Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1903-08-26
LIVE MORE OUTSIDE sELvEs.

30 angular, compared with lhe men
and wonien that we create out OF the
subtle element Of thought. The actual
society in which we live is SO
mediocre, so lusterless, so wanting IN
proportion, compared with The society
that we have lived with on the heights
of Imagination, on the peaks where we
dream our fairest dreams. Now. TINS
seryifude is an Inevitable result OF an
unbalanced SUFFICIENTLY, an6 the cuie
for it Is to get into the habit OF Hv-
ing less inside ourselves, ard more out
side ourselves in the great world of
nature. and in that yet more interest
ing world made up of actual women
and actual men.
What we want TO learn to do Is to
see things as they are. ard TO do so
we must objectiylze e~onsciousnes $.
u life. Here. for instance. is a per-
son afflicted with what in England is
so appropriately called the hurries-
When in England people are in a state
of great Internal agitation. fretfulness,
nervousness or undue anxiety, they
say they have "the hurries. So many
II us have this malady of disorderei
and incohprent nerves. And tbs NAL
ady has its roots in ~subjectigity. We
live TOO much within ourselves, and
this interior world of ours, great
though ii be, is far too small IA sphere
for the soul TO realize rs infinite pos
slbllities and to etta.n its largest and
its richest lif4.
The secret of calm, the secret of a
balanced and an ordered mind. the Sc
cret of poise, rs rot Christian science;
1t is the secret of common sense, OF
living ont in touch with nature, the
hest of all physicians, the most perfect
therapeutic and tie most salubrious of
al the forces that can minister TO the
mind diseased on to the heart dis
t~ressesi.
Here is a woman who is unhappy
In her marital relations. Her husband
is a good man, a PLATA, simple man.
like any one of O thousand other men.
A little while ago she was quite hap
DIV in the possession of her mar"
whom she voluntarily chose TO be her
husband, flor better, for worse, for
richer, for poorer" and 10Y she is dis
satisfied, restless, unhappy. Why ?
The reason / think In the great ma
iority of instances is traceable to the
subjective disease of excessive ideali-
cation. She pictures to herself an
ideal man. III all things perfect, chiy-
alrous. gracious. tender, Intellectual
uabane, endowed with all the talents
and with all the charms, but she for
gets that this ideal man is not to be
found anywhere upon this planet
earth.
He is the creature of her dreams. a
pattern that exists only in the mount
of imagination. And / believe that n
great deal of this sorrow of the home
would be dispelled like mist before
. breeze If men and women We're TO
cease thinking so much of the ideal
and to live more in the actual.
If instead of living so much within
ourselves with the ideal husband that
we have not married, or the ideal wife
that we have not married, we would,
while our young love was yet intense
Nnu with anu clIOuS. dtulCite OuI-
selves unreseryedly to the actual man
or the actual woman we have married:
IL we would say he is not perfect, she
is not perfect, but / shall do my best
10 make him perfect, my best to make
her perfect, | am sur that an inn
mense weight of sorrow would. by
this very simple process of oh ectivity,
~ EfffaT from tho haoff ~ ffa xw.arJs1
How, too, the decentralization of
thought makes for freedom and CATH
ollcity in the matter of religion. One
of the sad facts of the world today.
as in all past days. is the fact of ex-
clusiyeness in our religious life. The
Protestant lives so exclusively in his
Professionalism that he will not see any
truth in Catholicism. The Catholic
lives SO exclusively in his Catholicism
that ne will not see any truth in Prot
estantisIn. And they are both honest,
both sincere. The Protestant is hon
est. sincere in his narrowness; the
Catholic honest, sincere in his narrow
ness.
The trouble is they do not under
stand each other. They live too en-
tirely within themselves, within their
own notions, within their own creeds
and symbols, within the narrow CON
tine Of their own church. And not
knowing each the Others point of
view, rot knowing each the others
belief, the others history. the others
contribution to civilization, they fear
and antagonize each the other.
And what is the remedy for this?
Again it is objectivity. living in the
other mans world. trying to under
stand the process OF his thought, Iiv-
Ing IN his tradition in his belief, in
his liturgy, in his & ~remonials. And
were the churches so 10 e~xternalize
their thought, though tie unity Of
C~hristendom might lie yet far distant,
Christians would at least live in happy
anfity, and TIE churches in perfect
concord.
BELlEFl IN A PERSONAL CHRIST.
Ry Rev. Charles n. Parkhnrst.
Heresy hunters, by which mean
-aen who 90 about shifting after here
sy, are a diminishing factor in our
midst. Breadth Is in keeping with the
wide. embracing spirit of the gospel.
One reason why. just in this age of
the world, men would welcome a theol-
ogy that displaces personal commit
menf 70 a personal Christ by perSonal