The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1911-11-09
Address by Rev. A. A. Smith.

meeting of the Piscataquis Association
of the Universalist church opened most
auspiciously at the Dover and Foxcroft
Universalist church last evening, with
good attendance not only of delegates
and local members but of the public in
general, the singing and the address of
the evening being especially inspiring.
of Sangerville, the praise service was
Almighty King" by the chorus choir
and Congregation, followed by other
hymns. The reading from the Scrip
lures was by Rev. Ashley A. Smith,
prayer being offered by the local pastor,
Rev. w. A. Kelley. Two solos, "a
Vision of Peace" and "Hold Thou My
Hand" by Briggs, were rendered by
Supt. Wass, whose fine tenor voice was
never heard here to better advantage,
and his contributions to the evenings
program afforded much pleasure to his
hearers.
The association was privileged in
having for its speaker last evening,
Rev. Ashley A. Smith, pastor of the
Universalist church in Bangor. This
was Rev. Mr.. Smiths first appearance
before a Piscataquis county audience,
and his cordiality, his forcefulness, as
we'll as his superior intellectual attain
ments and great oratorical ability made
a lasting impression upon all who were
so fortunate as to hear him, and it is
the wish of all that he may return here
at day not far distant, that his coming
be more generally known, and many
more have the privilege of hearing this
eloquent speaker.
He spoke on 1.-TWO Kinds of Truth, "
and chose for a text, l Cor Is, 44-40.
There is a terrestrial body, and there
is spiritual body" "But the glory of
the celestial is one, and the glory of the
terrestrial is another and introduced
his address by pointing out the truth of
materialism, and the truth of magma
ton, emotion, sensation.
The truth of physical fact; and the
truth Of the spiritual inner consciousness,
the truth of the imagination. The mater
ial scientist represents the one kind, the
truth of fact, the poet and seer and
prophet represent the other kind. Oar
win, Huxley and Spencer were given as
names of great power and prominence
in science, in the realms of natural fact;
and Emerson, Tennyson, Browning,
modern names for those representing
the truth of the inner consciousness, the
truth of imagination. Carlyle was a
seer, 1Tyndall was scientist, and we are
beginning to see that truth was with
both men. The scientists reproached
the seers for living in the clouds and
mists, the seers censured the material
scientists for living and grovelling in the
mud Both made mistakes and blunders,
/. but both we're reaching for the same
/ end, the discovery of truth. But the
battle between the opposing camps has
/ for the most part been fought, and
victory lay with both sides, because there
were two kinds of truth.
Following the line of kinds of energy,
/ the speaker told of the force or energy
! in the tides that undulate with such re-
sistless sweep around the earth, the
energy in every cubic inch of space, the
bit of garden soil that can grow and de-
veop crimson rose or spotless lily; but
thought and emotion and aspiration can
nourish and develop heroic deeds, acts of
kindness, and characters of manhood or
womanhood that shall endure.
With both, Scientists and seer, there
is truth, and from the dim annals Of
earliest recorded time this truth has been
recognized by the great seers and
prophets; they have realized that there
are two worlds that touch this human
life of cure, that there are two kinds of
truth that enter into life. This world of
the seen and tangible we must not ig-
more, and there is no danger of that; the
world of the intangible, the invisible,
the vague, there is need always that we
come into touch with that;-with the
great forces and ceaseless energies of
God that are beyond the evidence of this
eye and ear, beyond the test of the five
senses; there is need that we do not lose
the reality of the unseen.
He said, "Do we not come to it's mys-
FERROUS confines, to its vague, mystical
borders, in all the great experiences of
life, when the high joy of worthy love
comes over US, when pain probes the
flesh, when sorrow, bereavement strike
hard and heavy upon the heart, wher
some great sickness lays US apart from
the busy world, when Death stalks US tC
the grave? Then it only voices the ties,
timony of all who have experienced
those great things, to say that we are
vouchsafed some insight, intuition into
the unseen.
Most eloquently, he brought to the
attention of his hearers the great truths
and lessons found in the masterpieces o.
the worlds greatest writers, Dante, II
Millions Paradise Lost, in Gothe's Faust
and others, and all show US that the
spirit of man is feeling after God. Al
high literature teaches US that Paul wa!
right when he said, Gin Him we live ant
move and have our being" The quota
tons from Tennyson and other poets
were given with much eXpresslveness
especially those from the great drama
of SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, Macbeth ant
Richard 8, which bring us in constan
touch with the unseen world.
He spoke, too, of the great unseel
forces Of Gods world which are back o
the real life, the real spirit of the small
est thing, such as the modest violet
Naming the chemical changes Is not ex
planning this great mystery, this grea
3 unseen miracle of life that nantes tn
r fields of spring, and blossoms in the ten
der blue of the violet, or the gorgeou
crimson of the rose. Beyond anything
the eye can see is the power of gravita
ton, the marvellous modern force o
electricity, which were enlarged upon b,
r the speaker.
All this brings US face to face with tn
great unseen forces Of Life, Light ant
Love, carries US up into the realms of tn
eternal and spiritual, opens new realm
and reaches and realities for US, ant
shows US that while we walk the cart
we are heirs of immortal destinieS, in