Arizona republican., 1909-04-12


 but for the most part it is a caged
 eagle and the peaks seem too far : Hope is hobbled by misgivings The
 imagination seems mired in mud for a good many days of the year. We
 do not live; we simply come down to , breakfast, grind through the day, and , climb away to bed to sleep the sleep of exhaustion. How little buoyancy,
 spontaneity, irrepressble mirth there
 is in us. We say we are happy and
 we look inconsolably sad. I speak
 not of the dyspeptics but of the av-
 craze man and woman. Life is much
 a matter of brain-fag and heart-fag
 and soul-fag.
 It is because of this languor of the
 spirit. this muddness of life that we
 seek the mountains for their ozone.
 So We go far to hear the anthem
 of the sea. We seek the desert that
 it may weave its spell of mystery
 and infinity before our eyes. We
 hunt for the work that will get hold
 of our hearts. We seek the friends
 less languid than we. less heavy, less
 faithless. We would save a part of
 our soul at least. So we like the
 martyrs, the dare-devils who take
 their life in their teeth and dash for
 ward. the enthusiasts. the people
 who have learned the fine art of
 slipping their tether. So we like the
 dear, unconventional children. Give
 us poetry or give us anything that will thaw out our hearts. We wei
 come even the bloody baptism of
 war if thereby we may have the at mosphere cleared for us and may
 again see the deep blue beyond the
 cold mists that have settled down
 upon us.
 Such is the ministry of Easter. It witnesses for the eternal in man. It gives us one glorious glowing mo-
 ment for the soul in us Then The
 earth recedes and eternity rises be-
 fore our eyes. The monumental lie
 that strikes at all integrity and ef- | fort, that palsies all energy, and
 cools our holy ardors and our death | less affections. is that affirmation | that life is dust and ashes, dust and ashes. That is the monumental lie.
 It overlooks the spark that disturbs our clod. And Easter it is. the Eas- ter spirit that blows upon that spark and makes it glow and burn. Second. Easter also brings clearly into view the spiritual about us, the eternal grace in which we live, the spiritual order, at the heart of which is the eternal love. As it is hard for us to believe sufficiently con corning our own lives. to think well enough of ourselves. so is it hard to believe that the world means well. oT to be too good to be true. We can scarcely believe it.
 Suspicion is a strangely persistent force in the human heart You do not speak the same language as your fellow man. At once you are fear ful of what he may do. Your neigh bor belongs to a different station in life. His superiority. or seeming opu- lence. or larger experience worries you. You invest in bombs or sulk. ] The telegram affrights you: you mis- trust that bad news may be coming. | You are glad to get through the day | without any broken bones The chil- | dren see things at night. Women are 1 always creatures of fine present. | -ments. delicate suspicious. And the | men are just as fearful. They go | striding by the cemetery, whistling, | but not because they have a superior | courage. The truth is they have lost | their courage and are whistling for | it. One old saying amounts to the same thing: We whistle to keep our courage up. An. there it is-so much of our whistling. so much of our singing is born not of our happy hearts. but because we would like to be happy. Fear. fear, fear. We fear our business; we fear our neighbors; we fear fashion; we fear that great shadow-death. All our lifetime full of fear. And all this fear in spite of our fine old proverb: Most of the trouble we have never happens"
 Why can't we have faith? Why can't we believe that the world means well? It does. It ever giveth us our daily bread; and clothes us, too. even as it clothes the birds It heals our diseases, though we are ever break ing laws and getting sick. It builds a fence called pain to keep us from falling over the precipice. By day God spreads the canopy of grace above our heads and at night hangs out his glowing signals of love that flash across the dark and speak to us of the infinite peace of the world The God who made this world is boundless in good will and tender Any one ought to be able to see this, for are not here birds, flowers, motherhood and all our deep. deep capacities for good?
 Yes, there are earthquakes, to be sure, but earthquakes are incidents in the work of our father Is a man a devil because he knocks down the of his building? Get Christs great truth: God worketh until now. The world is in process. There is a cosmic going on. Keep your hands out of the flying wheels, or if by inadvertence you get your hand caught. do not write down God a devil. Learn the rhythm of the world A motionless world would be a dead world. We would not be able to live in such a world.
 God is wonderfully genial The old theology had imps leering out at every crack in the cosmos. Jesus brought in a new theology. He says: Your Father is kind. Ii is His pleas ure to give you the kingdom. He said death is neither an old man with ha hut Clppn !