The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-11-26
Infinity
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE

WYE CANNOT comprehend infinity, we
w can only label it. The mathermat1-
clans indicate it by the figure turned
over on its side.
You can stand on the shore of the ocean
and see a limited circle of the waters you
know those waters stretch out league upon
league in the distance, they lave shores thou
sands of miles away, they are filled with seq
monsters, they bear myriad sails; these things
are present in your imagination, but they are
too great for you to grasp, and SO you laDel
them with the word Sea"
About every human being there is something
mysterious, deep, high full of mystery; you
do not understand it, and you call it Soul.
In the human being isaa curious spiritual
machinery in which words, visions, and i'm
pressions are stored, in which thoughts are
woven, in which plans are made, in which the
strange processes of logic are carried on; you
do not understand this, and you label 1t
Mind
Back of you is the record of the human race,
the millions who have strfved, hoped, anu
died, kingdoms that have risen and fallen IL
is all too great for you to comprehend and SO
you label it History
The infinite imposes itself upon us even in
small things. If you undertake to get the
square root of 2 you find it runs into decl-
NAL that never stops you could continue that
decimal forever and ever and the numbers
would go on without cease. =
When we speak the word Time" we are
conceving a small slice of infinity, for time
has no beginning, no end. When we think the
word space" we entertain another thought
which has has no bounds XII ...
A part of the ancient city of Babylon has
been uncovered, we gaze upon its CHASTITY
ruins. Once Babylon was as busy as London.
All it's life of activity has receded to di-
minishing point in the past, 1t has been
swallowed up in infinity as London will be
swallowed up. Ns-t
Infinity is depressing, paralyzing, cOnfus-
ing; it is madness. We must turn from it
and shut it out of our thought else we cannot
think. For purposes of action we must as
sumo, it does not exist, though it does exist.
We close our eyes to it, still it is there
Infinity is a spiritual presence. 1t operates
upon all mind. 1t is the pressure of the
infinite that drives the sensualist to say, Eat,
drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die"
Its influence upon another type of mind drives
the man to religion.
Institutions are shelters against the infinite
Such are the home, the church, and all hous-
ings of mems bodies and souls In them we
huddle together for fear of this unknown
thing.
Out of the infinite comes all things-the
souls and bodies of men, the plants and ami
mails, the galaxies of stars. Into it again pour
all things, for at least infinity swallows all.
Visible things are but a shudder of the in
finite, a passing dream of eternity.
We see the infinite everywhere. We see it
when the clock strikes, marking the passage
of its stream. We touch it when we pray to
God We feel it when we witness death. 1t
brushes by us in the symphonies of Beethoven,
in the marbles of Michelangelo.
We are here but few days. We cling
to love, which sens to be the one infinite fac
tor in human life. Clasping the hand of love
at last we go
Into the ghostliness,
The infinite and Astounding solitudes,
Beyond-O, beyond beyond .