The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-14


wasted by disease.
How many have blessed the name Of
Jennie Cassidy, who have known moth
ing of her weary vigil for years
stretched out upon her little iron bed
stead in Louisville, KY, The history
of the past is rich with the names OF
brave men and brave women who have
conquered and risen above their ply
steal weakness and impotence and have
achieved great things for God and hu-
manity. Are you not conscious of the
existence of an inner being which can
live on almost entirely independent OF
the life OF the body?
THE body is al church. the mind may
be pouring over absent ledgers. Ii may
be casting up store accounts: in the
stock exchange engineering some new
deal. 1t may be engaged in recounting
last weeks gains or losses; living over
again some scene of pleasure. or bend
ing anxiously by the Sickbed of some
loved one. Your body has been on a
moving train. Your mind left the sta
ton only to return again to scenes of
parting or to Iinger lovingly. perhaps
regretfully, among the familiar things
of the life that is past.
The body may be d great stay-at-
home and the mind a great traveller.
Your outward man may never move
from its position in your great arm
chair before the fire. 1t may never
lose its delightful sense Of warmth and
comfort, While your inner man is TAX
ing successive journeys to Arctic re-
gions with Franklin and Nansen and
Feary.
You may be looking at the glowing
Goals in your CRATE. You may be see
ing field upon field of drift ice, the
glistening peaks of mighty ice noun
tains. men struggling against the hos
tile elements or yielding in despair
against the pressure of tremendous odds
in the frozen north. Can you estimate
the intrinsic value of the mind? 1t can
march with Alexander and Napoleon
upon their campaigns. 1t can look up
on the fall of Jerusalem and the burn
ing OF Rome.
1t can pen citrate to the heart of
Africa with Livingston and Stanley. 1t
can mourn over the terrible suffering in
India, Armenia and Cuba. This inner
man can make the past live again
can listen to words long since spoken
and be thrilled by deeds of self-sacri-
flee and heroism that were performed
in ages long since past. You can walk
with Jesus by the shore of Galilee.
You can hear again the sweet story
of his life as you first heard it at your
mothers knee. One word would be suf
ficient to send you back through the
years TO some distant scene. Mother.
This spoken word calls up vision of
the tender hands that guided us; the
tender lips that taught us. BY what
standard will you estimate the value
of this inner man?
What is q man profited if he shall
gain the whole world and lose his own
SOUL or what will a man give in eX-
change for his soul?
ITO him God speaks and waits to re-
ceive an answer. To him eternal
truths are revealed. God shows his es-
innate of mans value by seeking to
hold communion with him. BY seeking
hottest aspirations. Mans intrinsic
value is seen in the victories that he
has won.
He is the destined conqueror of the
earth. because of his potential genius
for civilization. When we compare the
present with the past we are compelled
to pause with wonder and astonish-
ment. Present conditions of civilization
wear such an air of permanency that
we scarcely ever think of the time
when they did not exist.
But turn your steps backward and
sweep away, as you go, the evidences
of mans triumpbs in nature and So
ciety. Cities vanish. Cherished insti-
tutions disappear. This country soon
becomes a vast, UNEMPLOYED tract of viz
gin forest. Cross over to England and
the continent.
How soon the work of the last few
centuries is swept away. We come to
the feudal period. with its castles for
the mobiles and huts for the common
people. With its petty wars, strife and
violence. with its ignorance, supersti-
ton and bruitishness.
Back still farther, For in order to
see man as the conqueror you must
know him at the beginning and know
also the tools that he had to work with.
Think of the savage. our ancestors. liv-
ing in forests primeval, guided by in
stinct, looking. with dull wonder, upon
world whose mysteries battle him.
whose secrets seem utterly beyond his
power of pen -tration.
His knowledge is limited To his
scanty needs. He knows the path
through the forest. the course of the
streams. the haunts of beasts and the
flight of birds. He is conscious of the
pressing need of food. slight clothing
and shelter. These are the objects of
his existence. Hunting and fishing are
his labor. War is his pastime.
THE life of this human beast of prey
is not much above the lives of the birds
of the air or the beasts of the field. His
body is supple and strong. His mind
seems to bear closer kinship to instinct
than to reason. His soul is a dim stir
ring of superstitious fear. wondering
awe and awakening self-consciousness.
He is ignorant of the uses of fire. knows
nothing of the properties of matter He
never dreams of the occult~forces of ma
ture in full activity about him. When
he does begin to dream he must coin
words to express his ideas. He must
create a language to embody his
thoughts.
Constructive Ability.
His constructive ability is manifest
in the crude fashioning of rude weap-
ons and tools out of materials that lie
nearest his hand. See him as he stands
helpless on the bank of a forest stream
He is unable to cross, until the current
lodges a bit of drift wood at his feet
He is more helpless than bird or beast.
and yet: when his genius shall awaken
we shall see him building cities. con-
structing empires. forming govern
ments. shaping policies that shall reach
far into the future, spanning rivers,
crossing continents. traversing seas,
exploring every corner of the earth,
subduing nature. reading her secrets,
solving her mysteries. employing her
forces to his own end, studying the
stars. Analysing the drops of water,
ransacking earth and sea for those
things that shall minister to his awak-
ened sensibilities.
What is the intrinsic value of q
being possessed of such conquering
genius? Behold this man-standing
helplessly beside the forest stream
Then look at the suspension bridge
spanning Niagara river, See him as he
laboriously digs out his first log ca