By the Christmas Fire

ayone

e days. I picked it up in a little shop in Birmingham for two shillings. I was attracted to it as I am to all reformed characters. The

ty of the least mechanical. All that is needed is to cause the bayonet to forsake the murderous rifle barrel and cleave to a short

rdinary people have never seen. The golden harps were made for no other purpose than to produce celestial harmony. They suggest a scene in which peace and good-will come magically and reign undisturbed. Everything is exquisitely fitted for high uses. It

in any practicable fashion. Every one recognizes the eminent desirability of establishing more amicable relations betwee

ntific form. A deluge of cold water in the form of unwelco

ouse in her own free-and-easy fashion, gradually improving her family by killing off the weaker members, and giving them as food to the strong. It is a plan that has worked well-for the strong. When we interrogate Nature as to the 'reason why'

ngry make up natural history. The eye of the eagle is developed that it may see its prey from afar, its wings are strong that it may pounce up

ds at hand, and uses it for offense and defense. The weapon is improved by use. The brain of the man has proved a better weapon than be

g name Civilization. It is a marvelously tempered weapon, in the hands of the strong races. Alas, for the backwa

lways been religious. Their religion has helped them in their struggle for the mastery. There ar

romised him a modest salary, ten shekels of silver annually, and a suit of clothes, and his board. 'And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons

thing, and they were far from the Zidonians.' It was just the opportunity for expansion which the children of Dan had been waiting for, so they marched merrily against the unprotected valley. On the way they seized Micah's priest. 'And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mout

anites answered after the manner of the strong, 'Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and thou lose thy life, with the li

losophy and the piety were by-products of the activity of the children of Dan. They sadly needed the priest to sanctify the deeds of the morrow when 'they took that which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a peop

ehob have been repeated endlessly. Whittier describes the

fields trod the

everence, and th

his priest, ab

arts beneath the

n the receivers of stolen goods. How could it be otherwise with the descendants of a long line of freebooters? How are we to uphold the fam

r struggle for existence. But one faculty has developed that is destined to be our undoing,-it is Conscience. Natural history does not give any satisfactory account of it. It runs counter to our other tendencies. It makes us miserable just when we are getting the advantage of others. Now, getting the

d selfishness; its accepted religion, a shallow conventionality. In such a world as this, the good man stands like a gladiator who has suddenly become a Chri

leted product, but only the raw material. And this consolation rises into positive cheer when I learn that there is a chance for us to take a hand in the creative work. It matters very little at this stage of the proceedings whether

sir, do not look at the bayonet, look at me. Do I strike you as a person who would be likely to run you through, just because I happen to have the conveniences to do it with? Sit down by the fire and we will talk it over, and yo

. The anthropologist calls it "fetichism" when he finds it among primitive peoples. When the same notion is propounded by advanced thinkers, we call it "advanced thought." We attribute to the Thing a malignant purpose and an irresistible potency, and

hing seemed to them to have a malign purpose. "Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of water running violently, or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not b

tree will go out of its way to harm us. We are not troubled by the suspicion that some busybody of a planet i

idolaters we bow down before the work of our own hands. We are awe-struck at their power, and magnify the mystery of their existence. We only pray that they may not turn us out of house and home, because of some blunder in our ritual observance. That they will make it very uncomfortable for us, we take for granted. We have resigned ourselves to that long ag

g bigger every year. No sooner do we begin to have an amiable feeling toward our neighbors than some one invents a more ingenious

We should be pleased to see them prosper. We have a strong preference for fair play. But of course we can't have it, because the corporations, those impersonal products of moder

are well qualified for their several positions. But we cannot, in a democracy, expect to have expert service. The tendency of politics is to develop a Machine. The Machine is not const

s, we sometimes turn iconoclasts. In a short-lived fit of anger we smash the Machine. Ha

er idolaters nor iconoclasts. They do not worship Thing

draws on his experience in gardening. An idol, he says, is "like to a white thorn in an orchard, that every bird sitteth upon." It is as powerless, he says, to take the initiative "as a scarecrow in a garde

numerates the threatening facts which the Pilgrims to New England faced. He mentions all the difficulties which they foresaw, and then adds, "I

l. It was as much as to say, "All our eggs are not in one basket. We are likely to meet more than one kin

nd no man's copy. He had not learned what he said by study. Nor were they notional nor speculative, but sensible and practical, the setting up of the Kingdom of God in men's hearts, an

at is to happen next? You cannot find out by noting the trend of events. A peep into a resourceful mind

of the ideal of a simple life that they are suspicious of civilization. The text from Ecclesiastes, "God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions," has been used to discourage any budding Ediso

l progress follows the same lines as all other progress. First there is a conscious need. Necessity is the mother of invention. Then comes the patient search for the ways and means through which the want may be satisfied. Ages

He may be compelled to use the same elements, but he is always trying some new combination. If he must fail once more, he sees to it that it shall be in a slightly different way. He has learned in twenty ways how the thing cannot be done. This information is very useful to h

been seen the triumphs of the experimental method. There are, however, evidences that many of the best intellects a

icult task was to make it dirigible. It was the same problem that had puzzled the inventors of primitive times who had discovered that, by making use of a proper log, they could be carried from place to place on the water. What the landing place should be was, however, a matter beyond their control. They had to trust to the current, which was occasionally favorable to them. In the first exhilaration over their discovery they were doubtless thankful enough to go down s

ng a dirigible civilization. It falls under Bacon's category of "things which never yet have been performed." Heretofore civilizations have floated on the co

h or more powerful. We must also tax our ingenuity to find ways for the equitable division of the wealth and the just use of power. We are no longer satisfied with increase in the vast unwieldy bulk of our possessions, we eagerly seek to direct them to definite ends. Even here in America we are beginning to feel that "progress" is not an end in itself. Whether it is desirable or not, depends on th

derstanding, nor yet favour to men of skill." In so far as that is true to-day, things are working badly. It must be within our power to remedy such an absurd situation. We have to devise more efficient means for securing fair play, and for enforci

ill upon the earth been so long delay

shapes of f

narrowing l

e thousand

thousand yea

valiant ma

eart, the ki

n his business before he can expect to have any measure of success. The kindlier h

ound" described the predicament in wh

ower but to wee

dness want; wors

e, and those who

ings are thus c

ials for a more beautiful world. All that is needed is to find the proper combination. Goodness alone will not do the work. Goodnes

live in a time when intelligence is applied to the work of love. The children of light are less content than they once were to be outranked in sagacity by the children of this world. The result is that many things which once were the dreams of saints

it is the millennium or nothing. He will tolerate no indirect approach. He will give no credit for partial approximations. He insists on holding every on

his way of looking at things. It would do no harm to st