WE HOLD LARGE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS and will guarantee cars for you during next
thirty days for loading of strictly number one hay at reasonable prices. To protect yourself
see us when you have hay for sale.
I O’—--— ■ oo.
r-uiyouivii o r noi i ui\vn m
The Religion of the Known.
(Continued from page seven.)
caverns of the sea, they seemed to
him the voice of the Son of Man, a
“voice of many waters.” He paint
ed the celestial picture in colors
taken from an earthly palette. It is
no intention of God that heaven shall
be the exclusive scene of godliness,
leaving mankind to wreck itself on a
sea of human life.
And not only must our religion be
on earth and not in heaven, but it
must also be based on the constituents
of human nature. Michael and his
angels warred in heaven. Cherubim
and Seraphim are crying, “Holy, holy,
holy,” as they revolve around the
\ throne of God. Lucifer, the bright
j and morning star, aspired to the sov
J ereignty of the Almighty, and was
hurled from his high estate, down,
down, to the nethermost circle of hell.
Let the celestial champions fight, let
the angels sing, let Satan writhe in
his prison-house. I apprehend that
you and I are little concerned with
them. But when in sore temptation
we see averice on the faces of our fel
lowmen, or feel foul passions boiling
and surging in our own hearts, then
we understand what Satan means. Or
when we see sublime deeds of self
sacrifice—a great ship going down in
midocean with all the men on board
and the women and children saved, or
. when we see parents denying them
selves luxuries and even necessities
that their children may start their
careers in a little higher plane than
that on which they themselve started,
when we see a hero on a battlefield, a
sister of mercy, in a lazar-house, a
Christ upon the cross, then we know
more of bravery, of love, of unselfish
ness, of God, than Gabriel can tell us.
Our religion is not in heaven, )>ut on
earth; not in beings of another nature,
but in the hearts that are throbbing
in our bosoms, in the brains that we
are weaving marvellous fabrics with
our heads.
O. my friends, in your thoughts of
religion never forget the earth. I
know that sometimes it seems as if,
like St. Paul, we are transported into
some “seventh heaven.” When a soul
after years of doubt and sin have
found God, a new spirit seems to de
mand new circumstances. It would
remove itself to a solitary place that
undisturbed it might commune with
its Saviour. With your inner life all
changed, you go to your place of busi
ness, among your fellowmen, and you
cannot help thinking that the outer
life should be changed with your inner
life. The stream of love surcharges
your heart almost to bursting, and
you feel that it must overflow its
banks. And there is the same world,
the same life. Men around you con
tinue to try to overreach you, nay,
you are dimly conscious that your old
sins are pursuing your purified soul
as the Furies pursued Orestes. It is
the same world, you are the same per
son, and it seems unnatural anc
worng. Why, my friends, this is jusl
what religion means! A human soul
not an angelic soul, full of God; i
human world, not a heavenly world
full of God. Your religion is religioi
because it regenerates your humai
heart. Out of your life and the live:
of fellowmen God’s city is to be buil
by making each episode of daily lift
reveal its richer capacity, and serv<
an end greater than the world has be
fore dreamed of.
God can reveal to us as much as w<
have capacity to receive. Jesu:
Christ comes to tell us the most sub
lime and profound truths, and he tell:
only what is natural to ourselves. Thi
truths of religion are natural and or
ganic. They were not created b;
Christ— they were revealed. The?
had always existed. God gives us oui
conciences first, which are sensativi
to the right and wrong. The materia
experiences of the world are broughi
to the bar of that concience, and then
approved or convicted. By perform
ing acts and rejecting the discredits
acts, our characters are built up anc
our religion formulated. There is nc
other known way of making a mar
religious. It is our personal reaction
upon intellectual enlargement. It is
our own personal reaction upon moral
stimulus externally applied that gives
us an ethical uplift.
What a light is thrown'upon dark
places of life by a realization of the
truth that the earth and human beings
furnish us all the material out of
which we are to construct our relig
ious life. As I look into your faces
this morning I can read many a story
of success or of failure. I see those
who have toiled for years, and are
now reaping material harvests. There
are those who have tried to do their
duty, and have met disappointment.
There are hearts thrilling with the joy
of love, and there are eyes dimmed
and cheeks seamed with sorrow.
