The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911, 1911-05-31

He carried his case to the people. and
| he has won, for the machinery Of ouI
| great system Of government is cleaner
| now than it has been at any time since
| the civil war. The social conscience Is
a mighty dynamo, and 1t Is belted to
the politics of this land.
| These illustrations mean but this
| and 1 want you to see it-that the man
is greater than the tool, even though
| man plus tool equals the task. Even SO
while the wheel is the symbol OF pro-
| gress, yet il is only the symbol. for
where the living creature went the
wheels went: for the spirit of the liv-
| ing creatures was in the wheels" The
| bible says when there is no vision,
the people perish" but I think I see
Ezekiel coming down from the mount
Of seeing. to the valley OF doing: his
dazzled eyes turning from the rushing
wings wierd faces and turning wheels,
all framed in the glory OF heaven. to
the pale light of the common duties Of
the day, and here among his people he
found wheels, poor ill-made things be-
side those glorious cycles which ran
along the track-way Of the heavens.
but wheels Of organization. drOning
along upon a remnant Of their former
power: and as the prophet sees the lack
Of life in the hopeless people, the feeble
effort of despair which has succeeded
the glorious stride of hope. he sees a
far more dangerous paralysis Of his
peoples spirit creeping upon them
than the enforced inactivity Of their
hsx 70,
culiarly significant to this nation and
time. for though the Israelites of that
period had lost their spirit through ma
tional humiliation. We have well-nigh
lost ours through national agrandise-
|ment. While there was danger OF their
inspiration starving out. there Is dan
ger of ours being crowded out by our
idOlatry of means. We have rubber
tired and vanished our wheels Of or
ganization, while the momentum of
that mighty force which blazed and
swept all before 1t i'm &c and 81 has
about run out.
Perfect machinery may look power
full but it only becomes SO when linked
to the dynamo. All form Is inert until
force thrills it. The body may be
splendidly developed. but the heart
must palpitate with life. We may
have. for instance. all the apparatus OF
democrat and praise all its precepts.
yet lapse into tyrannized delusion be-
cause We are not men enough to put
the spirit and potency Of liberty and
devotion into the wheels thereof. We
may have every religious appliance. be
exceedingly orthodox. and yet fail to
show in our daily lives any real connec-
ton with the will Of God. You may
go forth from this institution Of learn
ing. armed with the precious and
splendid training which this faculty
has given you. but You will not find II
at all effective except you put the verve
and courage Of your own life into 1t.
So 1 say to you who stand at the
commencement Of this rugged but
splendid road We call life. though your
education may be all that it can be at
the conclusion of a high school course.
you can make it effective only as you
realize that result depends absolutely
upon the amount Of power brought to
bear. A people is more than its fnsti-
tutions. a home Is more than a house.
a high school more than its class
rooms: SO life is more than its tools.
You have seen those little models Of
locomotives under glass cases which
Gf not out Of order) will turn their
wheels when you drop coin into their
slot And there are persons. who. in
like fashion, will respond to dramatic
thought drOpt into them. Until the
five cents worth is expended they will
whirl and turn. but they stand still.
They have emotion but not motion. l
tell you it is progress that diferen-
tiates a hobby from a horse. Diplomas
have gotten a good many jobs for their
holders through the past. but dip
Iona never held a job when the man in
charge found that no personality, no
DYNAMO had come with the machinery.
A man may rent a good pew and hold
il against all Corners. go through all
the ecclesiastical drill. and deem him.
self one of the stand-byS Of the church
when he is only a sit-by. A fifty-man
power Cor women pOwer) great as II
may be. will never lift a church OF four
times that many members to the high
est efficiency. 1t is recorded In molly
writ that when they were with one
accord that Pentecost came. You
can shave the most pretentious OF
church buildings. the most eloquent
sermonizers, and the most critical OF
with a good choir
added for large measure. but II the
souls that claim him are not geared
and belted to the actual life Of God.
they are sounding brass and tinkiing
cymbals" The cry Of the world Is Tor
the man who can produce.
That mighty One who holds the
worlds in leash is the Spirit who Is
willing to dwell in us and save us
from the idOlatry of means. Paying
for the proxies is not furnishing the
power. God doesn't want us to move
things that way. He who has appoint
ed our capacity is ready to impart His
strength 1t is this fire in the bones
that illumines the pages OF history
with glorious deeds. Paul, for whose
activity two continents were not too
many, nor for whose program a world
too large, blazed with life. His mass