East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-09-18


the immediate but the eternal, not the
symbol but the things symolized, not
bulk but value. An ideal insists that
the moral and spiritual forces of the
world shall be recognized; that sun
sets are as useful as smokestacks; that
music and painting and sculpture are
quite as important as the roar and
grinding of cogwheels; that the build
ing up of human character is worth
as much as the building up of COM
mercial trade; that the refinement of
a noble manhood is as precious as
the refinement of Standard oil; that
"the harmonious expansion of all the
powers that make the beauty and
worth of human nature" will return
no less material value to the assets
of mankind than the forging of steel
rails or the launching of gun-boats
Moreover, that particular quality of
mans ideal, which differenciates him
from the rest of the world, is religion.
He not only aspires but aslires toward
the perfection of his highest nature,
the divinity that stirs within him"
Here he becomes exclusive and stands
completely alone. Bees have their
warehouses, prairie dogs have their
towns, wolves hold their social sere-
nades around the western settlers
home at sundown,-but nowhere in
the kingdom of the brutes do we find
priesthood or a temple of worship.
In every age and cline man has been
distinguished by the exclusive mono-
poly of the religious instinct. 1t is
part of his native constitution. 1t
is not a foreign addition to his ma
ture externally acquiredby exzigency
of environment. 1t Is the original, in
nate, and vital essence of his very be-
ing, touching and sanctifying all the
phenomina of his entire experience.
AS the day spills out of the sky at
high-noon as the flowers come forth
at spring time when called by the
voice of rain-drops and coaxed by
the breath of sunshine,-so religion
springs. from the life of man as the
natural, the normal, and the inexit-
able consequence of his inherent ma
ture. But, alas, coevil with his re-
ligious instinct arises the concomi-
NdbN utIlOHIdCdl INSTINCT as certain as
1t is mysterious, as real as it is in
explicable. His spiritual nature seems
organically antagonistic. "a house di~
vided against itself" when | would
do good evil is present with me
/ find law in my members at war
with the law of my mind, bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin and
death o, wreched man that | am,
who shall deliver me from the body of
this death Certain advanced stu
dents in the Berlin University once
grated the pupa of a spider upon the.
pupa Of a butterfly. So delicate was
their operation that the actually pro-
duced a cross offspring, a freak of
nature. half butterfly and half spider.
--a norstrJsity indecd-tWo opposite
natures bound together in one antag-
nistic organism! Here was the love
OF sunshine and the love Of darkness,
hunger for the roses and a thirst
for blood But this Is only a pale
parable of the pathetic duality Of
man. Two contending forces strive
within the soul like opposing armies
in deadly conflict. Plato delineates
the soul of man as a team Of steeds,
one white and one black. To me It
appears as the arena in which wages
, tho struggle of life and death, the
endless struggle between the man and