Norwich bulletin., 1920-06-28
THOUGHT IS FOUNTAIN OF


 To hold ourselves to high thinking from which in time will he seen in our faces and our lives the lineaments of God was the advice given hy Rev. Dr. s. H. Howe in his sermon Sunday morning at Park Congregational church when he spoke from the text Think on These Things. Thought power is our highest endowment and thought is the head spring and fountain of all worthy ac- tion.
 In part Dr. Howe said:
 At this commencement season we are asking what is the object and end of our educational training In what does education consist? The amassing of knowledge, the acquisition of practical knowledge of history and science and philosophy. and it is all that but these are not the goal or the fnalty Educa- ton is the training of the mind to think; to investigate and interpret and plough our own furrows through the unknown. Thought rower is our highest endowment and thought is the headsrring and foun- 1 tain of all worthy action. Thinking is l the supreme the derminitive act of the man. the fontal source of character. Be- cause of this our Christianity legislates l for our thinking, not for our action alone | but for our thought. Glasses these airy nOtnlnSS through the idDETlnInS ana Se- cret passages and pronounces judgment With a bunch of keys it enters secret doors and insists that every thought and i imagination shall be brought into sub | jection to a higher will. Thought cannot run over the universe at it's own sweet will without being held up to give ac- count of itseIs
 The real battles of life are fought in i the soul itself There are great conflicts are joined Those terrible bellgerents | Victor Hugo calls them which trample our souls down in the mad conflict or clear a passage for great action. We decide all questions in this hidden arena 1 of thought We stand amazed at the wonder working spells of thought that as i Huxley tells us spin gossamers or forge ] anchors" can coast the universe or pene- i trate atoms. We say it matters noth- 1 ing what we think of what ideals or the ories we hold, but theories and thoughts i and schemes determine the actions of ! men and of nations. Men adopted theo- ries in the 18th century and French rev. | olutions were launched. Germany fab ricated a thought theory and plunged the whole world into war. Our patriots | thought out governmental theory and program and fought the hard battle to finish. The thought of Columbus dis covered America before he launched his | llttle caTaNeiS OH lIl6 AlidnllC. -Edul
 dreamed out the conquest of new con-
 tinent before he heard the call of the i Man of Macedonia. The Mozarts and Handels and MendeIssohns thought
 through the mazes of their great orator.
 jos before they dashed them on music
 sheets. The artists caress their ideals
 of beauty before they lift brush Or chiseI
 The very universe is born and built out 7 of the thought of God. Both Creation
 and Redemption came up out of the old
 eternity when the plans for each were
 laid.
 And Oh! the mystery of this secret
 movement of the mind! This capacity , to move with soundless footballs through space and time backward and forward to thread it's way through painless i spaces to work it's way through dis [ widely different lines of thought without
 confusion to pursue ones way through widely differing subjects and keep each g
 beaten and distinct and familiar highway l is nothing short of proof of immortal | ity. Cicero said truly the thing that
 thinks and wills and understands is eter. l nal"
 I Then there is the power of thought tc , de-provincialze the thinker sand get hir out into the open of the universe. Herr
 we are absolute monarchs. We have the | freedom of an empire that dwarfs thu
 old Roman Empire or the Russian Whe~
 man thinks, he is no longer confined tc 5 parish or a state or nation or 1i world. The geologist must stay upon th, . earth and the botanist keeps to the hedg, , rows and gardens of a near environ e ment. But the astronomer will take hi a leap off the planet and range and r;an
 among the gallaxes and the philosophe,
 enters all the realms of the spirit befor'
 he furls his wing and comes to perch = But the thoughts of the religious ma.
 can climb sleeper heights which lead |, }, the very throne of God. Plato tells u el of the myth which represents certain ,. human souls following the chariot O
 xeus. but that is a commonplace, w,