The Modern Tendencies - July 1916

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is largely a matter business of activities. There never was more organization more conventions conferences & Committees as there are today. We shall never succeed fully be successful in im[ ]ty sowing the seeds of true religion until as long as we pay so little attention to the inner life. Our organization must be fed by the blood from the pulsing heart of faith life's ideals. People who have never been cherished any ideals can little appreciate those who dreamers who are longingly peering into the future & anxiously awaiting the dawn of that day on which they expect their lives to be transformed by the realization of their secret hopes. Hence they cannot hardly enter into the bitterness of one who has toiled up the long ascent in the hope of realizing his vision only to find another hill, or of one who has run for a crown & seet seen it crumble to dust before his feet. In fact the question has often been asked is it worth while to in the face of the bitter experiences of many to cherish dream fresh things & to cherish have lofty aspirations? Look at yonder man he is cast down & dispirited. For he pictured for himself a radiant future, he imagined the days that were to be, the noble work he was to do, the pure joy he was to drink. For years he has endured many a

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burden, beat down many a temptation & held the world at arms length. And his reward? Apparently nothing. Look ing at now turn your gaze upon this yon man there. He is a lover of art & has artistic aspirations but fate seems to have condemned him to some inferior position. He has Another has the gift of song but lack of money & influence have stifled it. A fourth has dreams of friendship & they have mocked him. Many there are who Such defeats have induced men to say that it is better to trudge along one's pathway without thinking of the horizon. It is many It is wiser to forget that life has any perspective & to see it merely as a flat surface of immediate duty. In fact it is better to have no ideals that we may have no rude awakenings since blighted hopes are harder to bear than lost possessions & withered hearts than empty homes. It is however an argument that is not only utterly false but baneful & destructive. For whatever may in sp. It is baneful because it is destroys the spark of hope & faith that may be burning in the human he breast -- It is faulty argument for the simple reason that try as one might to starve no argument of Prudence can possibly purge human hearts of their secret dreams. Try as hard as one may to Starve ideals & to reduce one to

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the de[] level of mediocrity & dullness, a book of poetry eg Tennyson's Idylls, Browning's Saul, Rabbi ben Ezra, or Wordsworths odes, a beautiful melody, a fine personality & behold a wonderful metamorphosis -- that man's or that woman's soul has taken fire & he is ablaze with aspiration which nothing can quench. How wonderful, how beautiful & how grateful we should be for this peculiar mysterious quality of God has breathed into us. Try as we might to refugerate the soul & the sad splen nature herself will inspire against it for who can tell the beauty of a a sunrise or the sad splendor of a sunset will again warm it into life & action. The Bible itself seems to be a record of radiant hopes clouded, of fond imaginations disappointed. The Israelites set out from Goshen for a land flowing with milk & honey but perished in the wilderness. Moses himself after a life of sacrifice & toil was denied the blessing of entering the land whither he had led his people. The nation chose a King & the Kingdom ended in disruption The prophets depicted the messianic age when the nations should go up to Jerusalem, & what did they behold the Holy City was in ruins. From my reads of such facts we are led to the belief

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^§ in bus have business, art or letters ^‡ that he may achieve something worth while

that the ideal eludes us & is always just a little beyond our grasp. The young workman ^§ proudly tries to perfect himself in his detail handcraft ^‡ & 20 yrs. later he is not satisfied. The man of middle age bends his neck to the yoke in a strenuous effort that he may the sooner to enter upon his well earned rest & when it is eventide he lives again only in the efforts of his children. Life is ever an ambition not a possession. But this ambition is not to be minimized fo for it is one of the most dynamic Powers in the world for it transforms & beautifies human life and casts a halo of glory exaltation upon the trivial & the commonplace. What a It may seem as if we are getting nothing but in reality we are getting everything. What a boys earns at school is not a medal but knowledge. What he earns in after years is not wealth but character. What Abram Moses received in the end was not the land of Cannan but God himself the strength & portion of the human soul. Indeed the pursuit of the ideal is not merely an advice it is a Necessity, a profound imperative necessity laid upon us all. We are helped up the steep way that leadeth to the stars ever refreshed with new hope ever discovering a new Horizon, Let O that every heart

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were aglow with purified ambition & the strong ideals of life that keep for they would add loveliness to life & beauty to the world.

After reading excerpts fr. this remark. wrk I believe one is stirred to do something of an unselfish nature in order to contrib. [ ] towards the happiness & welfare of mankind --

American being the youngest the most potent and best believed of the nations -- one with a remark. future -- it is she more than all others that is perhaps destined to bring about the Parl. of nations. Federation gove world.

I will c[ ]te in a poem America