common table. It means the church as first instituted-not a tyrannical priest-ridden cult. "Ye are priests; ye are kings”—that is the standing of each and every individual-a "son of God"-not a sheep to be driven and sheared as has been the rule since Constantine became the head of the church. Give us the Pentecostal church or let the institution perish from the earth. The human family have suffered all they will bear from "Credo"-have had enough of priestcraft and kingscraft linked and joined in one-the religion of love made a gross superstition for the enslavement of mankind. Russia remains the last example of this enthrallment. But there the prophet-teacher, Tolstoi, has spoken. A giant (the people) is awakening and will arise from his long night's sleep and "shake his invincible locks," and give the nod like Jupiter on Mount Olympus. YE 212TH LESSON. Suicide and Unfaithfulness. If suicide is ever justifiable because of physical deprivations and suffering, loss or material wants of any kind, the entire Russian and Japanese armies in Manchuria and in and around Port Arthur, and more especially, the Russians-would be justified, if they took their own lives. The Russian youth were forced into the service, carried six thousand miles away from home and friends, turned out to live like wild beasts without shelter in all seasons of the year in the Siberian climate, death staring them in the face continually, little hope of living to return home, and, if they do return, will have to bear poverty while suffering, it may be, from wounds received at the front,-if those men, I say, bear all this manfully, no one should ever under any conditions or circumstances of physical suffering or want at home repine, let alone despair and die by his own hands. How many veterans of the civil war in our country do we still meet, happy old men, that have passed through physical sufferings and priva tions appalling! And one with a spark of manliness in his breast ought to be proof agains despair when he knows what vicissitudes are common to life. Human life is often compared to the weather, and aptly, too. Days of cold, wet and storm, and cyclones intervene. In the North ter rible blizzards descend "like the wolf on the fold." But fair weather returns again and beautiful Indian-summer days that last a long while in Iowa. Winter follows, relieved by many not unpleasant days. Then spring, and afterwards summer. I have known days when the thermometer stood 100. F. in the shade, and nights as hot, when to keep alive seemed all one could do and cold days in winter as hard to bear. But we bear with patience all the discomforts of climate awaiting the many balmy days sure to come. I had a friend tell me once that he would like for the experience of it to be in the path of a cyclone. This wish I thought a little "off:” but there is a willingness that is sane, which is to bear with fortitude the hardships of life, if not to covet the experience of meeting the worst. "Do not despair of your life; you have no doubt force enough to overcome obstacles." The above I copy from Thoreau's diary. It all rests in mind force. One possessed of this in abundance is all a man. Who has not obstacles to overcome in the path of life? It is environment that makes and unmakes. And whole orders of plants and races of animals die out when the environment has changed. “One while," (Thoreau says)“we do not wonder that so many commit suicide, life is so barren and worthless. We only live by an effort of the will. Suddenly our condition is ameliorated and even the barking of a dog is pleasure to us. So closely is our happiness bound up with our physical condition and one reacts on the THE BEST TIME TO DIE. 285 other." Yes, our happiness is altogether bound up with our physical condition. The natural relations of husband and wife, if not harmonious, bring the greatest unhappiness, and if harmonious, bring the greatest happiness. There are more who take their own lives because of unfaithfulness of husband or wife than from all other causes. To be forsaken to have the one most loved and trusted prove false, is beyond the power of reason to meet and overmaster, as a rule. The asylums for the insane would be empty if all men and all women were true. We But mind-force is what we require to bear us on over obstacles. can convert most conditions that surround us into harmony by force of mind so that we may see the good in everything-compensation in every seeming ill. There are conditions, however, that overcome us, as a fish out of water is overcome. No philosophy can in all conditions prevail to produce equanimity, composure, evenness of mind because of the overmastering power of instinct. Common sense says, "Give up gladly and willingly a false wife or husband." But the inherited habit of constancy in companionship between the sexes, coming down through millions of years cannot, in many minds, be eliminated by any power of reason, hence insanity, murders and suicides so frequent. Therefore, the marriage tie should be indissolvable except by death or by mutual consent of the childless couple or for unfaithfulness.