Year: 1860




TOLL AND PRoGREss,THE ORDER
OF MANS CREATION.


Extract from Sermon by Beccher-rOpcrted in the
n. Y. independently


babe is born. In and of itself it is
good for nothing. Ahl q babe in its mo-
theirs arms is Il prophecy; and is the thing
prophecied of it that the mother loves
Ifyou look att ms it is, you see little in 1t
to attract regard; but the mother looks for
ward, and what she expects makes it dear
to her. The child is the mothers telescope
and she sees through the whole of her
life by that.


But as the child begins to develop, and
comes to the prattling age, that age is rel
ativc to the next. And the child is not
completed even when it comes to youth
1t feels itself to be perfect, but it is only
relative yet 1t has gone Il certain way
toward itself, but it is not itself. Youth
never stands as if that were completion
of its being. The young man works for
the next thing; and that for the next
Earlier periods work for later periods
Manhood prepares for old age; and old age
prepares for something beyond. Human
life is drawn out in sections. Every step is
relative to that which is next beyond it;
and every later step is q necessary product
of that which Immediately precedcs it.


All labor is under the same general law.
It is instrumental and relative. The spade
is good for nothing in itself Its value is
| in the work it does. The value of plow
is in the iurrow it can turn. The value of
the moving machine is in the grass or
grain it can PROSTATE. The value of every
thing done in summer is not in the thing
itself, but in what it is going to do in har-
vest-time. The moving gmachine tells
what the spade and the plow are worth.


4Io 30 ha
end 1t is relative to mans appetite
1t is that on which he is to live. 1t is his
nourishment and strength. But what is
man nourished and strong good for? He
is relative to something that he is going
| to do as II CitiZen-ns laborer in the
great world-1ield. And that is relative TO
| something beyond; for mere labor is but
| means to higher moral or social end
| Why do We labor? That We may attain
| certain moral or social advantages. And
| even these are relative to the great pur-
! poses OF human life.


Everything bends to wealth. Every
! thing feels the power of wealth. Every
! thing turns toward it as the needle turns
| toward the attracting loadstonC. But
! when you have got wealth, have you got
an end, OF only II means? Wealth is good
for nothing except for what it can do, eS
cept for " bat use you can make OF it. II
man is worth five hundred million dollars.
and it is locked up, not used, is is worth
! to him just what FIVE hundred million
| bushels of wheat are to q man that eats
not kernel and 6ows not grain. 1t Is
ms good as dirt and no better or worse
! Wealth, as u power, is tremendous pow
er. AS q means, is tremendous means.
AS au end, it is good for nothing.


| Every part OF higher occupation bears the
! NothiDrr Is for itself p0Od,-
Everything looks forward. and is measur-
| ed bv what it can do in revealing . future
thing. Do you ever think how curiously
God has stamped himself in this world
The everlasting, the forever-active, the
time working God-when he makes things,
he never makes them outright, but maAes
them so that they go on pcrtectinG them
selves He, as it were, lends his genius
to everything that grows. He does not
cause a plant to come forth perfect in an
instant. When seed is put in the ground
ne touches it with magnetism, SO that it
becomes little creator, and shoots out
| stem, and carries it through all the subse-
quent stages of its growth.


In all organizations up to man, and most
cminently in man, and especially in men
of genius, we find this same divine trait
namely, the power of making, the power
of creating. We derive it from God. 1t
is that subtle analogy or line of connec-
ton which takes us back to our Divine
parentagc.


! Reading and writing are relative. The
| want of these things is disgracetul; but In
and of themselves they are good for moth
ing If they were good for anything in
and of themselves, n man that could read
and write strange language would be as
we'll offas a man that could read and write
in his own tongue. If reading were good
for ANYTHING in and of itself, | might as
well read for you in Hebrew-and as to
that matter, might for great many of
you'll But the more intelligent ofyou de-
sire to comprehend the meaning of what
read, and therefore it makes great differ
ence whether read to them in strange
or n familiar language. The ability to
read and write is merely something put
into your hands by which you can do
something. 1t is good not for what it is in
and of itself, but for that which it is look
ing forward to in the future.


Skill is good for nothing except in its
relation to, and its power to take hold on,
the future. No man, merely because he
has art-power, is, therefore, to be congrat-
ulated us nn artist til the power of the
artist to create, and he is to be measured
| by what he does. And there is distinc-
ton to be made between artisans and
artists Where IL man does II thing that
has been done before, where man does
thing that calls into exercise no new pow
er. Le is au artisan. Where a man builds
n house essentially like houses that he has
seen built before, he is an artisan; where
n man paints picture without embodylng
in it any new thought, he is an artisan
But where a man is an artist he has in