Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1908-09-17

ioKe Tor progress MANS arm 1iffs !.
TOO pounds, but there is power IN
he steam, not ourselves, that lifts
100 tons Of molten steel. Mans leg
runs four miles an hour, but there IS
} power in the fiyWheeI of his engine
that will help him to run acrosA this
continent in four days without losing
breath or bringing tire. Mans voice
s no stronger than it was in the days
when Caesar made 10000 soldiers
hear his command, but now a power
not in himself but in electricity
makes for eloquence and speech
across a. thousand miles of space.
And how shall we explain the trans
formation of impetuous Peter, and
passionful David and this cold, Graf
ty, ambitious, cruel rabbi, Saul, into /
this gentle Paul? There is a power /
in the universe not David, or Peter, I
nor Saul, that makes for righteous
ness. Christ descended upon them to |
give life, and to give it more abund-
antly. How do you explain the Ital-
ian Renaissance? There was a pow
er in the world that made for beauty
and sweetness, that descended upon
the young scholar. How do you ac-
count for the German Reformation?
There was a power in the universe
that made for faith, and character,
and self-surrender. And that power
descended on Martin Luther. Whence
came the Puritan Reformation in
England? The explanation was not
in John Eliot, or Sir Harry Vane, or
John Pym. There was power in
the world that made for the sense of
personal worth, inspiring each man
to give an account of himself to God,
challenging him to stand upon his
own feet and assert his manhood,
urging the sense of brotherhood, and
that unseen power flooded the souls
of the Pilgrim Fathers and the Eng
| lish heroes, and changed the face OF
the whole world. Well may the men
| of every great era of outbreaking ge-
MUS exclaj-1: I'VE lift our eyes unto
| the hills from whence cometh our
help" "Ouf help cometh from the
Lord, who made heaven and earth"
Let us now praise famous men of
| old, who have redeemed the people.
I But let us remember that God clothed
the knight with His shining armor,
that God pressed that blade with the
two edge into the hero's hand; that
God lent the soldiers their paens of
victory that they sing beside the
camp fires; that Christ came to lead
His followers forth to their holy war,
giving them life, yea, life abundant1y.
This principle also explains the Sc
cret Of growth that begins with life.
| The old idea was that salvation was
| by intellectual culture. Christ's idea
is salvation by. life through the new
heart. Bald inteIlectualism says
BLESSED be wisdom" Christ says,
BLESSED is chara cter." Here is a
little child In his self1shness he
seizes his sisters little toy and breaks
It. Time and growth will increase
the amount of his selfishness and
make him strike his own wife and
break the heart of his little child, for
growth increases the size, does not
change the sort. Here is the youth
who is sowing wild oats. Little by
little he is draining off all the vital
forces. The false friend says, Don't
be discouraged; he will outgrow
this" But every farmer is in terror
when he finds the wild oats growing
drink up the rain, steal the richness
from the soil, starve the tame oats.
And II they do this when the false
oats are young, time and growth SIM
ply multiply the havoc. Time can do
nothing for a youth who is sowing
wild oats save gather the harvest of
pain, disaster and heartbreak Time
can turn a spark into a conf1a grafton,
growth can turn little leak into
large one that will ruin the dixie and
submerge the land. Given a disease.
time does not cure it, but only en-.
larges and spreads the poisoned tis-
sue Given selfish child, growth
turns him into. a monster. Given an
avaricious child, time and growth
produce miser. Given tricky and
cunning child, years end with Ben
edict Arnold or an Aaron Burr, or a
Judas and Apostate Julian. What
the wild thorn needs is the rich life
of double rose grated within. The
| orchardist can use the wild root, but
he cuts from tested peach or plum
| cutting that turns the sour sap into
| sugar. 1t is new life we need. Jesus
/ was right when He showed the Sc
eret, the new heart, that brings VIC
tory and peace.
Disheartened and discouraged, the
way is not to flee from God, but to
( fee to Him. We live and move and
have our being in God, as our world
floats in amethyst and ether, borrow
ing all its colors from the light that
surrounds it. We have our life from,
Christ as the tree has its life in the
rich juices Of the soil. wherein the
/ tree is rooted-the stimulating at
! mosphere with which the boughs are
surrounded, and the all-embracing
| sunshine that lends warmth and
beauty to the sweet blossoms and the
ripe fruit.
A literary exchange says there is
fortune for an author in one pop
ular novel. That's true; but they
won't stop there. laments the Pitts
burg Dispatch They are al after
i enough to enable them to live when