6
THE HESPERIAN
how many, and say, "Ho is not good; ho
has not tho stripe," well, Ho can afford to
let us. He shines on into our crevice. His
breath is our life. Wo blink with our beetlo
eyes, and say, "He must be very bad."
Goodness does not spring into tho world
like Minerva from the forehead of Jove. It
comes like tho lily through centuries of
struggle with the weeds and slimy things of
tho oarth through ages of darkness when
no eye saw tho lives that went down. Out
of tho throttling clasp of fierce stinging
thorns, out of the clutch of winding, twist
ing roots whore lilies and lilies were crushed
to death, comes tho strong white fragranco
of the Easter morn. Out cf tho slimy coils
of asps and adders and tho claws of the
jungle monsters, rises the strong fair head of
man. Out of evil and wrong and anguish,
still struggling in the everlasting war, comes
good.
It is a law stern and terrible, the survival
of the fittest. It is everywhere. Truth comes
by fire and sword, by the rack and by the
cross. Ideals struggle forever with the
coarse creatures that clutch them down.
Love, the holiest thing of earth rises from
the deepest anguish of oarth. Truth and
beauty grow in the world, but tho price is
tremendous.
It might not have been so. We might
have been angels. Earth might have been
an Eden always. Some men would have
it so.
Perhaps lilies would bo as fragrant, if the
stench of tho fennol had never come to our
nostrils. Perhaps we could lovejTruth as well
if a lie had never burned our lips. Perhaps
justice would be as fair, if wo had never
seen tho innocent foully wronged. Perhaps
right would mean as much, if we had never
smitten tho slimy head of injustice.
That is men's quarrel with God. It is a
cry for tho lamb whoso blood sprinkles the
door-post. It is not a cry that need frighten
tho orthodox. It might well, frighten them,
if men had arrived at a satisfactory explana
tion of God's ways and character if they
had no higher ideal to reach. If wo could
understand Him now, what would bo left for
tho next century men ?
It is a holy cry. It is not to bo stilled by
scowls or maledictions. It is to bo answered
It is not answered yet. Tho men who
cry shame upon the unbeliever would do
well to hold their peace. Men are no longer
satisfied with their conception of a God who
lets tho innocent suffer. The very existence
of such a demand for higher ideals is a stir
ring of the power that works for righteous
ness in tho earth. It is not a menace.
It takes for granted too much when it
says, "God is bad." It may bo wiser than
it knows when it says, "Our old conception
of Himi8 bad." M.
Alumni and Former Students.
Tho following letter from Prof. A. G.
Warner of Loland Stanford Jr. University,
was read by Will Owen Jones at tho Palla
dian alumni program, December 13:
Manitou, Colo., Dec. 9, 1895.
Mv Dear Society. Somewhat less than
two years ago the students of tho Stanford
University were having lively times, and
interest in college politics ran high. Some
of the offices which students there give to
students carry with them salaries or perquis
ites which enable the holder to pay all his
expenses for the year and sometimes more
than this. The competition for such places
is consequently acute. In tho campaign to
which reference is now made there had boon
charges of fraud, the misuse of proxies, and
possibly their forgery. Certainly a largo
number of students believed that tho "will
of the people" had been defeated. While
the smoke of battle still hung on tho col
lege atmosphere I was asked to speak at a
Sunday evening meeting of the Christian
Association and undertook to defend the
proposition that an active participation in
college politics may be tho means of a
growth in righteousness. The Stanford
audience was a good deal more astonished
by such doctrine than you will probably bo,