The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-12

his parish, now has all the world for. his praise. Herbert Clarke, in The Standard.
 in his remarks of Emerson's resigning. the ministry, quotes this significant entry | In his journal. I have sometimes thought that in order to be good. minister 1t vas necessary to leave the ministry. Mir. Clarke goes on to say, Now his condi- ton was met. Was Emerson hereafter to
 become misguided-or unguided free
 lance, or was he right in believing that | the world was his parish ,and that he
 must slough off local ties only to assume the heavier bonds of freedomr'
 The Editor of the Christian Herald
 speaks this of Wesley's strenuous mis- sion. Wesley's voice was the bugle note
 which summoned to active duty the sol diers of the Cross whatsoever the regi-
 ment to which it belonged. They heard. and shaking off the lethargy into which they had fallen. they took up the wea- pons of their calling. and in their own spheres, went forth to do batle for the Lord" Herbert Clarke speaks of Emer- son as a voice crying in and up in the comfortable world, a clear-eyed seer, an- nouncing his visions. an idealist by con- viction as well as by temper. spirit
 ualist, if it Is not at last too late to rescue and redeem the world" The
 work that Wesley did was less theolog- fcal than practical-so another reviewer thinks. He was impatient with the con- nict of mere opinions. Though argumen- tative and ready at all times to give reasons for his own theological view. it was with disposition and conduct that
 he was chiefly concerned. >-'T have no more right" he wrote ito object to a man for holding a different opinion from me, than l have to differ with a man because he wears a wig and I wear my own hair. But if he takes his wig off and
 begins to shake the powder about my eyes, I shall consider it my duty to get
 rid of him as soon as possible" MT. Clarke recalls the remark of Emerson in 1888. at Harvard, when he was trying to show the meaning of the word miracle,
 to encourage self f-reliance. to discourage l professionalism in religion. T could not give an account of myself if chal- lenged. could not possibly give you | one of the arguments you covertly hint | at, on which any possible doctrine of
 mine stands; for do not know what arguments are in reference to any ex- precision of a thought. I delight in tell ing what think. but If you ask me how
 dare say so. I am the most helpless of
 men,"
 Are Wesley and Emerson Understood The Standard has this to say of holi- | ness as represented by some of Wesley's follows: Wesley's doctrine of perfec- ton, grossly misunderstood and misrepre- sented, not only by opposing controver- sialists, but also by indiscriminating fol- | lowers, Is not a sinless perfection, but perfection of love in which a man in the maturity of grace is able to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. We quote Clarke again in reference to Emerson as a Transcendentalist. The
 name does not inevitably belong to him.
 "I am." he said. "in all my theory ethics
 and politics. a poet" and he denied that his transcendentalism was known and
 fixed clement like salt or Tnear'-a defi-
 nite creed. Wisdom is not to be found
 in metaphysics. he thought. but in the
 sonnet or the play" He loved no sys-
 tenn. It Is true that transcendentalism
 represented idealism as opposed to mate
 rialism-but Emerson and his school were
 chiefly transcendentalists because, they
 were united as Cabot says, by common
 impatience of routine thinking"
 The religious world sums up Wesley's
 message to the world as embodying
 Christ. the Godhead as a Trinity. and
 perfection through grace. Emerson's is
 given, in brief. 'The universal is one ex-
 istence by virtue of the single divine es-
 sence which Is imminent in it, and hence
 one soul abides in all mankind. When
 1t breathes through his intellect it is ge-
 nius; when it breathes through his will it
 is virtue; when it flows through his af-
 factions. 1t is love. All reforms aim, in
 some one particular, to let the great soul
 have its way through us." These are
 Emersons own words, and his central
 message is that God pervades all, that
 the one human soul Is in) every man, that
 only spiritual laws are eternal and uni
 versal-that the moral and material
 worlds correspond as by polarity-that
 slavish conformity Is the worst kind of
 egotism. that the man who renounces
 himself comes to himself" Genius is re-
 garded as the exponent of vaster mind
 and will" Many beams are drawn into
 one by the prism of relativity-philoso-
 pher. mystic. skeptic. poet. man of the
 world, and writer personifed in or rather
 tenanting the personalities of Plato, -Swed-
 enborg. Montaigne, Shakespeare, Napo-
 leon and Goethe. All these contribute to
 one end in divers ways from each arises
 a sure. line of communication to the one
 Over-Soul." This poetical, intuitional outlook bafies precise logical analysis.