The Indianapolis journal., 1903-05-11


ture. Peter was anxious to know the allot-
ment of John. For doom John had. Every
one has. Each one of us was born at
certain moment known and figured out be-
fore the stars shed their first rays, or moons
struck of from their suns, and each one
of us will be down after lifes f1tful stage
quet for the low, groveling worm. The spot
is marked deep, perhaps down in the bound
ing, billowy deep or in some gloomy forest
to be picked clean by birds that feast on the
dead, or In the lulling shade of some cem-
etery-somewhere our ashes will reach their
grave. What Of it? If we are cremated the
urn holds handful Of ashes. Better this
than slow decay six feet under ground. Gre
nation is the coming method, and with it
cemetery of quiet beauty that will never
need TO be moved.
our last look and our last rest. Behind IA
talism looms up God Of tenderest care
weaving our choices into the long plan of
His love. Fatalism merges in fatherhood
OF God and includes human freedom in its
scope:
fate was an old age that should witness the
infant church tortured during the persecu-
tons by Roman Emperors who sought to
crush the new creed. John was berobed and
docketed and slated for Patmos and the
ages. II was Gods plan. Peter then hun
gered for further details. and Jesus thought
1t time to lower the curtain. What is that
to thee? Follow thou me-
GlrI Of FhESClENCE.
THE gift of prescience is deadly except
to man who can trust God. To peep into
the future, to refuse comfort unless de-
tails are unscreened and events mapped
out In their course, to ache for some weird,
wild voice that pretends to fathom time
and unlock the future is a disease and at
times mania. 1t harrows our peace; it
units for present practical aim and ac-
complshment. 1t develops a morbid sepul-
chural imagination. Many a bereaved
woman doubles her bereavement by trust
ing TO strange noises, and meanwhile her
children grow up rank as weeds, while she
Is scanning the years to come. The mind
is partly demented. Even when most nor
NAL We have enough streaks of insanity to
make us pause and nurse common sense
as the best gift of God-and the rarest.
1--WE are like aborigines on an isle In mid
ocean. Sometimes clouds of mist surround
and swaddle the shores. Sometimes the fog
lifts or thins away into the air and then the
horizons bound the view. We dwell on a
sea-girt isle, with illimitible' mystery
swamping and engulfing us ALL We may
push back the frontier lines a little and
this is the prime business of intelligence.
But push it back and back as ought and
will and still the walls OF mystery tower
up on every side. To Danish mystery is
to annihilate God We are shut in because
we are finite. Only omniscience compasses
eternity in His single calm glance. We
have reverently wondered sometimes what
enticement can come to an infinite mind
when nothing more can be discovered, moth
ing more can be arranged. nothing more
can be achieved
"At all events, human beings would die
of inertia monotony were there not the
unfolded and unfathomed future to fascin-
ate US and hush our feverish unrest.
Sometimes young adventurers in busi-
ness are curious about their luck and want
CIairy0yantS to assure them. Ii were bet
ter wisdom to put your brain and steady
application into your business and make 1T
60 no matter what visionaries tell God
is on the side of brains and hard work and
strong character. Some young people ques-
tion peculiar soothsayers about the pos
sibiity of marriage. The surer course for
a young man is to develop his power so as
to be worthy of a woman, a woman to
deepen her nature so as to be worthy of
man. Be your own fortune teller and sor
cerer. Rely yourself as God meant you
to- Grow i'm every human direction. Faith
in God and forthputting of effort are twin
born. Character is the only trustworthy
witchcraft. Fail there and you fall every
where.
LIFE OF DEVELOPMENT.
'The life that now is is through and
through, life of development. Science en-
phasizes the keenness of the struggle. 1t
is none too keen. If little keener, thous-
ands would be warmed to mind their bus
the unknown and come back to cheat others
with their vagaries after they have first
cheated themselves. Put the premium on
industry, our appliance on a philosophy
that carries power to present pressing du-
ties. on the beauty of growth within. on
the glory of this prelude-world when
touched with heaven, and leave a broad
margin for faith in God, who will reveal
where and when things ought to be re-
vealed. How happy those who lay their
heads on the pillows and go to sleep in
ry over the morrow and by such worry
drain the strength the morrow will require.
Blessed are those who can sleep even If
hundred cannons thundered at their front
door. Only the present is ours to fill with
earnest aims. Let the morrow look after
itself in this sense.
But farther ahead our glasses and spec
ulative telescope point. What about the
boundless futurities? Where our geograph-
ical location?-so L suppose as to enable
the postmaster to re-address our mail. !.
What our environment? Will we ethereal
ize and evaporate with pure spirits? VIII
We transmigrate and revisit this orb or
pass into animals? Oh, the thousand whim-
sical ideas of India, of vivid. pryins, itch
ing minds everywherei Who knows the
particulars locked UP in the million eyes
and ears? Beyond the simple continuity of
our essential souls and character-and char
acter is nothing but the accumulated hab-
its of soul as walking is the habit of the
BODY dy,-DeyOnQ the certainty or the per-
petuity and promotion Of our higher selves,
we know little nothing and we thank
God for fencing us in; and when L see
thousands trying TO overleap the limits
and weary their morbid souls in empty
search, l wish the good Lord had made il
a barbed wire fence.
Immortality loses its splendor and in
spiration when il grows too common. Our
churches grow superficial when preachers
block out endless ages with no more rev.
erence than surveyors measure off real es-
tate We cannot live without the unknown
There is no unknowable, for nothing can
arrest the conquering career of mind as
God organized IL. There is an unknown and
there will always be an unknown because
while we will even know We will never be
infinite The one precaution is to spurn
any new dream unless you can use IL as a
force in life. Despise any discovery and
shelve every philosophy unless ii can be
fitted close into human development and
inspire men upward. Jesus was uncom-
promisingly practical. To lead prodigal
race back home to the Father to reveal
and encourage their better life with enough
truth TO gain that end-this was His pas
sion. No creed is law IL IL does not help
souls You put just enough powder in the
cannon to drive the ball. Put in an over
charge and you explode the cannon.
HIGHER ATTAINMENT.
mo doctrine bears the government
stamp of heaven unless IL sn,trc ebaractar