Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-11-07
For Sunday Reading
M Sorts ofOpiniion,
A Child Of Nature.
nrniversal;st I.eadar ,

A Child Of Nature.
(Universalist Leader)
1t is the influence OF country village
life, of nature as she plays with her
children, that we are brooding over
here. How deity, how tenderly. yet
how masterfully nature moulds her
own into the forms She loves. lit is in
the finished product that we see the
fine result. Whoever looks on Lincoln's
face and form or into his soul win find
there the stamp Of great nature and a
great life. The woods and prairies
grew his uncouth physical Outlines. The
winds of the west, the sobbing melan-
choly Of the wilderness touched his
spirit as tho 1t were an eolian harp.
It's moan and music found in him a
voice.
No child who grew up In a city
could have produced the Gospel i'm
agery. The birds sing in it. The flow
ers bloom as the Master passes The
sower goes forth to SOW. The seed
terminates. The fg-trees bloom. The
lowing Of cattle and bleating OF sheep
are there. The pillow turns its burrows,
the sparrows breed their young. The
shower and the sunshine alternate. The
story unfolds amid the verdure OF
green fields, and along THE shores OF a
quiet lake. Its background is the sky,
It's temple is the open world. It's wor-
ship is of spirit unto spirit. All this
is rot forced. There is no search for
illustration, nothing artificial or soph-
isticated. The imagery and hyperbode
of the Gospel are but glimpses into the
world where 1t was lived. To the day
of his death Jesus retained the frag-
rance and freshness and simplicity OF
the countryside. His poise and serenity
are the reflex of the star spaces and
the silent, nights and the dim vistas.
Tabor and Hermon and Carmel have
bred a soul in which the everlasting
hills are ever In the background as
they are on the canvas of Titan. The
spirit of the world has matured a
geologic. coslnic offspring, a timeless
man.
This brings US to a quality In Jesus
which is the cause of no end Of spec
ulation. He never struggled to attain.
He waged no conflict with himself ex-
cept for that brief traditional period
in the wilderness. The spirit of the
reformer overturner, IS not in him.
The processes in him are as fnexor-
able as fate. He moves from thought
to thought and from experience to ex-
perience with glacial certainty. There
is no haste, no waste of nervous etler-
gy, no crossing bridges before reach
ing them 1t is nature unfolding her
life. Seed-time and harvest are there.
The. wind and the rain mature the
wheat in the chaff. the grain among
whom the silent, majestic processes
Of nature have left their indelible
mark could live that way in the t,1mult
Of the street Schools cannot breed
such men, PHILOSOPHERS cannot fix a
soul in such convictions. They must
be inbred. unconscious. subconscious.
Saturation is the true process. Ma
ture, the world, creation in form
and law and life, are the schoolmas
ters of such as attain to this power.
Simplicity. directness, life moving I'M
der the sway of absolutely universal
elements, is the result.
And so we find this village youth,
untaught by universities. wind swept,
star lighted, tempered by sun and rain,
child Of the open world PLAYMATE with
all things that bloom, or live, or grow,
himself at last walking the world with
God, finding his will, his work, his
life in the uncovering of the marvel
Gus secret which the flowers have
breathed to him in their beauty, and
the birds have sung to him in their
melody. Ours is not the gospel Df
the schoolmen, speculative theories
wrought out Of midnight oil and spent
nerves. Ours is the Gospel, the glad
tidings, Of one who grew, up with the
world, felt it's touch on his soul. knew
its heart, caught a glimpse of the life
and the love that dwell in it every
where.
Secretary Taft on Foreign Missions.