Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-09-09
STILL ROOM FOR FAITH
Belief in Others important Feature Of
Our Daily Lives,

Our Daily Lives.
In a rational world there still is need
of intuftions, surmises, probabilities
beyond what can be weighed in the
hand or seen with the eyes or accu-
rately perpended by mans understand
ing. The soul, like the body, must have
space in which to breathe and grow
Neither can we be served with facts In
every waking moment Are we, then,
to go through the world on the basis
of guess work? Is there nothing GER
tain to which to cling, and shall desire
remain a glimmering mirage on the ho-
rizon where
CLEANS that untraveled world whose
margin fades
Forever and forever when I move"
Faith is required Of us, not only to-
ward the skies, but in the horizontal
directIon-toward those who live round
us and with us on terms of mutual de-
pendence. It Is the tragedy Of our hu-
man life to lose faith in human ma
ture"-to find our trust misplaced, and
to find that building better than we
knew the foundation Of our confidence
was undermined. The poet pleads with
the world to be still better than 1t is,
lest 1t shall break the heart of one he
cares for, by destroying her ideals,
when she finds how far short Of her
dreams comes the reality. There's no
art to find the minds construction In
the face" reflects one Of Shakespeare
disappointed characters, when he finds
he was deceived in his reading Of an
other man. In a more modern instance,
his business associates have trusted
their fellow-and he plays them false.
They could spare the money he has
taken from them better than they can
spare their image Of him, their trust in
his probity and fidelity. One has play
ed the good Samaritan and taken hu-
man being who was down and out"
from the gutter and his rags, to make
man" of him. The rescued one for
gets his former plight, thinks only Of
his chance to deceive, and callously be-
trays his benefactor. He who had been
| disposed to charitable works is-per-
| haps-mbittered from that time for
ward. He was deceived-he is not NOV
ed again to start the fountain flow Of
generosity. Examine into any case of
misanthropy, and the investigation is
likely to reveal the shortcomings of the
promise of fellow mortal. The pledge
was broken as lightly as the web
| thrown by a spider across the garden
| path of a morning. 1t seemed to be
meant when 1t was made, but 1t was
| Gas it appears in this bitter hour), only
uttered to be forgotten, and for the
| sake of dismissing another's importu-
nifty.
| Blessed indeed are they who have
been deceived by others and still have
believed in the goodness and depend
ableness Of the very great majority.
1t argues pinched, mean outlook upon
life to condemn the many for the mall
feasance of the insignificant minority.
| Overbelief is better than underbelief,
and because the hopes Of few opti-
mists collapse shall we dismiss their
cheerful tribe in favor Of those who
have no Illusions, make facts" their
creed, and smile with the supercillious-
ness Of intellectual alertness at what
they consider an outworn equipment of
religious philosophy in the pupil? They
would not darken the doors Of a church
to hear II q clergyman's ministry Is
abreast Of the times-and Of human
needs-or not; but at long range they
would not hesitate to assail the church
for its alleged failure, and the decad-
ence of the ministry. Hand in hand
with the perishing of faith in matters
that have to do with the realm Of the
unseen goes the diminishing Of trust In
mankind; till one who is at sea rudder-
less and compassless has no star left in
his sky, nothing but black chaos about
him, and his existence counts for little
since he has no help to give from his
|