The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1899-07-13

who gives them not, is ranked as ig-
norant, as barbarous, in mind de-
meanor, and yet there are men proud
of their intellect, of their culture who
have no act of respect for the Lord of
the universe, for him, from whom
they hold whatever they have, what
ever they are. There are men
strangest of mysteries-who deem
themselves debased if they ply the
knee before the infinite God. They
blush with shame if their companions
accuse them of praying to God. O.,
men where is your reason? Where is
your sense of dignity? Where is your
sense Of righteousness and justice?
The wild Indian saluting at daybreak,
the Great Spirit, the etfulgence of
whose throne is mirrored to him in the
rays of the monarch of the skies, the
unschooled Arab, dismounting from
his desert steed at the noon hours, to
pray to Allah, is mountain high in
excellence and glory of manhood,
above the polished courtier, the
famed philosopher, whose eyes are
never lifted upward, who know the
dark ground trodden by their feet, and
compel their soul to look away from
the highest regions of the Deity to
which they tend by all the native
forces of their faculties.
IL r. ;,,%o -,
man. What of the heart of man be-
fore almighty God? We pardon with
difficulty the defects of heart. We
enact love and gratitude, where the
titles are both unquestioned. The
child with no heart response to father
and mother is despised. The recipient
of favors who habitually ignores the
benefactor, or dishonors him by con-
temptuous bearing, is made an outcast
among his fellows. The man devoid
Of love and gratitude, human in name,
is inhuman in fact. The speeches.
animal rebukes, for it is, in it's manner,
loving and grateful. Is not God most
loN"OAO. DOCo uOu Oil OCduU\ Ill UuO
universe emanate from him as the
light from the sun? Do not the rays
with which nature sparkles tell of the
infinite and all perfect beauty of Him
who is the cause of all causes and of
all effects? God is the author of all
good, our sovereign benefactor. He is
"a thor finland ~ lo
ing is or can be. The faculties of soul,
the senses of body, life itself, the gifts
from other creature5-all things are
his favors to us-tokens and pledges of
his love. I'm him we live, move and
have our being.' O God so loving,
and so loveable, how comes it that Thy
Intelligent creatures who, alone in the
universe, can love and be grateful, for
get Thee, pass Thee aside, as if Thou
had no claim upon them? We are
busy in thousand civilities to one
another, in a thousand marks of re-
CARDS and affection to friends and we'll
wishers, but for God we have no word
OF thanks, no time to address Him.
It is sight most sickening to behold
the world as it comes before observa-
ton. Tens of thousands do not speak
to, or think of God His sovereignty
over us, his claims upon US are utterly
ignored This is the supreme evil of
the day-it is not positive atheism or
the positive rejection of Gods claims
things impossible in men who think
that aff1icts our times; thong htlessness
is our Observation-Disclosures as
to God whom we pass over in order to
give attention to other things-prefer-
ring the creature to the Creator, the
accident to the substantial, the tran
sient to the eternal.
Alteration from the mind, and love
from the heart imply the obedience of
man to all laws which the Creator has
imposed upon him. I pass to the
fourth chief act of religion, prayers or
petition. We are dependent beings.
by the very fact that we are creatures.
nor did we receive in our creation the
forces and power sufficient of them
selves to supply all our needs. We
realize at every step our helplessness.
we are compelled to borrow aid from
our fellowmen and we must petition
for it, before we do borrow. PRAYER
take it to mean petition-is the con-
sequence OF helplessness. We have
recourse to it instinctively. A child
in the cradle extends piteously it's
hands to its mother; the poor offer a
request for help; the friend petitions
for favor from friend. We are CON-
PEELED to look far beyond our fellow
men. The hearts sores are innumer-
able, in which human help is of no
avail, when the whispering of the
most devoted and the most powerful is
confession of their own helplessness.
the offering of mere sympathy, the
will to suffer with US.