Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-03-27

ISyWMM W MAN been the conviction
NNNWNT%W VIM, that, where orr
NshW y own scanty know
edge ended, there
ahNhi = .ofh something akin to
revelation would give us light. We
have been listening for voices that
would speak with an authority trahs-
'cending that given to our fellows,
Cold reason may mock ut revelation,
but the soul struggling in darkness,
badled by its problems, lost in the
night, still looks up and hopes, For
what awaits us but despair if the mys-
~teries of the universe are forever seal
ed. our questions forever unanswered,
and no higher appeal to he known thah
that to our selfish interests! I IS
not strange that men ~hayeheeded those
who, though often mistaken or but I'M
posters, have cried, Thus saith the
Lord!'
1t would be strange il in a world of
spirits there might be no commnnica-
ton Of spirit. Ii the fairest thought
of our era is that which was given us
| when man was taught to think of the
! omnipotent as father, 1t would be
| strange If there should be no way BY
| which such a father might speak to his
children. Such a world would contra
dict all our best instincts. Such a
world would mean tina man was bet
ter than his maker.
The divine voice speaks. but we too
| often listen In the wrong direction. 1t
| falls not from the skies; 1t CONES not
in strange, unusual ways of visions
and p~ortents. But it is ever speaking
through the things of daily life; It Is
ever revealing truth and beauty to the
inner ear, for it comes not from with
out but springs up within heard by
the heart rather than by the ear.
The best things have not dropped
down; they have grown up. Life Is
not from without, but from within
God speaks not in thunders, but in tbs
hopes and the ~longings of hearts. Ever
the voice we hear in he sighings OF
the wind or the message we read IN
the rays of setting sun must be in us
before it means aught to us.
The ten commandments W theil
force not TO any writing on stone but
to their writing on our hearts t.
them the soul of man answers afiir1na
lively. The only moral code we car
follow is that which speaks with the
authority of a conscience convicted
That Ices not mean that man is his
own God, nor that he knows no law
higher than himself 1t does mean tina
by the laws Of spiritual development
the law Is being written on ever.
heart.
Every real revelation is q divine rev
citation, since all truth is divine. Ono,
we thought the scientist the enemy o
religion; now we know that wheneve
science lays bare n OF the facts 0
the universe we do but look on wha
the finger of the Infinite has written
When religion fights truth simply be
cause truth speaks an unfamilia.
tongue or fails to respect her tradi
tions, she is fighting against God him
self.
Our need is not some strange, aw,
inspiring voice that shall break the ST
lence of the midnight sky our need il
Ill CAR LEilDcu 10 ueII, Il Spill 10 I'LL
derstand and reverence the sublim,
voices that are ever speaking in GU
world, the voices of the beauty of ma
tuTe, the joy of living, the stories O
everyday divine heroism, the force.
that are making a new world to-da,
as truly as ever one was made lon.
ago.
The life OF our day has not less o
the divine than the life of long age
but the message Is harder to read; i
is for an educated race it is spiritua
rather than merely material; it il
from within ; it is found in every goo,
impulse, in every outgoing sympathy
in the kindling of eye as friend greet
friend, in the good that men are dc
I; ing. in the liberation that Is beco1nin
wider, the love stronger between maj
and man.
God speaks to men now as fIe spok
to Moses or to David, though tile mar
ner may have changed. But the poo
in spirit, those with whom pride o
the past has not served to make Their
unwilling to learn. these hear til
voice; the pure in heart see Him; tn
seekers after truth find Him. and t
all He comes in the thrilling menen
or in the quiet hour when the vote
Of the heart makes itself heard.
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