Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-03-27

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edge ended. there
hENhh F. oofh something akin to
revelation would give us light. we
| have been listening for voices that
would speak with an authority trans
| cending that given to our fellows.
! Cold reason may mock at revelation,
! but the soul struggling in darkness,
| bafiled 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 be known than
| that to our own selfish interests? t IS
| not strange that men have needed those
| who, though often mistaken or but i'm
posters. have cried, Thus saith the
Lord! :"
1t would be strange If in world OF
| spirits there might be no communica-
| ton of spirit IF the fairest thought
of our era is that which was given as
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
world would mean that 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 comes not
| ~, of visions
and portents. But it is ever speaking
through the things of daily life; 1t 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 the
hopes and the longings Of hearts. Even
the voice we hear in the sighings of
| the wind Or the message we read in
the rays of setting sun must be IN us
| before 1t means aught to us.
The ten commandments owe their
force not TO any writing on stone but
to their writing on our hearts; to
| them the soul of man answers affirma-
lively. The only moral code we can
! follow is that which speaks with the
authority of a conscience convicted.
That does not mean that man is his
| own God. nor that he knows no law
higher than himself; it does mean that
| by the laws of spiritual development
the law is being written on every
heart.
Every real revelation is divine rev
elatiOn, since all truth is divine. Once
we thought the scientist the enemy of
| religion now we know that whenever
| science lays bare one Of the facts of
| the universe we DO but look on what
the finger of the Infinite has written
When religion fights truth simply be-
cause truth speaks an unfamiliar
| tongue or fails to respect her tradi-
| tions, she is fighting against God him
self.
Our need is not soma strange, awe
inspiring voice that shall break the 81
| lence of the midnight sky; our need is
| an ear trained to hear, a spirit to I'M
| derstand and reverence the sublime
voices that are ever speaking in our
| world, the voices Of the beauty of ma
ture the joy of living, the stories of
! everyday divine heroism, the forces
| that are making q new world to-day
| as truly as ever one was made long
ago.
The life Of our day has not less of
the divine than the life of long ago;
but the message is harder to read it
| is for an educated race; it is spiritual
rather than merely material; it is
| from within it is found in every good
impulse, in every outgoing sympathy,
in the kindling of eye as friend greets
friend, in the good that men are do
ing. in the liberation that is becoming
wider, the love stronger between man
and man.
God speaks to ner now as He spoke
to Moses or to David, though the man
ner may have changed. But the poor
in spirit, those with whom pride of
the past has not served to make them
unwilling to learn, these hear the
voice; the pure in heart see Him; the
| seekers after truth find Him, and to
all He comes in the thrilling moment
or in the quiet hour when the voice
Of the heart makes itself heard.
INTEGRITY A STIMULANT
By Rev. Robert P. Kreitler.
What seest thou? And | said a