The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1911-01-06
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We went on dreaming that something
might happen to make US great or
noble; perhaps some fairy would
touch us with its wand and the beg
gar become prince. Yet the sober
truth we know well enough.
Heaven il not reached by sin
\ gle bound;
But we build the ladder by
which we rise,
From the lowly earth to the
vaulted skies,
And we mount to the summit
round by round"
! We know that men are put to-
gether In this world just al houses
are, not by chance, but by plan OF
! exact principles and measurements.
We must not only sit down i'm ad-
vance and count the cost OF this
| building, but we must get the mater
ials together, and measure and cut
and join them according to a we'll
defined plan. Some of you may have
seen at the Worlds Fair in Chicago
\ two figures called Adam and Eve"
because they represented the actual
physical proportions of a perfect
man and woman. lit was o recon
! struction by DR.. Sargent, Of Harvard,
/ DdoCu uDOL llOuSIlINlo VI lIlSciS III g
ments Of men and women, no one
corresponding exactly to the type in
all respects, but all giving indica-
tions that a type was in the mind OF
| Him who planned and built the hu-
man body. And those of you who
know anything of anatomy have been
impressed q thousand times, I doubt
not, with the appropriateness Of
David's exclamation, fl am fearfully
and wonderfully made"
And do you think that He who has
taken such care and exhibited such
wisdom in constructing our bodies,
which are for little time and then
vanish away" cares less for the
| structure OF our character, our
soul Do you think that man must
consider and take pains and follow
the law i'm building up his body, and
yet may build up his immortal nature
without any regard to fixed laws and
principles ? That here chance and
luck and environment will do every
thing without regard to plan or
scale or proportion ? Miserable de
lusion BE not deceived God is
not Knocked. For whatsoever a man
soweth that shall he also reap" No
house can be built any larger or any
stronger than its foundation. To
realize great things we must plan
for great things and be fit for great
things. There is no chance in the
spiritual world. When men spend
their youth in idle dreaming or in
ruinous dissipation they may not
wake up in their prime and think to
put the roof on palace. There i'm
no way to cheat the eternal laws Of
architecture. Without a foundation,
without walls, no palace j. possible,
only a shed which the wind driveth
away. -a..
N q. We are taught again BY the text
that the perfect man is architecturally
. proportioned; the city lieth four
square, and the length thereof il az
great as the breadth"
We are all more or less imperfect
and the sign of our imperfection ia
the inequality Of our powers. One
; of the first things done in the Gym
nasium is to take such exercises az
!, will restore the balance Of physical
: proportion The left arm must be
made as effective as the right; thu
} shoulders must be brought up to m
equal height; chest and waist meas
ures must be brought into proper
: tion, and 30 on through the whole
physical structure; because as phys
, ical men we are unbalanced, imper-
J feet and out OF proportion. But the
/ type is perfectly proportioned. 1t Ii
striking fact that mans height
} from head to foot, il generally the
} same as his breadth, from finger TIL
, to finger tip of extended arms. Sc
that if you draw line to represent
his height and another to represent
; his extended breadth you will con-
, struct perfect square; and revolv-
| ing this on it, axis will give you d
cube So that If we take six feet as 9
| mans height and cube it we will sci
, ZIG feet, or 144 cubits exactly, the
t measurement Of this wall in the text
which is said to be the measure of 6
} man. No importance il to be attach
ed to this curious result except the
J hint thus given that the physical
\ man is designed to be perfect and
, proportioned according to the laws
of architecture.
I In the same way our spiritual ma
, ture must be built into fair and true
proportions. The enthusiast, the
| fanatic, The crank, are men not with
, out power; but they are usually in,
: effective TO the production of great
T and lasting results, because they are
out OF proportion; they lack sym
J metry OF ideas and energy. They
| seize one idea, often true and al
/, important one, but they carry it toe
{ far and strain it by the weight they
! put upon it They have no sense OF
proportion in times and occasions
, and they use az much energy in a
/ skirmish as in campaign.
| Great men are not built in this way
Macaulay said that Burke's distinc-
, ton Of greatness was that 'he had
J in the highest degreee that noble
J faculty, whereby man Is able to live
[ in the past and in the future, in the
distant and in the unreal" Shakes
peare describes the great man a.
, one "of large discourse, looking be-
fore and after" Plato says the good
man il trinity i'm hands and feet
; and mind Tennyson describes We'll
, lington as that tower of strength
: which stood four-square to all the
| winds that blew"
Most of us do not answer to any OF
these descriptions. We have .ot
J more than one square side. The
) most that men will admit OF us is
] that we have some good in u. But
! we fail SO otter because the attack
does not come on our strong side, but
{ searches out our weakness, gets IN
| der our unbraced framing and finds
| all our cracks and warps. The man