Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1906-06-29
THE BROOK IN THE WAY.
By Henry F. Cope

THE BROOK IN THE WAY.
By Henry F. Cope.
He shall drink of the brook III tine
way: therefore shall he lift up tlr'
hend.-Ps. OK, I.
Nature has a prodigal way OF scat
tering ~rivuletS down the hillside ana
along the pathways, little leeulhs
whether men walk there or not. lle
practical eye sees waste; these slre"ihi'
might have been made to turn Wheels
the needs of the traveller, weary with
the way. might be met by faucets AT
regular intervals. .
Ii IS we'll for us all that the power oi
the practical man finds its limitations
else all poetry would have gone lrOhl
the world, and great and glorious us
might have been our physical pcrler-
tons our bodies would be nut the emp
tv nabitatiOnS whence souls had long
SINE fed. The utilitnriAn would nave
stolen from us the bliss OF the ue'l'
draft from the pebbly brock.
The man who is proud of being prA'-
tlcal tells us We are wasting time anu
nervous energy in stopping to think OF
ideal things; we must take the WCrlu
as we find it, he shys. forgetting nov"
fair and poetic We once found 1t ana
how bleak and ugly W" likely are to
leave it. But to him trees are always
lumber. grass and flowers but hay, bird
songs spell poultry, wind Il waters
energy. Many are too busy making
things ever to enjoy anything that IS
made.
In this steel age it may seem folly
and waste to stop and think OF Sacrl-
flee and courage and love, to admire
and answer to the thrill of human
passions; but alas for him who never
sees the light of heaven in anotherS
tear, nor hears the brush of angels
their fellows aid.
II you haven't time in you busy life
to turn aside to drink of the brook OF
human affection, to look deep into the
eyes of friendship, to sympathiZe. to
comfort, to taste this strange, sweet
and bitter cup of our common fellow
ship, then is your heart going dry and
thirsty md life becoming Il whitened
road that knows no wells or springs.
But something there is in man that
calls for drafts at yet deeper streams
than these. Foolish and unlearned he
may be, ignorant of the wise conciu-
sions of philosophers who ave looked
into these things with their lanterns,
but through the ages he has been
drinking eagerly at the waters Of eter-
nifty. In every man there is a thirst
after the deep, Unreasonable things ii
vine; the deeper the nature of the man
the greater his necessity for drinking
often here.
The consciousness of the great life
that embraces all life, the sense of its
nearneSS to us all. has been 4 peren-
NAL refreshing to all great hearts. In
some way to bring the life into touch
with the Infinite is to take down its
limitations, break its barriers, and give
1t q sense of infinitude, to lift up the
head in vision of the divinity of our
lives and Of every life. We who walk
in the dust often need to be filled with
the divine lest we become ourselves
but dust.
This world of things is hungry for
the life that is more than things, the
life of the spirit that is why so many
love to sing of heaven and dream of a
fair world peopled by strange and glo.
rious celestial ones. Heaven is nearer
than we think like the brook by the
way, the life of the spirit flows beside
this life, happy they who drink of It's
waters, who already enter into eter,
nifty, who find strength for this life's
way and work by the contact with the
life that is life indeed.
Is it any wonder that life is a wear,
isome thing, a dead drag, when you are
starving its very sources? .Y.d neglect
the soul at the peril of all. So anxious
are you to run this race that you have
no time to allow him who rides in the
chariot to drink of the water of life
This is not utilitarianism; this is sui.
eide from the center out.
The most practical common sense de.
mands that you feed the inner places OF
your life, the heart that has gone SC
long thirsty and longing for love, fol
things too deep for words, for things
that cannot be used, cannot be quoted
In dollars. Give your inner life its
deep drafts of the infinite life and your
outer life shall take its place and dc
its work in the world.