Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-07-29

But the way OF the ungodly
shall perish" Yes. there is the law Of
the survival of the fittest In the spir-
itual world. Ii we are one with Christ,
We shall grow and keep ON growing
all through the eternities. We shall
bear fruit millennium after millennium.
Ii We are not one with Christ. we shall
become like the chaff which the wind
driveth away" The whirlwinds OF the
judgment day shall sweep us away to
our eternal DOOM
But" says one. "how could a man
like Charles Darwin grasp a great
truth like this of the natural world and
yet not grasp ii in the spiritual? How
could he find Gods footprints in ma
ture and yet not find Gods footsteps
on Calvary's rocks!" All. my friends,
l cannot account for that ! cannot
and dare not pass Judgment on Charles
Darwin's life. cannot understand
how this great student of nature could
turn his back upon God any more than
! can understand how he who was
once such lover of the beautiful could
so warp his mind that the poets like
Shakespeare and the musicians like
Handel and Beethoven and Wagner
could not touch his heart.
In his own words l read the follow
ing: Il have said that in one respect
my mind has changed during the last
twenty years. Up to the age of thirty
or beyond it poetry of many kinds.
such as the works of Milton, Gray,
Byron, Wordsworth. Coleridge and
Shelley, gave me great pleasure, and
even as a schoolboy | took intense de-
light in Shakespeare, especially in the
historical plays. l have also said that
formerly pictures gave me consider
able pleasure and music very great de-
light. But now, for many years. l can
not endure TO read Il line Of poetry. /
have tried lately to read Shakespeare
and found it so intolerably dull that it
nauseated me. l have also lost my
taste for music and pictures. l retain
some taste for fine scenery. but 1t does
not cause me the exquisite delight
which it formerly did" In other words,
Charles Darwin became such a close
student i'm one line of study that he al
lowed his love for the beautiful in art
and nature and his love for God to be-
come atrophed. Parts of his brain
were nightly alive. Some parts were
completely dead.
Develop Through Christ.
Let me read on little further: my
mind seems TO have become a kind of
machine for grinding general laws out
of large collections of facts. but why
this should have caused the atrophy
Of that part of the brain alone OH which
the higher tastes depend cannot con-
ceive. A man with mind more high
~ organized or better constituted than
mine would not. l suppose. have thus
suffered, and If had to live my life
again ! would have made rule to
read some poetry and listen to some
music ut least once week. for per-
haps the parts Of my brain now afro
phied would thus have been kept active
through use. The loss OF these tastes
Is loss of happiness and may possibly
be injurious 10 the intellect and more
probably to the moral character by en-
feebling the emotional part Of our ma
ture." Do you wonder that Darwin,
who wrote such sentences as these.
could let the spiritual part OF his life
become atrophied as well as the aes-
thetic and the love for the beautiful?
And SO. young people as well as older
people. as you develop along physical
and moral lines / want you to develop
along the line of the spiritual. I want
you to develop in Christ and through
Christ. who is the highest model for
all spiritual development
But" says some one 81 have never
tried TO develop myself in and through
Christ" Then. my brother is that any
reason why you should not start now?
When an enemy one day tainted the
great preacher Esprit Fletcher be-
cause of his humble birth and because
he had begun life as tallow chandler.
DIR. Fletcher replied, Yes. my sphere
in life used to be very humble. but
in all probability had you begun life
as began it you would have been
candle maker all your life" Because
some of us are warped spiritually is
that any reason why. in Christ. we
cannot become like tree planted by
the rivers OF water that bringeth forth
its fruit in its season." Oh. my friends.
In Christ and through Christ. will you
not spiritually start anew? Then. by
law of the survival of the fittest with
God. you shall prosper and live for
ever and ever Will you not. here and
now. become one with Christ for the
aighest of all development?
copyright 1906 by Louis Klopschl
Titled Missionary.