-A greater crime than unfaithfulness cannot be. It should never be condoned by society. It is as criminally bad as murder. YE 213TH LESSON. The Best Time to Die. "Here I stand! I cannot do otherwise! God, help!" said Martin Luther before King Charles V. and the Cardinals of Rome. He could not do otherwise. Why? Because he was great. It might cost him his life. What of it? No doubt Luther had said to himself: "This is the best time that I shall ever find to die." When is the best time to die? It is when one may give up his life in defense of inalienable rights or of righteousness. Warren found at Bunker Hill the best time for him to die; John Brown found it at Charleston, Virginia; Huss in Bohemia, and Pruro in Rome. The names of those great men are immortal. Who does not covet a death like theirs? But the coward takes his own life. Luther, Warren, Brown, Huss and Bruno had passed through great troubles-greater, perhaps, than has led many to commit suicide. The world needs the manly strength of every true soul to carry forward her work. "In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle- He is a stanza that every boy and girl has learned by heart. No man or woman belongs to himself or to herself. All belong to God. has placed us on this beautiful planet to be brave and undismayed under all circumstances and conditions surounding us, in order that we may help on the world's work, which is God's work. We should say: "Let us then be up and doing With a heart for any fate." There may be conditions in which one can do little in chosen lines of work, as, among savages a great artist might not find apprecia tion and encouragement. As a teacher he might do much good. Had George Third not been a tyrant Washington would have passed his life at Mt. Vernon, a great man nevertheless. There are no accidents of greatness. From The true man says; "Nothing can disturb my equanimity." the furnace of affliction he will emerge unscathed. What man has endured he can endure. There is nothing to be feared but to do evil. Whatever happens to the good happens for the best; and it is eternally true that "no evil can happen to the good," as the ancient Stoics believed, and taught. The weak part of the Stoic philosophy was the doctrine that under some circumstances one may be justified in taking his own life. Even Seneca held this view and in obedience to the mandate of the tyrant Nero he opened his own veins. How could the Stoic-priding himself on his firmness of mind, so like a snail draw back into the shell-shun fate so cowardly as to die by his own hand? An inconsistency surely! We read in the New Testament that God "dwells" in the good. This thought is a volume of truth to strengthen the feeble to bear the cross and win the crown-it may be of martyrdom. So much the better if it be so. What ought to be the character of one in whom God has His abode? He ought to be Godlike of course. What is it to be Godlike? Clearly it is to be in strength, in unyielding manhood and womanhood supreme-a rock in the ocean of life immovable, against which the waves of adversity dash in vain. YE 214TH LESSON. Character and Reputation. Self-respect and pride are not the same. Pride and vanity are akin. These regard appearances. Self-rpect does not. Pride and vanity derive their stimuli form without; self-respect from within. "I look" savs the self-respecting, "to God and to my own conscience for approval." Self-respect gives character; pride and vanity aim at reputation. The self respecting are martyrs; the proud and vain often take their own lives the father and son for example who drowned themselves at Grinnell, Iowa, a short time ago. The self-respecting impart to others; the proud and vain exact from others. John Brown was self-respecting. Smith, (a son of the author of "Our Country 'Tis of Thee") was proud and vain. John Brown died on the gallows a martyr; Smith languishes in State-prison, a felon. John Brown is loved and his memory honored; Smith is despised and his memory will rot. Self-respect should becultivated; pride and vanity suppressed. Let us regard only virtue and disregard appearances; establish character and be indifferent to reputation. "What do the people say of me?" says one. "It is indifferent what they say of me, if I am in the right," says another. Who is the first? A demogogue. Who is the last? A patriot. Is it always best to train with the majority? Luther did not think so. It is better to keep on the side of truth and righteousness no matter what may follow. Jesus stood alone with almost everybody against him. He is still, (sad to say!) leader of the minority; yet did he not declare "I will draw all men unto me?" This his prophecy is seemingly slow of fulfillment. John Brown drew libertyloving Americans to his side speedily. In 1859 all said "He is crazy." In 1861 millions sang "His soul is marching on." But was that not Jesus drawing men unto him? Brown was the instrument. The hand that did the work was the Master's. The one utterance of Henry Clay's will be remembered when all else ever said by him, even in his most eloquent speeches in Senate-hall and on the rostrum are forgotten. He said "I would rather be right than President." This is a sublime utterance, not surpassed in grandeur by any saying of any philosopher of old or of modern days. Does even the New Testament contain any more lofty expression? Yes, in the revelation of "God manifest in the flesh." He is divine that did no evil and only good. So the nearer we keep to the path of right doing, the nearer do we approach Divinity. "Be ye perfect! It is commendable in a boy to look forward to be President of our great republic. But if every one could sincerely say in youth and on and on through life "I would rather be right than President," that is far better. Then would we be relieved of the burden of criminal courts and prisons; doors would need no bolts, safes would go out of use, the Kingdom of God would at once come and His will be done on earth as in Heaven. How may we reach this condition? One thing and