Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-02-22

dClIOuS. liz IONtS Ills WIG duu IuII-
dren, he tolls and makes daily sacri-
fees for their good. He decorates his
home with pictures, and enjoys the
sweet strains Of music He has some
idea of what a man should be, and
tries to live up TO it. He reasons out
his conduct-regulates his actions by
laws Of wisdom.
Look at another illustration.
Plutarch wrote an essay TO prove that
a mothers love for her child sprang
from the natural relation between
them. Did anyone deny it? Yes,
EpicuruS did. He held that all love
was based on self interest. Man loves
man only for reward. So the father,
the child and the mother too. And
this was part of his theOry-that there
was no natural fellowship between
men. The criticism which EpictetuS
makes upon him is in the line of my
argument. He says that when Epicu-
rus was denying the ma tural fellowship
OF men with one another he was just
proving the truth of what he sought
TO deny, and in this way. He showed
himself anxious to undecelve men
was anxious to have them know the
truth. But why should he be if he had
no fellowship with them? What was
1t that reused EpicuruS from his sleep
and moved him TO take such an inte-
rest in men as to write what he did?
What else than that nature which he
could not deny; the kinship was there,
and Whatever he might say against it
by bis words he was proving the truth
Of it by his actions.
The old Stole contradjcted himself
In the same way. The Stole theory
was that reason alone must rule the
life, and this was so put that if it had
been possible to be consistent with it,
all emotion must have died out. The
Stole theory said, "Stifle all emotion. F"
And did he succeed? Certainly not.
His nature was protest. He could
not do what he liked with it. He
could not make theory contrary to
t and then make it conform to that
theory. Take the Stole to the noun
tain-tOp to watch the sun rise and he
can no more resist the swelling feeling
OF wonder than Caunte could keep back
the approaching tide by his mandate.
He was made with the sense of wonder
and the presence of the marvellous StirS
the feeling. Let the Angel of Death
SAACSI VIZ l1OuIC anu DSdl away SllllN VI
wife and the tears will start from his
eyes, his voice will become tremulous
ia spite of his theory. He will find he
has been made with heart to feel as
we'll as mind to reason. So true was
this, SO much did nature assert her
self that the Stole theory had to be
modified as time went on: in actual
life he found himself using the feeling
he was trying to ignore. When he
said, kill emotion nature said, 'yOp
shall not mutilate yourself as you
want to. will soften your hardness
sometimes. | will melt you with
sympathy and moiSten your eyes with
tears. [ will touch you with the
magic wand of love, and where will
your theory be?' You may try to be a
Stole but have made you to be man
with heart to beat in sympathy with
suffering and sorrow.
Let us come a little closer to our
own time and consider for a moment
those two phases of modern thought
AgnoSticiSm and PeSsimism. These
| names do not represent positive,
strong denial Of any truth, but rather
neutral attitude. Truth is not
tiercely attacked. There is no attempt
to overthrow any ancient faith. They
are content to say, 1--WE do not know
that this is a good world. 1t does not
seem to be so. We cannot see that
immortality is true" How do these
people act in daily life? Are they
very miserable? Do they never expect
what is good? or seek any enjoyment
in life? Do they give much time to
mediate on the brevity of life and
anticipate every day that death
will soon make an end of them?
Nothing of the kind. They act very
much as if agnosticism and pesSimiSm
had no influence over them. | do not
say none whatever, for these phases of
thought make some difference, though
not SO much as we suppose. George
Eliot would have been less sad, yea, a
cheerful spirit would have pervaded
all her books if she had consciously
believed in personal God and in
Immortality, and yet she did not
escape from these two greatest reali-
ties, they were uncOnSciously present
in all her teachings: the truth of God
was present in that duty in which she
believed with her whole mind and
heart, and the truth of Immortality
was present when, in the strongest
and most eloquent words she shows
the undying influence of all worthy
character and heroic deed.
How thankful we ought to be that
God won't let us be so perverSe as
sometimes we would be. What q
mercy it is that when doubts and
denialS seem to destroy the truth and
make the world an empty transient
show there is something in our life
which will not let us lose all sense of
truth-Of the wisdom of the world
the greatness and eternity of life.
This is the glorious fact, that God
holds US, that we never get quite away
from Him, that the truth has posses
sion of us, that even when we turn
our faces from it we do not know what
foolish thing we are doing and the
Father goes with US as he did with the
pr0digal to bring us back home. We
wander into the barren wilderness of
Materialism, Agnosticism and Pessi-
miSm until the light of truth appears
to fade away into utter darkness, but
the morrow comes and the sun rises
again: it was only temporary
eclipse of faith, the light fills the life
of man again and he believes with all
his mind and heart.
1t may be, after what [. have said,
that some one may think, ''Then our
denialS are not such very serious
things, if our lives assert what our
theories deny, the denials are not of
much consequence. We make a
great mistake if we think SO. 1t
follows from what | have said that it
is every mans duty to let life give
him his belief, to bring his creed and
his experience into harmony, to be
loyal to,that living truth within him
Which seeks recognition, to be more