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The Commoner
is
VOL. 16, NO. 11
llttlo sood gots Its tremendous power? Where
does It find its coloring mattor? How does it
collect its flavoring extract? How does it build
a watormolon? Until you can oxplaln a water
melon, do not bo too sure that you can sot
limits to the power of the Almighty and say just
what He can do or how Ho would do it. I can
not oxplaln tho watermelon, but I oat it and en
joy It.
(From Tho Prince of Peaco.)
and grow upon its own merits. Its tendency is
to destroy not to create. A society fashioned
according to its plans would be neither elevated
nor lasting; in proportion as materialism is em
bodied in life it robs life of both usefulness and
happiness, while Christianity grows and will
grow because tho more perfect its embodiment
in the lifo the more attractive and forceful it
becomes.
(From The Fruits of the Tree.) .
TUB RADISH
Did you ovor raise a radish? You put a small
black seed Into tho black soil and in a little
whllo you roturn to tho garden and And the full
grown radish. Tho top greon, the body whlto
and almost transparent and tho skin a delicate
red or pink. What mysterious powor roaches
out and gathers from tho ground tho particles
which give it form and size and flavor? Whoso
is tho Invisible brush that transfers to tho root,
growing In darkness, tho hues of tho summer
Biinsot? If wo wore to refuse to eat anything
until wo could understand tho mystery of its
croatlon wo would die of starvation but myia-,'
tcry, It seems, never bothors us in tho dining
room; It is only in tho church that it causes us
to hesitate.
(From a lecture on Tho Value of an Ideal.)
STUMBLING BLOCKS
The Immoral church member who borrows
his habits from the outside world, and the moral
man outside the church who borrows .his virtues
from tho church, are stumbling blocks only be
cause their inconsistencies are not clearly un
derstood by the unconverted. .
(From The Fruits of the Tree.)
, 1
MORALITY THE POWER OF ENDURANCE
Morality Is the power of. endurance in man;
and a religion which teaches personal responsi
bility to God gives strength to morality. -(From
The Prince Of Peace.) '
THE DARWINIAN THEORY
Go back as far as we may, we can not escape
from tho creativo act, and it Is just as easy fdr
mo to belioyo that God created man AS HE IS
as to believe that, millions of years ago, He cre
ated a germ of lifo and endowed it with power
to develop into all that wo see today. I object
to the Darwinian theory, until more conclusive
proof is produced, because I fear we shall lose
the consciousness of God's presence in our daily
life, if wo must accept tho theory that through
all the ages no spiritual force has touched tne
lifo of man or shapod tho destiny of nations.
But there is anothor objection. The Darwin
ian, theory represents man as reaching his pres-.
out perfection by tho operation of the law of
hato i tho merciless law by which the strong
crowd out and kill off tho weak. If this is the
law of our development then, if there is any
logic that can bind the human mind, we shall
turn backward toward tho beast in proportion
as wo substitute the law of love. I prefer to be
lieve that love rather than hatred is the law of
development. How can hatred be the law of
development when nations have advanced in
proportion as they have departed from that law
and adopted the law of love?
(From The Prince of Peace.)
TRACING MAN'S PEDIGREE
If a man links himself in generations with
tho monkey, it then becomes an important ques
tion whether he is going toward him or coming
from him and I have seen thm going in both '
directions. I do not know of any argument that
can be used to prove that man fs an improved
monkey that may not be used just as well to
prove that the moneky Is a degenerate man, and
tho latter theory is more plausible than the
former.
It Is true that man, in some physical charac
teristics resembles the beast, but man has a
mind as well as a body, and a soul as well as a
mind. The mind is greater than the body and
the soul is greater than the mind; and I object
to having man's pedigree traced on one-third
of him only and that the lowest third. -(From
Tho Prince of Peace.)
DRUMMOND VS. DARWIN, .
As the plant, to repeat what Drummond has
said, reaches down and draws inanimate mat
ter up into the realm of lifo, so. wo need some
divine power to reach down and draw us. up
into the realm of spirit. Man can respond to
a summons from above, but ho has no physical
or mental force within him which can, unaided'
carry him, to moral heights. '
(From The Fruits of the Tree.")
ONE WITH GOD
Man needs faith in God, therefore, to
strengthen him in his' liours of trial and he
needs it to give him courage to do? the work' of
life. How can one fight lor a1 principle unless
ho believes in the triumph of the right? , How
can he believe in the triumph of the right if he
does not believe that God stands back of the
truth and that God is able to bring victory to
truth? The man of faith, believing that every
word spoken for truth will have its' influence
and that no blow struck for righteousness is
struck in vain, fights on "Without .there iff
asking whether he is to fall -in the beginning of
the battle or to live to join in- the shouts of tri
umph. He knows not whether he is to live for
the truth or to die for it, and if he has the faith
he ought to have, he is as ready to die for it as
to live for it.
Faith will not only give you strength when
you fight for righteousness,' but your faith will
bring dismay to your enemies. There is power
in the presence of an honest man who does right
because it is right and dares to do the right in
the face of all opposition. It is true today, and
has .been true through all history. that "One With
God shall chase a thousand, and two put ten
thousand to flight" ,'v
(From Address' on Faith.) ''" .
