The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1910-08-11
Doing With the Soul.
BY JAMES E. c. SAWYER, D. D.
1.-THE New York Observer.

In Colossians 1923 we read: "And what.
soever We do, do it heartily" A literal
translation of the original Greek is.
"And whatsoever We do, do it from the
SOUL" This means that Christians are
to live not as animals, but as spirits. All
their doing is to be from spiritual mo.
tive, and is to be the manifestation of
spiritual life and character.
AS spirits they are to live in conscious.
ness of the divine presence, in communion
with God. All their doing is to be from
the soul and unto the Lord: "Whatso-
ever We do, do it from the soul, as to the
Lord All Christian activity is the
spiritual service of the Lord, the Christ.
A parallel passage is l. Cor. 1921:
whether therefore We eat. or drink, or
whatsoever We do, do all to the glory of
God" Thus the whole of life is to be
consecrated and inspired.
Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
AS more of heaven in each we see;
Some softening CLEAN of love and PRAYER
Shall dawn on every cross and care
When one lives unto God, the whole
natural world is beheld with a new and
idealizing vision. Rude and untaught
natures have their insight and magma
ton quickened when they become spirit
ually transformed, and in their PRAYER
meeting testimonies unconsciously often
become poetlcal In expression. The spirit
ual side of the universe becomes to them
real. They see the glory of God in the
stars and the flowers, in the splendor of
autumn and the vast white silence of the
woods in winter. Ossawatomie Brown
was stern and heroic character, but on
his way to execution he observed and
spoke of the beauty of the Virginia hills
and stopped to kiss little colored child.
| With
| IAN eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony. and the deep power of joy
the spiritually quickened soul sees into
the life of things, the beauty in which
all things move.' No amount of educa-
ton will make a man a mystic. Some
are born 50. More are spiritually made
so. One day when Tennyson was in his
garden friend who was with him asked,
"What do you think of Christi" He
paused moment reverently, then re-
piled:
Look, here is a flower; what the sun
is to this flower Jesus Christ is to me. -
He was the greater poet for being a
Christian. His imagination was glorifed
grip and inspiration of his SIN Memori-
|
the vast range of his knowledge to his
spiritual vision, making him prophet as
well as poet. Hear his own testimony:
If e'er when faith had faln asleep,
l heard voice ebelieve no more'
And heard an ever-breaking shore
That tumbled in the goddess deep,
warmth within the breast would melt
The freezing reasons colder part,
And like man in wrath the heart
Stood up and answered. 81 have felt
One of the most interesting of the
essays of Matthew Arnold is that in which
he contrasts the pagan and the medieval
religious sentiment as illustrated by one
of the best and happiest of the idylls of
Theocritus, on the one hand, and St.
Francis artless but charming Canticle of
the Sun. He sums up by saying: CHOW,
the poetry OF Theocritus' hymn is poetry
treating the world according to the de-
mand of the senses; the poetry OF St.
Francis hymn is poetry treating the
world according to the demand of the
heart by its outward, sensible side; the
second by its inward, symbolical side. The
first admits as much of the world as is
pleasure-giving; the second admits the
whole world, rough and smooth, painful
and pleasure giving alike, but all trans
figured by the power of spiritual emo
ton, all brought under a law of super
sensual love, having its seat in the soul. -
These words with reference to the poem
of St. Francis fifty characterize also the
poetry of Dante, Wordsworth, Brown
ing, Tennyson, Longfellow and Whittier
Their vision was that of faith, not that
of the imagination only. They saw God
in nature and in history and beheld the
eternity in mans heart. There can be
no great literature, no great music, no
great architecture, without spiritual
vision.
Without spiritual ideals, spiritual aims,
spiritual vision, man may be a politician,
a party boss, he may rise to high posi-
tons; but he can OF be statesman with
out them. The statesman needs more
than great intellectual ability. He must
have moral principle. He must see the
spiritual side of things. He must be con-
secrated to lofty ideals. He cannot fulfill
great responsibilities without spiritual
vision. His soul must be alive. He must
work from his soul, or his career will be
calamity, not a national blessing.
The greatness of Cromwell, Burke and
Chatham, of Cavour and Gladstone, of
Washington and Lincoln, was not merely
l1l6llGCludl IL was lOl oNlilS W GllSii
genius. 1t was in the purity, the nobility
of their aims, the clearness of their
spiritual vision, the grandeur of their
national ideal, the unselfishness of then
personal devotion to it. Great material
resources cannot make a great nation.
Its common people, lofty and lowly, as
we'll as its leaders, cannot be made good
citizens without moral and spiritual
ideals. The life Of the spirit among
both the masses and classes is absolutely
essential to the perpetuity of freedom,
the accomplishment of the national mis-
sion. Groveling materialism is immeas-
urably the greatest of our national perlls.
To live and work from the soul gloriies
the lowliest. position, the humblest task.
Those whom Paul exhorted to do every
thing from the soul were servants, bond
servants: Servants, obey in all things
them that are your masters according to
the flesh; not with eye-service as man.
pleasers, but in singleness Of heart, fear
ing the Lord, whatsoever We do, do il
from the soul, as unto the Lord, and not
unto men, knowing that from the Lore
We shall receive the recompense of the
inheritance; for We serve the Lore
Christ" The most obscure task be.
comes divine when inspired by spiritua
and loving purpose.
A servant with this clause