The Tupelo journal., 1910-01-28

new. Let this be for us a parable OF
the history of faith, in which there
have been many cloudy sunsets n
many golden dawns. Happy are we
who live in the morning radiance or
a new day of faith, for the life of the
spirit is as ~changeful as the sky n
as mutable as the sea.
Some have thought that religion
would finally fade out of the heart OF
man. But they forget a fundamental
human fact. No reality Is more deep
ly rooted in the nature OF man, and,
If 1t has sometimes assumed forms al
looks over the long past knows that 1t
becomes every year more lovely and
refined. 1t is the life of God In the
soul of man, an Unsuitable hunger for
eternity, an ~unquenchable aspiration
for the perfect, and it is by such bread
that man lives. Little acquaintance
with history is necessary to show that
while religion is one, it's shapes are
many. The very fact that it is a life
promises variety of form, for in same
ness there is death. 1t is not a stag
nant pool, but a flowing stream.
Lowell tells us in his poem in Am
brose" how the good saint learned this
lesson. Walking along a brook st.
Ambrose was Joined by an angel, who,
picking up a shell, dipped 1t into the
brook, and filled it with water. He
pointed out to the holy man the fact
that the water assumed the shape of
the shell, and at the same time that
the shell did not contain all the wa
ter in the brook. Even so the good
man learned that heavenly truth flows
into the intellectual forms of each
age, but that those forms however
large and well wrought, do not exhaust
the stream of truth. Should an angel
visit us on such an errand now, he
might quote the lines of Tennyson
which report the brook saying, with
its silver voice:
Men may come, and men may so,
But I go on forever.
Our age is distinctly practical, if rot
pragmatic. It's passion for reality is
itself religious. 1t has learned from
science to be at once critical AID
teachable, to sit reverently at the feet
of truth and learn its secrets. In an
swer to the inquiry as to whether reli-
gion is declining, the reply of Sir Con-
an Doyle is typical of his age, coming
as 1t does from a man of letters and a
mar of the world-though not from
a worldly man. He asserts hat fig
ures afford no data as to the real mind
of the age, or its faith. He says:
Never yet have l known a person
who was good because he went to
church, or evil because he did not.
And yet such practices are taken as
tests whether religion is waning or
increasing. The real tests of the prog
ress of religion must be sought else
where. Is there a kinder and broader
view of such subjects, enabling men
of all creeds to live in amity and char
ity? Are the criminal statistics bet
ter? Are the drink returns better,
showing that man is acquiring greater
animal ~self-control? Is there more
reading, showing that the mind is gain
ing upon the body? Are the savings
bank reports better, showing thrift
and self-denial? Are the trade re-
turns better, showing greater indus
try and better efficiency? Are there
more human institutions, and does man
show more clearly his sense of duty
towards the lower animals?
Let no one think that the large and
generous tolerance of our time is only
a good-natured indifference-that in
difference which is at heart skepti-
cism; letting error be as good as truth,
on the ground that inasmuch as no one
can know anything about such things,
there is room in the infinite for each
man to fashion his own romance. Far
from it. 1t has its basis in the insight
which sees that in every form of faith
there is some truth which can be seer
from no other angle, and the wish to
make that truth it's own. 1t also knows
that the truth is larger than all these
segments. No one has stated the feel
ing of our day better than the half-hu-
morous, half-tender and always wise
philosopher who wrote the story of
Lady Baltimore?"
Forever and forever the human
ace reaches out its hands and shapes
some system, some creed, and declares
it to be the final thing, and 10 and be-
hold, something flowing and eternal
in the ace itself presently splits that
creed all to pieces. Truth is a mar
yelous thing. We feel it, it can fill
.our eyes with tears, u hearts with
joy; it can make us die for it; but
once our human lips attempt to formu-
late and thus to imprison it, it be-
comes a lie and eludes us. You can
not shut up the truth in any form of
words"
So, and quite naturally SO, the word
Christian is a comprehensive word in
our day, including many who were
excluded in a former time. Lincoln did
not profess that it included him, but
Tolstoi, who looked at the life of
Lincoln rather than at his absence of
stated views, spoke of him the other
day as "a Christ in miniature" In
1860 every minister in his city, except
three, voted against Lincoln on the
ground that he was not a Christian.
To-day men feel that if the quality of
character Scent in such men as Lincoln
and Emerson is not to be reckoned
as Christian, then there is not much
else that is worth while. More or less
he same feeling seems to be in most
good men, no matter what their views
are. All now see that it is the spirit
which attests itself in good and use