. not
far off. Put your arms about me and
4 hold FAST
We find him in everything in those
days. When the little weary lamb we
A drive home drags It's feet, we seize on
1t and carry it with Its head against
our face. His little lamb! We feel we
have got him.
4 When the drunken Kaffir lies by the
road in the sun. we draw his blanket
over his head and put green branches
of milk bush on it. His Kaffir-why
should the sun hurt him?
4 In the evening. when the clouds lift
themselves like gntes and the red
lights shine through them. we cry; for
in such glory lie will come. and the
hands that ache to touch him will hold
him, and we shall see the beautiful
hair and eyes of our God. Lift up
your heads. We gates. and be We lifted
up, We everlasting doors. and our King
of glory shall come inv'
4 The purple flowers. the little purple
flowers, are his eyes. looking at lis. We
kiss them and kneel alone on the fat,
rejoicing over them. And the wilder
ness and the solitary place shall be
4 glad for him, and the desert shall re-
1 joice and blossom as rose
l II ever in our fearful. joyful ecstasy
/. the poor sleepy, half dead devil should
raise his head. we laugh at him. 1t is
not his hour now.
/ IF there should be hell, after allw'
he mutters. "If your God should be
cruel! If there should be no God! IL
you should find out it is all imagina-
ton! If
I We laugh at him. When man sits
in the warm sunshine. do you ask him
4 for proof of 1t? He feels: that is all.
And we feel: that is all. We want no
proof Of OUT God. We feel, we feel!
We do not believe in our God because
the Bible tells us of him. We believe
In the Bible because he tells us of it.
We feel him. VIE feel him. we feel: that
is all. And the poor half swamped
devil mutters:
"But if the day should come when
you do not feel
And we laugh and cry him down.
1T will never come never!' And
the poor devil sinks to sleep again
with his tail between his legs. Fierce
assertion many times repeated is hard
to stand against. Only time separates
the truth from the lie So we dream
on.
One day we go with our father to
town, to church. The townspeople rus
tie in their silks and the men in their
sleek cloth and settle themselves in
their pews, and Sthe light shines in
through the windows on the artificial
flowers ins the women's bonnets. We
have the same miserable feeling that
we have in shop where all the clerks
are very smart: We wish our father
hadn't brought us to town and we
were out on the "karroo." Then the
man in the pulpit begins to preach.
His text is, He that belleveth not
shall be damned"
1 The day before the magistrates
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