The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1911-01-06

much absorbed BY the world, but our
| life element is not in the world. All
our instincts open to the breath Of q
higher world, to which we are really
going and for which we were made.
To live without religion il to try ro
live without air, or to breathe the
miasma of the swamp, the deadly gas
Of the pit. Why do we spend e.
much OF our money for that which iR
not bread, our labor for that which
satisfieth not i? Why will vie think
we are immortal and live as IL we
were not ? Why, indeed, but that
we are such one-sided creatures that
perfection seems to us mOckery, ana
we catch at the first straw OF life
waited to US on the stream of time.
All-round men! NC lr-square
men How the worlo is crying out
for them Politics needs them,
business needs them, learning needs
them, religion needs them. And iI.
stead, it would seem as if we we're a
generation Of degenerates and Grip
pies; one-armed men; deaf in one
faculty, blind in one instinct, hope
lessly out Of balance in hands and
feet and mind The most perfect
specimen OF physical manhood in
our time is an ignorant, debauched
brute, al savage to all higher intents,
as his fathers were when brought
over in q slave ship. We have strong
men who can't read and scholars who
can't lift their trunk; shrewd business
men who cant meditate without go
ing to sleep; and great authors who
can't get q check cashed. The world
is full of just such mermaids, neither
man nor fish; not fit for either sea
OF land: out Of square, too high for
their breadth; not able TO walk on
both feet nor fight with both
hands; too weak TO be a beast;
not cunning enough to be a devil;
and not wise enough nor good enough
to be man.
o men, let us look to our measure
ments. God has planned a beautiful
| life for us. He wants to lift US to
| the dignity and grace and perfection
Of man fit to be measured with an
angels reed Why should we be
satisfied with any less. Let US give
wings to our feet and weapons to our
hands and light and air to our soul
until we build up to Gods design.
8. One more lesson may be drawn
from the text This all-round de-
| 10 lLICItuCu w 81 VII W LII
finite proportions. And he meas
thousand furlongs; the length and
breadth and the height thereof are
equal" It is not probable that any
on these terms are to be taken liter
ally; they are symbolical and indefi-
mite numbers intended simply to en-
large the conception. Still 1T il i'm
pressive to reduce the conception to
mathematical terms. Twelve thou
sand furlongs are fifteen hundred
miles and a city OF this square would
contain two million and quarter
ny square miles. The largest city In
the world contains two hundred and
fifty square miles. If this city were
populated as thickly as New York IL
would have one hundred and one and
! a quarter billions of inhabitants,
or one hundred times the pres
ent population of the earth. And
il we should add to this the height OF
fifteen hundred miles and try to con-
ceive of cubical city of these di-
mensions we would overleap the
imagination and require, indeed, the
reed OF an angel to measure with.
This sort Of calculation concerns
us very little, for we can form nc
proper conception of cubical city;
but the thing intended does concern
us a great deal. 1t is to intimate to
us outlines which are vast i'm idea
and overwhelm conception in ex-
tent, but which, we are solemnly
told, are the measure of a man
And il we can form no proper con-
ception of cubical city, we do know
very well what a cubical man is
"The length and breadth and the
height thereof are equal" Man be-
gins his building on the ground, and
his design squares itself with the
range Of his earthly environment
All earthly resources unlock them
selves at his touch; all earthly mys-
teries yield to him their secret; all
earthly powers submit themselves
meekly to his yoke; his original and
unrepealable charter gives him pre-
eminent domain, Thou madest him
to have dominion over the works Of
thy hands; thou hast put all things
under his feet" Such is the range
of man considered merely as crea-
ture OF time, an inhabitant OF the
earth. But man has also third
dimension; 'the height of it is as
great al the breadth" III man was
not made for narrow sphere, neith-
er was he for a lowly. He builds by
the square and by the level, but also
by the plumb; and poor, indeed, and
mean is that life that lifts for itself
no perpendiculars. Man i'm his pro
gressive development is not a crea-
ture traversing a prairie; God made
him upright and set him mounting q
slope Each step lifts him to wider
view; life opens to him continually
with a dome more and more vast, IN
Til his horizon spans the infinite and
the eternal, and proclaims him lord
of the world and heir of all the ages.
I cannot dwell on this theme, for
i language and thought are both too
poor; but you cannot help seeing
one or two plain inferences which
shall content myself with merely
mentioning.
NJ a. every mathematical line sug-
gest infinite prolongation, and every
mathematical operation involves all
quantities, 10 the contemplation OF
man from whatever point OF view,
leads out into the infinite. Theology
leads us there, but sodoes all science
and all serious meditation. The
shepherd boy on the hills learns it
from the open sky: Thou hast made
him little lower than the angels"
The busiest life has its seasons of
solitude, and solitude, is vocal with
whispers OF the infinite: "Whith-
er shall go from thy Spirit?