The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-09-18
"vIsroNs AND TAsIxsD

while Peter thought on the vision
the Spirit said unto him, Behold, thres
mon seek thee."--Acts X. 49,
Peter had been praying on the top o.
Simons house at Joppa, and there hio
been shown to him great sheet full
of all kinds of horny beasts, wh'ch ne
was hidden to take and eat Ana
while he hesitated, he was rebuked
for his narrow conception of the gospel
and IT'S teachings. He now sat there
bordering, and doubling IN himseii
what the vision which he had seen
should mean.
A new.idea had come to him. 1t was
all abstracted and impalpable. II pc
wi1dered and eluded him. He coulo NY
SEQ. what the outcome would be. As
he still, waited. steps were heard be-
low; they were the servants OF cor
nelius, the Gentle, coming TO ask that
Peter would visit their master here
was the chance to put into action the
idea which possessed him.
II was a critical moment He was
standing between the vision ana It's
application. On one side OF MN was
the mysterious sheet and its multiluoe
of beasts; on the other were the three
men that needed him and the truths ne
had been taught, The question was,
whether the vision could pass through
Peter to these three men anu cor
nelius. When on the morrow he went
with them" that question was decid
cd. his vision and its appropriate .uty
had Joined hands.
Man standing between his vision and
his task, that is our subject for consld-
GRAFTON. 1t is the place where Ger
tain men are often called upon 10
stand, and in some degree 1T IS where
all men are standing always. Every
man has his vision--now bright ana
beautiful-now clouded and Obscure
of what is absolutely and abstractly
true. and every man has pressing on
rim the warm. clear lives of his fellow :
men. There is world of truth on
one side. and a world of men upon the
other.
This may be peculiarly manifest 1T
the life of some young men TO day
When the school session has peefl
closed; when the college doors have
dismissed their graduates; when the
professional student has left forever
the calm scholar days behind hin :
when the young minister still feels
the hands of ordination on his bowed
head-in all these cases, how real are
the two worlds between which he
stands. Amid the silence and the str.
the calm accumulation and the active
employment of his truth, the young
man stands with strange conscious
ness which is never so wildly repeated
at7any other moment of his life.
Sad is his lot, sad IS the nature OF
any man. who can pass through such q
moment and not he solemnized and eX-
allied by It. Sad is that man who can
graduate from college and so out into
the world thinking Of his education
only as a drudgery from which he has
at last escaped, or merely as an EQUIP
nent with what he is TO earn his daily
bread
The power of men to. stand between
abstract truth on the one side and the
concrete facts Of life on the otner
comes from the coeSistence In his hu-
man nature of two different powers.
one the power of knowing, the other
the power of loving. The power Of
knowing, whether by patient study or
the faculty Of gaining wisdom ny ex-
perience. everything by whic! he
tries to learn and succeed in KNOWING,
l-that is one necessary element Of his
manhood.
And the other is love, that power OF
! syupathetlc intercourse with things
and people which completes and YIELDS
the whole. These two together must
he in all true men, Not merely in the
greatest man, but in all. to be gcru-
!, line and complete. The power of learn
ling truth and the power Of loving
men mus, be in youlor me as well IN
/ Shakespeare or Socrates Every truth
| possible for man to know. 1t Is goot
| for him to know with reference to MS
| brother men; only In that way is the
! truth kept lofty and pure This Is the
I IN ia, r,aanjn.y az Peter before his WIG.