The Detroit times., 1911-01-03

SHOWS 4 viii change it's form 10 adj
vantage It's ministry That ihshins :
lightning Aye it's the product or
laws OF the clouds condensation.--most
bencficent. A better knowledge OF phy-
sizes lis us that the nash gives 10
rains their enrichment or nitrogen, anu
rains carry this enrichment. IA turn
TO the soil. and the soil 70 the seed.
and the seed Co man. The wave With
out the wave the vastly deep Would
stagnatc and breed universal ,pestl-
lenCe. The stern-cyed scientist or to-
day is better poet. withal, than the
rhymer OF yesterday.
Rhymer Makes Poor Reason.
But does man pass from life? Who
ever said or proved il? What's the
reason 10 believe il? And what shall
we do with the forty million reasons
for thinking otherwise? And who is
the authority for the statement that
man goes TO the grave. or that wher-
ever he goes is 10 stagnate. or do
anything else but have at back and
call prodigious energies and the In
satiable passion 10 use them?
An. the rhymer makes good at
rhyme: he makes poor reason. II liz
In the same vein that he passes on in
his verses TO remark that oaks fade.
and there's an end of the oak. young
and Ola. low and high, moulder to dust
do. but what of il? Beauty fades on
cheek" to the rhymer. and the mem
DRY OF il is gone. kings and their
sceptres rust to atoms. and so on:
Nothing Is exempt from the ravages OF
that invisible chiselllng before which
all forms melt from sight.
Wen, what OF IT? Tennyson was a
poet. and wrote "In Memoriam." an
Interpretation of Life. Knox was "A
rhymer and wrote his verses Tenny-
son deals with the enduring substance
OF life. Knox writes verses about it's
fading forms. Form is nothing save
is everything under every circum-
stance. SO much for the pessimist.
Now let us walk through Westmin-
stet Abbey with Joseph Addison. Let
us keep great silence, and let him
talk; our little words Will M up "A
little time, his great words have
capacity for eternity. We've listened
To the modulations Of MS phrases.
melloWed to the sacred surroundings.
and we have felt how just were his
observations Of the follies oft perpe-
trated in graveyards, and now he
pauses, aud with a sweep OF arm, says
Il know that entertainment OF this
nature is apt To raise dark and dismal
thoughts in tmorous minds and
gloomy negotiations. but for my own
part. though l am always serious. I do
not know what ii is To be melancholy
and can, therefore, take Il view of
nature, IN her deep and solemn scenes
with the same pleasure as in her most
gay and delightful ones. BY this means
! can improve myself with these OBJ
Iects. which others consider with
terror.
lie pauses. motions us TO follow
where the vantage is best to behold
the tombs OF the ancient and famous,
and then resumes:
when | look upon the tombs OF the
great, every emotion of envy dies in
me, when | read the epitaphs OF the
beautiful, every inordnate desire goes
out. when | meet with the grief of
parent upon a tombstone. my heart
the tomb of .he parents themselves, |
consider the vanity OF gricvinG for
those whom We must quickly follow
when | see kings lying beside those
who deposed them. wnen | consider
rival wits placed side by side, or the
holy men that divided the world with
Il cir contests and disputes, reflect
with sorrow and astonishment on the
little competitions, factions. and de-
bates of mankind. When / read the
several dates of the tombs. of some
that died yesterday. and some six hun
dred years ago. | consider that great
day when we shall all of us be contem-
poraries, and makes our appearance to-
scther.
Faith brings Out the Light.
All, this is wholesome; there Is
man and his placid philosophy, we note
that his is mostly the health OF a nor-
mai sensation, not the health of action,
eager hope, achievement. Addison's
Is a llODu arlnOnfeu against certain
weapons of melancholy: il is not char
acter equipped with great moral tools
for work Unreasonable as is his adj
vance over the pessimism of William
Knox, yet he offers no rounded pro-
gram 70 challenge our bouyant ener-
gics.
There remains larger word
freighted with a larger idea. II Is
faith Every great estimate of life
Thich literature in Christendom has
given MS has taken color from the
great classic. the seasoned product or
Moses. the man OF God. immortaiized IN
simist Will find his NIL; Swallowed
enter the picture. Faith knows
the uses of shadows to bring out the
lights. But the emphasis In this great
sacred classic is laid. not upon the NOR
tally OF the man, but upon the tenn
poral Immortality OF man. The human
race persists, on and ON. midst the
hazards to human existence. The end
OF the pilgrimage of these three score
and ten years Is that the pilgrim may
climb TO the towering top OF things. !
from whence the vast horizons lie In
vitingly out toward the eternities.
In that far-off age, Moses guessed
the deep philosophers Of these modern
ESSAYS a theory OF education. %
we may REJOICE and be glad all our
days" That is thrusting OF our
upon Gods personality; II
does not say, satisfy us early with
l ny lntItltS, nut Win my Hltl'S'
Mercy" is an attribute OF person
mcrCies are merely, or may be. just |
the acts and remote effects of per
SON We may be satisfied with the !
''mercies" and quarrel with the person |
who bestowed them.
Make us gla daCcording to the days |
wherein thou hast afflicted Us. and the |
days wherein W" have seen evil In
other words. then, Moses guessed at
the highest uses TO which the human |
mind ever Is put, namely. to appraise |
experience and its Accommodations IL |
the character which experience mas
shaped.
And let the beauty OF the Lord our |
God be upon as. The supremacy |
beautiful is the morally beautiful IL !
Is the highest form to which the spirit |
may be fashioned; and, inasmuch as /
spirit, OF all things. alone is eternal !
it's type OF beauty alone shall endure.
Religion Is Moral sanity.
And establish thou the work of our I,
hands upon Us" only an ancient man !
ner OF aspiring after character as the |
Anal form Of the beautiful. the last re- I
positorv OF virtue and the energies ,
spent in It's strugglcs.-tne rcsiduum .
OF life Here was a moral cOuscrNa-
florist In a world of moral waste
Religion. then. is moral sanity tn" !
OF the human Thought into !
Gods thought. and God adjusts the I
80 that the simplest trust, the /
-rudest aspiring. the weakest VIII may /
link into His thought.
To him who has scnsed the impulse |
which moves within. wncu the pro- 1
rcsses of that adjustment emerge up /
INTO conscious eNpei icHcc.--to him /
comes tho answer To- the question, ]
What is your life; and the more IN
articulate the answer the more is the !