The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-12-31

purity. When our all is given into the
keeping of Christ. then His
ability is pledged to the highest en-
ployment of that trust. Paul wrote
the great truth in the familiar words
of his letter to his Roman friends, Il
beseech you, therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God. to present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, accepta~
bic to God. which is your spiritual
service"
Conservation may be as definite a
means Of culture as any of the con
ventional processes Of education.
The orbit of life is too small when
one tries to live for and within ones
self. The human soul is made to
swing through vaster spaces than this.
Unless it exists primarily for some OBJ
~jective outside of itself. a life is GER
tain to be stunted and distorted. Char
acter comes to its fullest growth when
it has for its aim some great godlike
goal; when, in the lofty words Of the
apostle it car cry. For to me to live
is Christ" Thus we find it a law of
the higher nature hat conservation is
emancipation.
Real self-cOnsecration is soul-con-
SerVatiOn.
We have, within the past five years.
ceased to cry 'fool,' mad man."
dreamer" at the men who talk OF
soaring through the air. Professor
Langley, whom history will write down
as a pioneer Of aviation, was derided
as a Darius Green and goaded to
his death by the contempt Of the
w~orldly-wise. Now all men know that
his wisdom was higher, truer, and
| more practical than the 'hard-head-
ed" critics at whose hands he suffered
SO much. In somewhat similar fash
ion, the men and women who talk Of
conservation and of pre-eminence Of
the life that is spiritual, and of the
vital import of communion with God.
are often regarded with Impotence
and disdain by |'practical' folk. Yet
it is certain that in due time all men
will know hat the dreamers Of
dreams for h spiritual life were wis
er in their day than the grubbers in
the dirt the persons who would believe
only what they could see and handle.
h greatest truth Of life is the truth
of the possibility Of the Individual
mortal having direct communion with
the divine
The ideal Christian is the Christian
with ideals. h there is no vision
the people perish"
Religion cannot be measured By or
binary rules. 1t is a thing Of para
dOxes, over and above all conventions.
Thus 1t teaches a man that the surest
way to have liberty is to give himself
in bondage to Christ. Eye are not
your own, for We were bought with a
price" He is to ascend by surrender:
he is to get only by giving; he is to at
tain personality by self-crucifxfon. "If
any man would come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me-" That is In truth a
"'higher law" which does not square
with any Of earth's mathematics. But
the testimony of the centuries vindi-
Gated the wisdom Of the Scriptures,
which bid the followers Of Christ to
Eimmolate their ~self-interest in His
great purposes. Conservation is para
doxically self-preservation.
There is a great deal of so-called
conservation today which is after the
pattern Of Ananias and Sapphira, who
> brought a part and offered it as the
whole-and therein sinned to thei,
own destruction.-J. Stuart Holden.
In one Of Olive Sc%hreiner's
Dreams the mother sought the high
: est blessing for her unborn babe. and
the boon that was granted her was
= that 1.-The ideal shall be real to him.
That little parable stands all tests. Fo1
even the most "practical' and earth
bound Of us know that the enviable
ones of earth are thew who walk
through this world with the light al
. another world in their eyes; to whom
: spiritual things are more real an6
precious than all the pleasures OF
earth. And these Missionaries. these
dreamers. these idealists. are. VIZ
: know. the very leaven Of our civiliza.
ton, which would purify and disinte.
CRATE without them. It is the pres.
: ence Of heaven on earth that make.
sure a heaven hereafter.