The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-07-17
a VOICE FROM THE BEYOND

William T. Stead, the English edl-
tor who went down with the Titantic,
was perhaps the greatest militant
Journalist of modern times. He had
a passionate desire to benefit his fell
low being, and to this end he did
not hesitate to hazard his fortune
and his future. Mr.. Stead gave as
the basis of his editorial creed the
words of Christ: Thy Kingdom
come, Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven" Among his papers
there were found Lowell's little
known poem Extreme Unction," and
these lines by Mr.. Stead:
This poem changed my life. This
was the Illuminating verse:
God bends from out the deep, and
says,
I gave thee the great gift of life:
Vast thou not called in many ways?
Are not my earth and heaven at
s~trife?"
"The idea that everything wrong
in the world was a divine call to use
your life in righting it sank deep into
my soul"
The Enid (Okla.) Events says that
it was Mr. Stead's passion to help
redeem the world" and he called
upon every agency for good to enlist.
He declared that men make Christ's
image into paupers and prostitutes"
and he was responsible for a law for
the protection of girls and young wo-
men. He was intensely religious, and
conducted elaborate Investigations in
to spiritual phenomena. He believed
it possible to erect a bridge" be-
death might not wholly separate souls
which had been congenial upon earth.
He lost a beloved son, and he actual
ly declared that he communicated
/! with him in the spirit world. He gave
the following as coming from his son;
it is mysterious, beautiful, and some
way grips with possibilities of under
standing:
my Dearest Father: My Birthday
message is ever the same. 'Tis bet
ter ON before. When | think of the
ideas, | had of the life I am now liv-
ing, when l was in the world in
which you are, I marvel at the hope
less inadequacy of my dreams. The
ran 1ffxy SS ~axrnI CO xarswy -1J1nh
greater than | imagined.
"You and l and all people that on
earth do well, are too apt to imagine
this life as only as extension of the
old life. Everything is to be as it is,
only nor so. But everything is not
as it was. 1t is a new life, the nature
of which you cannot understand, al
though it is possible to explain some
thing of it by analogy.
Imagine yourself a caterpillar on
a cabbage leaf. Things will be bet
ter for you, you say to the caterpil-
lar. But what does better mean to
the caterpillar? More cabbage, ever
more cabbage, and ever cabbages;
more sunshine, less rain and on hun
CRY birds to eat you up. All cater
pillary ideas limited by the sensa-
items and aspirations of a cabbage
world. After a time the caterpillar
become a butterfly. But how can the
butterfly explain to the caterpillar
the conditions of his new life, the
buoyancy of flight, the joy of love,
the sweetness of the honey flowers?
These essentials of the new exist
Ience are incapable of being explained
to the caterpillar mind, for the vo-
cabulary of the cabbage would con-
tain no words capable of conveying
concepts entirely alien to the cater
pillars sense So it is with me. |
tell you it is better ON before, always
and far better than 1 dreamed of. But
when / come down to tell you where
in the bitterness consists l feel like
the butterfly sitting by the caterpillar
and e%ndeavoring to explain what
jsfght is, what light is, what fight is,
wherein lies the joy of love"