Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1912-08-15
'AND.''

the simple portico. Through corridor,
| parlor, dining hall, library, bedroom
| simple each In their Punishment.
was oppressed with the indefnable
feeling the apartments Of great man
always inspire Had a marble statue
of the Father Of His Country stalked
by me, majestic, calm. inimitabie,
herolike / would not have been sur
prised. The Bible is the home OF the
| spirit of God. Genesis is the porch,
! Exodus the hall, Leviticus the kitchen,
Ruth the music room. The Psalms are
the gardens, the gospels the portrait
| gallery. Would reyerenuy lift the
pen Of the first president and pass by
the author of Exodus without a
thought? II am human" cried the Ro-
man, and nothing that is human Is
trivial to me- II am divine" we
ought to cry, land nothing that is d.
vine is trivial to me-" Look then
with me at the first word of the first
verse of the first chapter of the second
treatise Of the book of books.
"And."
"And-these sre names of the chill
dren," etc. "4And" we have passed
from porch into hall. "And" is the
door. 1t is the coupling SO small In
the train. 1t derives Importance from
its setting. The translators have rob-
bed it of much Of its strength by call
ing it now" but your Hebrew tells
you 1t Is the plain conjunction and"
The Almighty uses 1t to begin story
rich in incident and pregnant In mean
ing And" is the connecting link. It
connects Jacobs death with Moses
birth. 4 long period intervenes God
passes 1t by in silence The most of
history is unrecorded. Between Joseph
and Moses were many men. They SOW
ed and reaped from birth till death.
To them the smallest event was mo-
mentous. Their touring car was q
camel. their clubhouse tent Cain
built city and was first mayor. But
men tired or cities after awhile, as they
will again Tragedy, drama. comedy
were enacted: smiles. tears. applause
touched millions of lives The word
"and" covers it all 1t does more. 1t
makes all history one. There are no
breaks In Gods chain. We almanac
days. weeks and months God sees
only continuous time.
"When Men Make Gods"
This '.and" shows that naturalnesS
is part of God. Nature is the art Of
God Art. artful and artless are ber-
ries never far apart The first charm
in writing speech. dress or life Is due
to unaffected grace The lilac bush
and the village lassie with her face
frll Of roses are creatures Of God.
Mural decorations and the cosmetic
counter are poor substitutes Dispas-
sionate observers say the church sins
in like manner. When | was Il boy
! owned Noah's ark The structure
and its passengers hive all passed
away. but their memory remains.
There was Noah himself. carved from
pine and without curve from head to
foot. There were Shem. Ham and ia
pheth. Noah's sons; the first was
painted yellow, the second black, the
third white. The wives of the four
had moveless eyes and hands and
mouths wondrous females The trees
were made In planning mill. The
raven Poe would never have used for
his poem. The animals looked as II
steam roller methods were used to
get them to take their part. No boy
who owned such collection would
ever run away with circus. Ii you
have ever seen live copies of Noah'B
family you will understand my illus.
tration
"Tempora Mutantur." HN
| think the most important lesson of
my little text Of three letters Is the
ease with which one man Is succeeded
by another "A new king arose that
knew not Joseph" 'fempora mutan-
tur" Shadows we are. and shadows
we pursue. said Burke History for
gets You and will soon be obsolete.
We are tools. and tools soon lose their
edge We value our progenltors as
lightly as the next generation will
value us. Fifty years ago very promi-
nent men toiled and fought and voted
who are now unknown. How many Of
US VIII De kIiUWu llltv sttES ueuc0I
1.-THE paths of glory lead but to tho
grave" The general dies, but an I'M
derstrapper replaces him. The cashier
has stroke, and two younger ones
grasp his falling pen. The church
thinks there can never be a minister
like the present one At the next CON
ference they find one better. his exact
opposite The warmest supporters Of
the first WIFI be the fondest admirers
Of the second. The DIST wife or huH
band does not always wear an impeF
ishable crown. All this tends to sad
ness ard JOY. Sadness that the grass
will soon grow higher than our names
and that we will so soon fade from
mems memory. 10y that our founda-
ton may support better building than
we could have erected We are for
church and society. not they for us.
After every Thought has been tailed q
man ~ measured by how easily the
world can get On without him "A
church that falls 10 pieces at minis