The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-08-18
A SUNDAY TALK.

Remember. ! hesscch thee that thou hast made
me the elay and wilt thou bring me unto dust
again g'-i0b. x: g.
The question asked by Job in his com
plant against God is one that since
jobs time has resounded through the
ages. Omar Khayyam voiced it, and
later Goethe and Tennyson. and always
with note of petulance, as If there was
no answer 10 be found Omar. indeed
though his strange thought was able TO
borrow from the philosophers before his
time some sort Of hopeful if irreverent
answer when he turned his quatrains TO
the idea dong before used in the Hindu
philosopher to comparing God and man.
kind to the potter and his pots;
" Why said another 'soue there be- who tei'
OF one who threatens be viii toss 20 he'll
The luckless pots be maued In making:
Fish! He's good fellow and Twin all be ven. "
Even Tennyson. with all his fine reli-
gious feeling. and awe and reverence,
could hardly get much farther than Omar
had gone hundreds of years before him.
In that, the greatest elegy In the English
language. In Memoriam," he felt the
NtNA+tN NNAAhAo tA4dA dSSititl JUD
Ny own dim life should teach me this.
That lie shall live l0T cyermore.
Else death is darkness AZ the core,
And dust and ashes all that is.
Il is not all unhealthful for man at GER
tain seasons 10 reckon with himself and
mis- deeds and 20 come back 10 that
thought Of humbleness which led Job to
cry that he was made as the clay for
fha 3 q
Is 10 lead the mind on 10 what since, of
first clay they did the first man knead,
has been accomplished by mankind.
To the dust again we must return. That,
too. is A thought that should not be
wholly gloomy, The world was made for
US. not we for the world; its laws are in
exorable and though. IN our short-sighted
wisdom, We sometimes deem that we could
have bettered the making in some ways.
yet at the last we have to be content
with this gray old earth as It is. and
humble ourselves 10 the laws which no
repining OF ours can abrogate.
The result of such lf-searching is GER
tain. If one thinks sanely and clearly, TO
bring us 10 tae point where we must de-
termine that 1t is not for US TO grieve be-
cause We cannot solve the mighty mys-
NNAtNo VI AahA Z univ tGHt " 2 SflAU come
10 see that IL Is our duty 70 accept them
as they are and 20 make the best II them
Even as Job was tried. so is mankind
tried to-day. but never beyond his
strength; and the power iies within all OF
US 70 wrest with the help Of God. even
the most adverse circumstances 10 our
greatest good.
Within us ali the old beast that was in
separable from the clay from which we
sprang Is strong. but we can conquef him
II we viii and so live our lives that our
old age may say;
! hear no yelp Of the beast and the man il quiet
a. iasI a. be stands on the heights Of his life with
glimpse OF a life that is higher"
Dust TO dust. ashes 10 ashes-it sounds
melancholy enough, But that is I'm the
future The present we have. and il is
Tor MS 20 make the most Of il while We
NAV. Though cur feet may remain IN the
clay our heads may be lifted to the stars
and. instead Of weak and causeless
whining about a tomb thar seems 10
yearn fer US. we may look with clear eyes
and uUafTaid toward
Tia. God which ever lives and loves.
One God. one law one element
Ana one fsr-of divine event
To which the whole creation fDofas