The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-15

- 80 49, N@1A-
honor IN some form. simple or elaborate. to
that Master Of Life, who from the death of
selfish separation rouses men to the large
ness and reality Of a common life. Ii Is as
the sun in the heavens. as the spring days
lengthen, wakens in every meadow a mil
lion blades OF grass which he found sleep
ing. He calls them out Of the earth into a
higher life; and in their little way they.
too. give out OF their own power, they
breathe out a blessing in their turn. The
air Is the purer. the perfume is the sweeter
because these millions OF blades OF grass
have started out of the cold death OF the
winter, into the generous mutual life OF the
newborn year.
What the sun In the sky does to those
blades of grass, this Sun of Righteousness,
who Is the Lord Of this Easter day, has
done TO a million million lives, whom He
has called from that dead selfshness of
lonely and separated life. into communion
with each other, into certainty of their own
future, into life in common with an infinite
God In that call he takes the name "Sun
OF Righteousness" In that name this SUM-
day, day of Light and lea and Life, be-
comes His day-the Lords day.
1T is a little thing in comparison to be-
leve IN Immortality. The great thing is TO
live as an immortal" This fundamental
statement, made nearly in these words by
the Rev. John Weiss. a man OF rare re-
ligfous genius. announces the central truth,
which gives the real value 10 the festivities
of to-day. The joy of the new life, the
jubilee triumph because life Is larger than
10 once was. and Is to be larger than IL is,
the new strength, the new health. the new
certainty which come TO the world because
its life is larger than ii was, all these are
nfsfro frrnnaotkla 70 haogfa rrhn die na thou
are impossible to clocks which stop when
the weights have run down. They all be-
long to the victories of immortal beings,
who know they are immortal.
HOW TO LEARN THE LESSON.
And the lesson of Easter for you and me,
II we would seek a lesson, will be learned,
&c we rightly ask what eternal beings do.
who nave such senses, such muscles,
such hopes and fears as we. and If we find
ar answer. What is there which a man
can achieve, looking forward and able TO
look forward, which a brute cannot
achieve, because he does not look forward
and cannot? How does this surety OF
eternity affect daily life-what 1 say, what
] plan. and what do? ! read a speech Of
Julius Caesar and he tells me that when a
blood vessel breaks my life stops forever.
But / do not believe hat my life stops for
ever because that mere button in my dress
klNtS way. HOW Will mat ullltFSlCc Dc-
tween me and Caesar affect what / think
and say and do?
Mr.. Ruskin lays it down as a canon of
art, that no painting should ever shut US
up in an interior so completely but that the
eye may somewhere struggle beyond and
see through a window, through a doorway,
through a passage between columns or a
rift In the trees 10 the infinite blue or an
infinite heaven. Whoever has 10 change the
composition of his picture so as 20 do this,
TO change from the mere sketch of a room
shut up 10 that larger scheme which In
cludes that bit of heaven, knows very well
that the change is no simple change of one
or two details. Every color must be
changed, every light and every shadow.
Our relations now are with infinite affairs,
and the infinite considerations which we
have brought in will affect everything with
which we i've to do. The mere camera,
indeed. which / have focused for an object
the other side of the room, needs entire
~readJustment before L direct IL to an OBJ
tect the other side of the river or bay.
And that single hint as 10 a perspective
for near drawing or distant. carries us far.
The little child has to learn TO see. First of
all she sees her own hands and learns to
know that these fingers are her own. 1t Is
a step, a happy step, when beyond the
hands and outside of them she learns the
face of her mother, always ready, always
kind, almost always near. but, alas, some
times away But the whole machinery of
vision must be changed, and the whole
process of thought enlarged, when the in
ldAt kllONlCukG WAlCh p0l1GlNt0 dI4 NOAA-
prehends these two. goes farther, and
knows the curtain and the window, and at
last, the rattle or the straw. 1t Is by sue
cessive steps from these hat the child at
last ccnce;ves the idea OF distance, which is
not natural indeed to an infinite soul. and
learns how to measure in a fashion the
difference between the tree in the garden
and the chair in the room. Here is, on a
small scale and with steps which are petty
in comparison, the process OF the enlarge
ment OF the vision alone. With that en-
largement comes .he growth and enlarge
ment OF every OIler faculty, nay, the
growth of the mi.Id itself which controls
such faculties, and in the end the enlarge
ment Of that soul which commands the
mind 10 come and go about its business.
II is in that enlargement, as this text puts
II. that the mortal is clothed upon with the
immortal. A mortal man now begins TO
live and move and think and speak as an
immortal being does.
ENHANCING THE HORIZON.
In Mrs. Trimmer's story of THE Robins"
a child's book. now forgotten in the nur-
sery, the brightest sentence was the ex-
clamation of one of the half-hedged little
birds, who, having flown out of the nest
for the first time. cries out TO its mother:
what a very large place the world is"
When the little robin is fully fedged she
will be able to fly above the apple tree. and
will see tina the orchard, which was but just
now so large a world. fills. I'm truth. a space
very small In a world which has become
much bigger. And If the robin could soar like
the lark. the circle OF the horizon would ex-
pand again. the hills but just now distant
would In their turn become near, and with
a very different sense she would be crying
again. How very large is the worldi"
And yet this horizon is nothing IL robin or
lark would learn TO look into the sun. like
the eagle. or II, by this time. there come
the unanswerable question: What is there
beyond the sun2' or What is there be-
yond the farthest starr
All these engagements OF the horizon are
little analogies OF what happened to the
literature OF the world when the new world
was born and the old world ended. hat
is &c say. when literature began to speak
OF man as being an immortal instead of
talking of him as a mere brute, with the
gift OF speech. who. at the best, stopped
hving at threeScore, or say fourscore years
Compare the book OF Proverbs, for in
stance, with PauIs letter TO the Philip
pianS. The first is as wise as you please.
IL Is very bright. Ii Is useful. IL is prac-
fical. 1t is shrewd- 1t is even humorous
In places. But then! IL is all so narrow.
so restricted! You turn over 10 the end
TO look for something more. Is IL posi-
BILE. you say, that this is all these men
had TO say about life, when they were
so sharp and keen? Why this is not life
they talk about. this is nothing but clock
work. the swing OF the pendulum here,
and the twitch of the second hand there.
From this yOu turn over 10 the epistle To