The Grit-advocate., 1905-03-24

the ideal.
1t is only in the depths of life that
this great moral personality can be
carved out, and only by means of in
cessant revelations of the divine can
we add to the stores OF the ideal we re-
Quire.
To every man is it given to attain in
spirit to the heights of virtuous life,
and to know at all times what his con-
duct should be, would he act like
hero or saint. But more than this is
needed. 1t is essential that the spirit
ual atmosphere about us should be
transformed to such a degree that it
ends by resembling the atmosphere of
Swedenborg's beautiful countries Of
the age Of gold. wherein the air per-
mitted not falsehood to leave the lips.
I An instant comes then when the
smallest i'll that we fain would commit
falls at our feet like leaden ball upon
disc Of bronze. when everything
changes, though we know it not, into
beauty, love or truth.
But this atmosphere enwraps those
only who have been heedful to ventil-
ate their lives sufficiently by at times
finging open the gates of the other
world. 1t is when we are near to those
gates that we love. For to love ones
neighbor does not mean only to give
ones self to him, to serve, help and
sustain others.
We may possibly be neither good.
nor noble, nor beautiful even in the
midst Of the greatest sacrifice and the
Sister of Charity who dies by the bed
side Of a typhoid patient may perhaps
have mean, rancOrOus, miserable soul.
To love ones neighbor in the immov-
able depths means to love in others
that which is eternal, for ones neigh
Dor in the truest sense of the term is
that which approa ches the nearest to
GOd-in other words, all that is best
and purest in man; and it is only by
ever lingering near the gates l spoke
of that you can discover the divine in
the soul. Then will you be able to say
with the great Jean Paul: when l de-
sire to love most tenderly one who is
dear to me. and wish to forgive him
everything. have but to look at him
for few minutes in silence"
To learn to love- one must first learn
to see.
II lived for twenty years by my sis
ter's side" said friend to me one day,
land l saw her for the first time at the
moment of our mothers DEATH Here,
too it had been necessary that death
should violently fling open an eternal
gate, SO that two souls might behold
each other in a ray of the primeval
tight. Is there one among us who has
not near to him sisters he has never
seen?
Happily, even in those whose vision
Is most limited there is always some
thing that acts in silence, as though
they had seen. 1t is possible, perhaps,
that to be good is only to be in little
light what all are in darkness. There
fore, doubtless it is well that We should
endeavor to raise our life. and should
strive toward submits where ill doing
becomes impossible. And. therefore.
too. it is well to accustom the eye to
behold events and men in divine at
mOsphere. But even that is not indis-
pensable; and how small must the diff
y
We are in a world where truth
regns at the bottom of things, and
where it is not truth but falsehood
that needs to be explained. If the
happiness of your brother sadden you,
do not despise YOURSELF YOU will not
have to travel far along the road be-
fore you will come across sOmethin"
in yourself that will not be saddencd.
And even though you do not travel
the road, it matters little: something
there was that was not sad.
Those who think of nothing have the
same truth as those who think of God
the truth is little further from the
threshold. that is all.
Even in the life that is most ordi
nary" says Renan. 1.-The part that is
.lone for God is enormous. The lowest
of men would rather be just than un
just; we all worship, we all pray. num-
.bers of times every day without know
ing it." And we are surprised when
chance reveals to us suddenly the i'm
portance of this divine part.
There are about us thousands and
thousands of poor creatures who have
nothing Of beauty in their lives-they
come, they go in obscurity and we be-
tieve that all is dead within them. and
no one pays any heed. And then one
day a simple word, an unexpected si-
lence, little tear that springs from
the source of beauty itself tells us that
they have found the means of raising
aloft in the shadow of their soul. an
ideal thousand times more beautiful
than the most beautiful things their
ears have ever heard or have their
eyes ever seen.
Oh, noble and pallid ideals of silence
and shadow! 1t is you. above all. who
call forth the smile of the angels! 1t
is you, above all, who soar direct to
God! In what myriads of novels, in