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LIVING THE IBD3LE '
What greater miracle than this that converts
a selfish, self-centered, human being into a ceri-"
ter from which good influence's flow out in every '
direction! And yet this miracle has b'een
wrought in the heart of each one of us or ma? '
be wroughtand we have seen it wroucht in
the hearts and lives of Chose about us. No liv
ing .a life that is a mystery, and living in the
midst of mystery and miracles, I shall not allow
either to deprive me of the benefits of the
Christian religion. If you ask me if I under!
stand everything in the Bible, I answer,, rio but
if we will try to live up to what we do under-
stand, we will be kept so .busy doing good that
we wil not have time to worry about the pass
ages which we do not understand.
(From The Prince of Peace.) 4 '
t0 iA7 WitU lnt anticipations. p0r
weeks before December 25th busy hands Vm
work, tiny sayings banks are gathering in tLl
sacred store and eager expectancy is wri ttl
upon the, face of the young. To the boys and
girls Santa Claus is a sort of composite donnr
who monop61izes the distribution of presort
and who, reading the minds of his little friend"
rewards the good (and all are good just bnfnri
Christmas) with the very toys that Jhey them
selves have selected, while the older ones leani
by experience that it is more blessed to cive tit
to receive. Back of Christmas and the OhX
mas present is love, and the broad, brotheriv
love taught and exemplified by the Nazarene X
not content with the remembrances which aro
exchanged as tokens of affection between mem
bers of the family and between intimate friends
it is compelling the widening of the circle to
idthUo? r poor and tbe eedy though not of
What an instructor love is! ,How it develops
.the one of whom it takes possession! When
once it is awakened its dissolves all opposition
Dr. Parkhurst, the New York clergyman, in ni
lustrating the difference between.. force and love
said (quoted- from memory) that "force is tho
hammer which can break a block of ice into a
thousand pieces but leaves each piece still ice
while love is the ray of sunlight which though
acting more slowly and silently, melts the ice."
At this season of the year our thoughts turn
to the contemplation of the new degree of love
revealed to, the world by Jesus. To tho love
between members of 'the family and love between
friends He added an all-pervading love that in
cludes every member of the human race. Even
enemies are not beyond the bounds of this love,
for man's puny arms ro not strong enough to
break the bonds that unite each son of God to
all his brethren, "Love is not stupid," says
Tolstoy. It makes known to us our duty to our
fellows and it will some day rule the world.
Force is the weapon, of the animal in us; after
it comes money, which the inteljept employs
sometimes for good, sometimes, for .harm. But.
greater .than all is love, the weapon of the heart.
It is a sword that never rus$s, jnejther does it
break and the. wounds that iCleayes' are life
saving, nqtjife-destroyjng. 'Noarmor can with
stand it and no antagonist can resist it. But
why try to define this love or to measure its
scope? Paul, the apostle, tt his first epistle
to the Corinthians describes' it, in language to
which nothing can be added and from which
, "uuub VU.H LC kftlVOU.
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THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL
Even in our maturer years we need an ideal
which defies complete embodiment In 'the flesh.
It is a low ideal that can be easily' reached;
when we overtake our ideal, our progress stops.
It is the glory of the Christian ideal, embodied
in the words and life of our Savi'olir, that while
it is within sight of the weakest and the lowli
est, it is yet so high that the best and noblest
are kept with their faces turned ever upwards;
and Christian civilization is the highest that the
world has ever known because it rests upon a
conception of life which makes that life a con
tinuous ascent, with no limit to human advance
ment and-development. ;' ;
(From The Fruits of the Tarctei )
IN HIS IMAGE
j
ir. v
h,
I find proof that man was madqm the imae
of his Creator in tho fact that. tarouKhouHh
centuries, he has been willing to dl? ?f ne
sary that blessings denied "to him' might lit '
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MATERIALISM
Materialism has no morality of its own; it is
a parasite which fastens itself upon the living,
tree of, Christianity. It has no trunk;, it has no.
power to send itsroots down into the ground
(From The Prince of Peace.) ' , . .'
A CHRISTMAS THOUGHT
Christmas is love's festival. Set apart for
the commemoration of. God's gift of Hte Son
it has grown into a great holiday which is ob
served throughout Christendom by rich and
poor alike. Even those who refuse to take unon
themselves the vows of any church S
strained to join-in the beauUful qusCwXh
makes both parents and children Took towarS-
HE LARGER LIFE: ;
. ' . 'V .,
If. an agricultural community,, which found
its wealth upon the eacfch's surface, was visited
by a stranger and told that just a. -few feet down
in the, ground a vein, of coal could be .found which
would add ta ts material resourcep, would not
the. inhabitants. At once avail themselves of tho
information? And would they not he grateful
to the. one to wbom they were indebted for the
information that thus enlarged iheir wealth?
They might be too much engrossed, in gathering
in .their new riches to honor, their benefactor
during his life, but after his death, at least, they
would build a monument to'him in proof of their
appreciation .
And suppose after they had bqcome accus
tomed to drawing their incomes from these two
sources of wealth, the soil and the veins of coal.
another stranger visited them and told them
that a little farther down they could- find gold
with which to purchase all that they,, might de
sire, would they' riot again be, glad to profit by
this new knowledge? Thej; might become so
rich as to temporarily forget the one to whom
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