Norwich bulletin., 1917-04-28
THE MAN WHO TALKS

| human, and if we are little skillful at one point or superior at another, we have points of weakness just as much to be deplored. perhaps. as the laxity or depravity we see in others. IL ,,l IS for our own good to be aware how like other people we be most of the time; and that when we are noticeably un- | like them 1t Is as often to our dis credit as to our credit. It Is not nke- | ly that any of us are what we think we are. How uncomfortabie 1t Is likely to make some saints to md Tn heaven arrayed in angel wings people who they did not think were fit Tor
 them to associate with here. John Wesley used to declare the great sur prises the future held for him would be to find himself in Heaven ana to find folks there he thought ought to be in hell. He. you see. feared he wasn't as good as he thought he was. ana that other people might be a great deal better.
 When hear Christians singing in apparent delight sweet fields beyond | the swelling flood stand drest in lv- | ing green" I am impressed by the power of g4ee and the weakness or faith. It is a beautiful song repre- senting an undysng hope. but the scene takes on more of substance and form than we are taught, and more than most Christians believe in. l like to believe this world corresponds a invisible may be as real by and by as some things which seem to mortal ieyes now real are unreal Most or us do not sense that we shake hands with spiritual beings and that the real power of the universe Is spiritual
 power. Every material form from the electron to the earth itself, and the sun above which governs worlds. IS
 an expression of invisible power-that the soul of all things is spirit. hence spirit is more than substance; and substance natural to spirit, which be-
 speaks a spiritual universe as we'll as
 a material universe, and as real. The
 human mind has not become the per
 feet master of substances. and 1t is
 never likely to become so.
 it will not be longe now before you
 will stroll in the fields and gather
 of spring in your soul. Do you long
 for the perception which made the
 poet see in these gay little flowers "ali
 the years to be and all the years gone
 oast!" They were thriving there with
 the white clouds in blue skies and
 singing birds fluttering above them
 centuries before Columbus discovered
 America, and centuries before Eric
 the Red, the famous sea-roving Scan dinavian with his men explored the coast of Maine. Aren't they the sym bol of every spring of the past and of every spring that is to come for all time. Do they not bespeak to your soul the constancy of nature and the all feel the thrill of nature-the near ness of the Oversoul-and be num- ber&d with the quick instead of beiZC classed with the dead, when we stand before such beautiful. enduring. living presences? Life calls to life from every living atom on the earth or in the water under the earth, and it ever attests to the love and good oE NH1 GNF-A1
 We have to recognize there is such thing as righteous indignation, and it cannot be denied that it has been the cause of more unrighteous con-
 duct than it can ever atone for. The Savior never approved of 1t for com mon use. He manifested 1t when the money bags of his day were openly desecrating the temple and when the hypocritical Pharisees put up a bold front Righteous indignation was never designed for use by common people concerning every day affairs. Righteous indignation as usually ex- hibited seems to me to be a diabolied defence of disgra ceful irritability. have known ministers of the Gospel who thought they were righteousfy indignant when they were simply vic tims of ugliness: and 1aymen who a devilist, who always waved this ban ner. Temper does not beget prayer for it is the father Of violence. The righteously indignant are seldom worthy of respect
 like to think men are about as
 good as they know how to be. When you think of iife's conditions. the in fluences which play upon the masses,
 the selfish interests of which they are perils and the deep prejudices, dis ! trust and doubt being upon the verge | of want excite. # is wonder they are good as we find them; and there Is no evidence the so-calIed better classes would be as good under l these adverse circumstances and l trials. Somebody Is a great deal more 1 to blame for the wretchedness and l than we think: and somebody will have to answer for more of 1t than | they seem to re conscious of. A wor- ried man can never be g natural man men do no: fee. ashamed to steal be- cause So much responsibility is boi- stcred up by systems which in effect and principle are no better than theft. The upper world and the under world ] Ifi the great netropoiises simply rep resent cause and effect Men are what lack Of Knowledge and circurn- stances mako them They are not as good or as bad as they seem.
 | H we all did our duty as promptly
 as we expec. other people to do theirs
 there would not be the lack Of effie- ] iency now complained of. I some | tfnes wonder whether we know our
 duty at every point of life. Cicero thought There is not a moment with
 cut some duty which leaves us to ] infer tlzst pleasure Is a duty. unless he held to the view that every duty Is 1 6 pleasure. There is no doubt every dasS should be recognized as a pleas ure. and when what we conceive to
 De a~duty Is not. 1t may be well not 70 pureue it, since 1t may resolve it.
 reis into indefensibIe meddIesomenees
 There are lots of points in life when
 1 we do not know where we are going
 only know we are on the way.
 George Eliot tells us no man car
 choose his duties any more than s
 cEiid can select it's birthplace. It ts
 our duty to do the gcod things we
 knov-to demonstrate the practica1ity
 of goodness. not attempt to conpe
 another to do what he doesn't think tc
 be his duty.