The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-06-13
Sentiment,

out of it are the issues of life.-Prov.,
iv., %.
The soul hungers for companionship
and cannot live happily without it.
When any one is inclined to withdraw
from the society Of his fellow-mens
when he shuns the family, friends and
the world, we feel that he is becoming
abnormal.
There turks feeling in the human
breast that attaches US to pet ANIMAL
q favorite flower or landscape, that
makes us prefer one being to another,
that fills US with pity for the suffering
and the weak, with admiration for the
hero, with love for home, our neigh
borhood, our city, our country. Senti-
ment rules the greater part Of our lives.
1t conditions our thoughts and actions,
makes the difference between one per-
son and another, creates interest and
enthusiasm for one person and one
cause in preference to another. What
is this mysterious element of the soul2
Is it magnetism, personality, charnni
amiability? Itis perhaps divinity SEEK
ing expression through man? =
Sentiment, truly, is everything. II
paints the best pictures, writes the best
books and plays. It gives that touch
of human nature that makes all the
world kin" The busy throng hurrying
on in the mad rush Of ambition stops
for moment to comfort crying babe
that has lost its way or to aid some
poor blind man tottering helplessly.
Napoleon stoppedin his march to battle
to turn over turtle that was strug-
Cling on its back on the roadside.
Men touched with the fire of emotion
have wrought wondrous deeds. The
master minds Of the world have been
born Of great love or intense hates
Moses, the shepherd, becomes q re.
deemer Of men at sight Of the burning
bush that was not consumed-at the
thought Of the great wrong done to
Israel by the Pharaohs of Egypt. Tie
love of liberty, like an irrepressible
avalanche, swept tyrannous kings OF
their thrones and gave US the great re.
publics Of the world. =
We seem, however, to have lost
something in the course of our modern
progress. We have cultivated the mind
at the expense of the heart. Mental
culture has repressed the emotions SO
long that the heart has become afro
phied. Business IS reduced to a cold
science Of supply and demand. Poll
tics is a scramble for Office and spoils.
Society is q series Of formal entrances
and exits. Groups are formed to be
broken up, friendships cemented to be
dissolved, marriages contra cted to be
severed. Fire only can weld steel. So
only the fire of love can weld hearts.
Only the fame Of human sentiment
can drive out of the various activitiea
Of modern life that selfish coldness that
chills every endeavor.
But sentiment cannot be taught. It
is spread not through precept, but
through the contagion Of example. The
watersheds Of a country are on, the
hills or mountain tops. There the wat
ers divide and flow thence down to the
valleys below. The homes are the first
sources of right living. Influences that
there are generated pervade the va
rious members. The great men and
women of a country are its moral wat
ersheds. If the great leaders Of the ma
ton will cherish the sentiment that
makes for love of the true, the beautt-
full and the good; if the Congress and,
State Legislature will listen to the
feeling that prompts men to love their
fellow men. to do justice and walk
humbly before God, then that senti-
ment will distill through the various
layers of society, will transform poll
tics and business with the wand OF
love into centre Of activity for the
common welfare and so regenerate so.
ciety as to bring nearer the day of uni
versal herhood.-Joseph Silverman,
D. D., Rabbi Temple Emanuel, New
York, in the Sunday Herald.