The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-08-07


My Dear Boy:
There is story in certain Old
Book (you can read it in Luke II:
1920 about a man who was pro-
gressive farmer.
know he was a progressive farm
er because the account says that MS
ground brought forth plentifully'
and that his barns were filled to
happen by accidentcmfWypth -;
overfowing. Such things do not hap
pen by accident. If this mans farm
brought forth plentifully, it was be-
cause he was a good farmer-intel-
hgent. enterprising and industrious.
He no doubt set the whole neighbor-
hood a good example in the way he
broke his land and cultivated his
fields. He was no doubt keen to learn
all the best methods of making crops
and managing livestock. He no doubt
practiced a proper rotation of crops,
kept his fields from outlying, and
generally gave strict attention to
business. If he were alive today, he
would doubtless be one of the best
informed men about the work Of ex-
pertinent stations, and agricultural
departments; recognized authority
on farming subjects in his county.
Everybody would speak of him as
zone of our best farmers.
Nevertheless, we have the highest
authority in this universe for saying
that this mans life was not a success.
On the contrary he was failure-a
miserable, pitahle, ridiculous failure.
Just at the time when all his work
and study and planning should have
been coming into their richest fruit
age, God Himself wrote his epitaph in
just two terrible, whitening words:
t'Thou fool" said the Almighty as he
{ summoned the soul of the man from
his perishing body.
Why was this man a failure: A
success in many notable respects, he
yet failed for just one reason. He
forgot that he was an eternal being.
He had thought of himself as a mere
earth-animal and had taken no
thought of anything beyond this
earth.
I am writing this letter, my boy,
in the hope that may say something
which will help keep you from max
ing the same fatal mistake this farm
er made.
This is great big subject and it
is not easy to say what I wish in
simple words, but believe it can be
done. Will you permit me then to
make just three statements, and then
follow me while I try to make my
meaning clearer?
Every one of us in this world has
a dual or double citizenship. That is
to say l am an inhabitant of the earth
but I am also an inhabitant of the
Universe, of which the earth is only a
traction. I am citizen of time, but
am also Citizen of Eternity, of
which time is only a fraction.
Look out tonight when the stars
come out and think a minute. You
nave been thinking that everything
has beginning and an end, but it is
not so. Everything connected with
our bodies has beginning and an
end, but there is another world which
knows of no such limitations, and II is
with this other world that the soul
OF man has kinship.
This rolling world on which we
live circles around a glorious sun.
and dozen other worlds wheel with
us around that colossal globe of fire
+. But in the sky tonight we shall see
the twinkling light of ten thousand
distant suns, each attended by no one
knows how many worlds like ours.
And if you go millions, billions, tril-
lions of miles to the most distant of
these visible suns, what les beyond?
Do yet other worlds and suns shine
with yet diviner splendor for other
billions and billions of miles, on
and Onto the end?
But here the brain reels and stag
gers. We suddenly realize that there
can be no 'send." For if there is an
end. what lies beyond this @*end?" So
what seems to the human mind an
impossible conclusion is yet an in
escapable conclusion. We are citi-
zens Of universe which knows no
beginning and no end.
And so, with regard to time. "In
the hopinniDo HodD That :, ~ 49,