There are young men and women tak
ing the first step into the field of en
deavor. What message can I bring to
each of you to guide, encourage and
console? I will open this great Book
of the Revelation, and read of a throne
encircled with rainbows, of glittering
vestments, of harps and crowns of
gold, of a chrystal sea, of a multitude
of people with palms in their hands;
but out of the same book I will read
that these rewards are distributed to
those who have overcome,—“He that
overcometh shall inherit all things”—
not have overcome in heaven—there is
nothing to overcome there, but have
overcome earthly ‘foes; and “have
washed their robes and made them
white,”—not white in the radience of
supernal light, not white by the min
istrations of angelic servants—but
“white in the blood of the Lamb,” who
was slain in this world on the hill of
Calvary. Oh, wait for no heavenly
home, expect no angel attendants, but
begin your religion right here on
earth you know, among the men and
women you know, amid the conditions
that, fortunate or adverse, are the con
ditions of our lives, in your palaces
or hovels, your shop, your church,
politics. He is your religion,— or it
is nowhere. Listen to the words of
one of the greatest English thinkers:
"Yes, here, in this poor, miserable,
hampered, despicable Actual, wherein
thou even »now, standest, here or no
where is thy Ideal. Work it out
therefrom, and working, believe, .live
and be free. The Ideal is in thyself,
the impediment too is in thyself; thy
conscience is but the stuff thou art to
shape that same ideal out of. What
matters whether such stuff be this sort
or that, so the form thou give it be
heroic, be poetic? O thou that pinest
in the imprisonment of the actual, cry
bitterly to the gods for a kingdom
wherein to rule and create, know this
of a truth: the thing thou seekest is
already with thee, “here or nowhere”
couldst thou only see.” (Carlyle,
Sartor Resartus, The Everlasting
Yea.)
How little we know compared to
i that we do not know. How petty
our religion, then, compared with the
i religion that shall be revealed. Well,
: I am not sure of that. I simply am
, certain that we must build on founda
i tions that are already laid. When in
. the course of development in this or
1 another world God shall reveal more
1 of his nature to us’ our religion may
s be deeper, truer, wiser, than it is now
t —but it will be then, as now, a relig
3 ion of the known. If it is to be a
3 fuller religion it will be more complete
- only because more will be known.
With all that we are not concerned.
3 Our duty is the duty that lies before
i us. The great universe has chanted
- its music of the spheres from the
i dawn of creation, and we have ! een
3 able to hear but a few no’cs of the
- glorious chorus. Generation after
j generation has studied into the
1 mystery of life, and learned only the
t first few letters of its alphabet. No
3 less inscrutable is the nature of man.
[ No man knows much of himself, and
‘ perhaps less of his brothernian.
> Philosophers have pondered over the
■ characteristics of humanity, and have
i not succeeded in cataloging even the
I emotions of the heart and the funct
i ions of the brain. God in his infinity
i stands the supreme, awful mystery to
of his providence are beyond the
reach of our souls. What becomes of
us after death, why the existence of
evil and pain, does necessity or free
will govern our actions?—all these
and many other problems of the
greatest moment to us remain unsol
ved. If we attempt to base our relig
ion on the vast unknown, we are ab
solutely overwhelmed in agnosticism,
and God is like the sphinx in the
Egyptian sands with a smile of de
rision on its lips for the arrogant dog
matist, and a pitying smile for
the humble seeker after truth. In the
words of the great poet: “No more
of that: that way madness lies.”
But if we take God’s revelation and
humbly obey it we shall find all the
religion we are capable of experienc
ing in our present stage of develop
ment. If we faithfully obey God as
he has revealed himself to this world
and in our human nature, we shall be
doing our duty. God holds us respon
sible only for what we know. We
know something about ourselves. We
know that we ought to keep our bodies
in as perfect a physical condition as
possible. Intemperance, excess of all
kinds, we know to be wrong. God has
revealed all this to us in the constitu
tion of the body, and he will hold us
responsible for its preservation. We
know that we should live by the laws 1
of reason. That it is our duty t®,
think as clearly as we can, and not
to allow ourselves to be ruled by
prejudice or passion.
We know, too, much about our fel
lowmen. God has by the experience
of six thousand years revealed many
of the laws of social morality. He der
mands that we should earnestly try
to serve our fellow men.
God has revealed his law in another
respect. We, all of us, have yearnings
to commune with* a higher spirit.
This aspiration increases in intensity
with the elevation of our nature. It
has brought us into communion with
a God of Power and Wisdom who
holds the worlds in the hollow of his
hand. Higher yet, this aspiration has
gone beyond the attributes of God,
and has touched his character. It
reaches its culmination in Jesus Christ
who declares that God is our father
who loves us and wants us to seek him
and to pray to Him. All these things
we know, and they are enough for our
guidance through life. What more
God holds in reserve, we cannot say,
but we may be certain that a man who
controls himself, who serves his fel
lowmen, and who devoutly worships
his maker, will in his finiteness reflect
much of God, as the tiny dewdrop re
flects much of the cerluean depth of
the sky, as the man who holds the
ocean-shell to his ear catches some
thing of the mystic murmur of the
sea.
The application of this principle to
the life of nations is no less obvious.