one alone will bring in the millennium. What is that? Well-founded and universal self-respect. Let everyone be able to say, as did St. Paul: "And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man." At that period shall Jesus have drawn all men unto himself. A wonderful temple was builded in Jerusalem. What for? To impress the minds of the multitude. "One stone shall not be left upon another." Why? "Ye are the temple of the living God." God is worshipped in his temple. "Look in and not out!" Go into your closet and when you have shut the door pray to your Father who seeth in secret." "Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem," but "in spirit and in truth" is God worshipped. We are Pagan to worship what our eyes behold-what dazzles the senses. Know our duty and do it if all the world oppose. There is a duty to self. What is it? Promote our physical well-being and our intellectual well-being and our moral well-being-education in gymnasium school and church. Church? yes, the church that ought to be and will be when men have risen above the savage state. Then follows our life mission. What is that? "Go about doing good." Was Jesus born of Greek aesthetics? Or was he born of the Virgin Mary? To the idealist it matters not which. Jesus' life of self-abnegation is the highest ideal of human duty ever conceived. That is all that is needed in the domain of ethics and philosophy. With the priest who makes his living by exploitation of the superstitious fears of the ignorant multitudes of mankind it is different. YE 215TH LESSON. Common Duties. It is neglect of common duties that produces most of the trouble there is in the world. It may be said truly that it makes all the trouble that arises between man and wife, and gives rise to all the divorces. One becomes wrapped up in himself or herself and forgets to serve. It is for service we were born and for nothing else. But all true service is voluntary. No one may demand service of another. No one may ask another to do for him what he can do for himself. No one may obey another, an equal. Obey father and mother, but never husband and wife. Do all from your own motion and neglect no duty. Accept reminders gladly. We are forgetful. To forget is not a crime. It is not neglect. It is weakness. Let her say, "Dearest, haven't you forgotten to bring in the coal?" And he, "Sweetheart, did you not forget to place the saltcellar on the table?" Let not the wife offend by taking up the coal-hod and flirting out of doors after coal, or the husband by pettishly jumping up from the table to bring from the cupboard the salt. Let nothing be said or done unkindly. Let attention not be one-sided. Let both say one to the other, "you can never be more kind to me than I shall be to you." Strive to outdo each other in loving favors. do this there will be no more divorces sought for. When all Let a husband endeavor to show how good he can be to his wife and she accept his service as a matter of course without a return of gratitude or appreciation, she writes herself down a fool in his opinion. And so, too on the other hand with the husband if he accept her services as from a slave, she will think the same of him. "He that will love unloved again Hath greater store of love than brain; While unthrifts fool their love away." An old-time-metrical saw, true to experience. One, as a religious duty, may ignore neglect "bear it as a cross," as does the Mormon wife bear the woe of a rival wife or wives of her so-called "husband." As discipline to his virtue Socrates bore with Xantippe's scolding propensity. But this is exceptional. As a rule of the marital relation, instinct comes to the front and reason takes a back seat. But we reach the sublime of greatness when truly we can say: Of late I've been thinking most deeply upon the condition of man: What, I enquire, is true greatness? What is it to march in the van? Take the Sun for example, O Student; be taught by the great God of day; What is it that makes him so glorious? In what does he godship His task is to glow with His children, the planets, look to him for life-giving warmth and for light. But what does old Sol want, pray tell me? Say what does he seek to obtain? Can anything add to his splendor? And what to withhold gives him pain? As Gods let men walk on this planet; as Gods do a work like the sun, Asking nothing of others but audience, seeking only to bless everyone. To be great is to live as did Jesus, drinking vinegar mingled with gall, And die on the cross. But, while living, go about, like he did, bless ing all. Let us march in the van of God's army; let us vanquish His foes by our might, Seeking nothing whatever but service; relinquishing self in the fight. Adorned with His love disinterested and asking not love in return, True happiness, that is our portion and God's benign face we discern. YE 216TH LESSON. The Insanity of the Rich. One of the stupendous and crowning evils of modern society is wholesale wastefulness, resulting from our vainglorious vanity. The timber already wasted in Des Moines, a city of eighty thousand people, would, if left standing, make a large forest -one of a thousand acres or more of pine and in Chicago a million or more acres-all wasted for no purpose but show. No man has any moral right to erect a building for his family home larger than their reasonable needs require. But, as a rule, the lar ger the house the smaller the family, and the smaller the house the larger the family. There ought to be effective action taken to curb the insanity of the rich and bring them to common sense. |