In the march of civilization nations
rise and fall until they are well-nigh
forgotten. There is no pursuit more
fascinating than to uncover the re
mains of extinct peoples, and read
their history from their monuments.
Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, have re
vealed many of their secrets, and in
the last generation a wonderous civi
lization in Crete, flourishing nearly
five thousand years ago, is delighting
historians and archaeologists. Today
we have an even more imposing ex
ample of the probable fall of a mighty
empire whether Germany accepts or
refuses the terms of peace, we feel as
sured that old autoracy of power
under the slogan of “Might Makes
Rifcht” is soon to be sunk in the sea
of oblivion.
What have Germany, Crete, Egypt,
Rome, Greece to say to us? The fate
of this dear country of ours is en
veloped in mystery. No one can tell
what in the ages to come will be the
future of the United States of
America. But one thing we know.
We know that the nations of the past
have fallen because of their unright
eous disregard of the needs of hu
manity and of justice between man
and man; and that the life of this
nation carf permanently endure >nly
- 5~
if it be a righteous life. Our duty is i
plain. It is to act on what we know
It is not to exult in our power or
wealth, or to be enervated by luxury.
It is to see that our citizens remain
true to the great national ideal of
equal rights that has be-n handed
down to us by our father: to see that
no man or class of men shall seize
privileges by depriving the remainder
of the nation of its rights, to protect
irnocen.o and punish cri'ic- to see
that justice obtains in o'- public
policy, and that honesty, purity and
industry be universal among our citi
zens. The events of the last four
years have also revealed another obli
gation: namely, to mak; it certain
that our statue of the Goddess of
Liberty .nlightening the world shall
represent an actual condition and not
a sentimental theory. All this is a
duty, a religion that is known. It is
obedience to a revealed law of right
eousness which alone can ensure that
this government shall not perish from
the earth.
God is the Alpha and Omega, the
Beginning and the End. From an
eternal past He has reigned, through
an eternal future He will reign. But
God's eternity rests in His continuity.
If we could truly say that at any
moment God does not exist, we would
deny the whole existence of God. He
must exist now, or else He never
(Conintued on page five.) |
We have the men, we have
the guns,
We have the Pep to whip the
Huns
We have the money to make
your loans,
Do your bit and buy the
bonds to help the boys Over
There.
John L. Quig
—— ■
PUBLIC S. .LE!
Having sold my farm and deciding to leave the state I will offer the following
described property at public auction at my farm, 1 mile south of Dorsey
and 4 miles north of Star, commencing at 12 o’clock sharp, on
Monday, October 21, 18
11 Horses and Mules
1 sorrel mare, weight 1000; 1 span of geldings, weight 1000; 1 brood mare,
weight 1100; '3 2-year-old colts; 3 sucking colts; 1 yearling mule.
101 He&.d of Cattle
1 Registered Shorthorn Cow, with papers; 18 choice milch cows, some with >?
calves by their side, the rest fresh about the holidays; 17 head of 2-year-old
steers; 14 yearling steers; 22 head of last sprig canlves; 15 head of White Face ‘
heifers, 8 of them springing; 12 heifers, coming 2 years old; 2 bulls 3 years old.
HOGS—39 HEAD OF SPRING SHOATS, WEIGHT 100 POUNDS EACH.
Farm Machinery and Grain
1 8-foot Deering binder; 1 endgate seeder; 1 6-foot McCormick mower; 1 m*
5-foot McCormick mower; 112-foot McCormick rake; 1 8-foot McCormick
rake; 1 3-section harrow; 2 hay sweeps; 2 listers; 1 Peters check row planter; |jj
1 Chatham fanning mill; 1 disc; 2 walking cultivators1, 1 Badger cultivator; 1
truck wagon with hay rack and hog rack combined; 1 box wagon; 1 spring I
wagon; 6 dozen chickens; 1 set harness; 2 saddles; 1 Blue Bell separator, No. !
2; 150 bushel of speltz; about 50 bushel of potatoes; 20 tons good alfalfa hay; JJj
some good oak posts; some stove wood; some blacksmith tools; some carpen
ter tools; 10 acres good cane, cut before frost.
Household Goods
j 1 range cook stove; 1 wood heater; 1 coal heater; 1 refrigerator; 2 cup- I
boards; 1 dining table; 1 writing desk; 4 dining room chairs; 1 center table; I
1 davenport; 2 beds; 1 mattress; 1 commode; 1 rocking chair and other articles I
too numerous to mention. II
PLENTY OF FREE LUNCH SERVED AT 11 O’CLOCK SHARP. ~ J|
TERMS—One year’s time will be given on all sums over $10, with approved ill
security. No property to be removeduntil settled for. !•
O. O. NEWMAN, Owner.
Elliott & Wanser, Auctioneers F. W. Phillips, Clerk, j