The Warriors | Page 8

is because there is an infinite in him, which
with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the finite." Says
Tennyson:
"_It is not death for which we pant, But life, more life, and fuller, that
we want_."
These aspirations are prophetic. Does a clod-hopper dream? We move
toward our desires. The wish for growth is but the call of Jesus to our
souls. We sometimes hear of the "limitations of life." What are they?
Who set them? Man himself, not God. The call of Jesus urges the soul
of man to possibilities which are infinite.
A large life is the fulfilment of God's ideal of our lives--the life which,
from all eternity, He has looked upon as possible for us. Could any

career be grander than the one that God has planned for us? God does
not think petty thoughts: He longs for grandeur for us all.
6. Jesus calls us by the spirit of the times. There is a growing
recognition of the affinity between God and the human soul. Religion
has changed in spirit as well as in form. It used to be considered a tract
in one's experience, and now it is perceived to be all of life--its impetus,
its central moving force, the reason for being, activity, development,
for ethical conduct, and for unselfish and joyous helpfulness. Religion
is more and more perceived to be, not a thing of feeble sentiment, of
restraint, of exaction, of meek subordination and resignation, but the
unfolding of the free human spirit to the realization of its highest
possibilities and its allegiance to that which is eternal and supreme. The
nineteenth century closes with the thinker who is also a man of
meditation and devotion. We offer to Heaven the incense of aspiration,
hope, research, talent, and imagination.
The chief thing toward which we are moving is, I believe, the
Enthronement of the Christ. Christ has always been, in the hearts of the
few, enthroned and enshrined. Even in the dark years of mediaeval
superstition and unrest, there were the cloistered ones who maintained
traditions of faith and did works of mercy, as there were knightly ones
who upheld the ministry of chivalry, and followed, though afar, the
tender shining of the Holy Grail. But now all the signs point to a great
and general recognition of the Christ--Christ to be lifted high on the
hands of the nations, to His throne above the stars!
A new spiritual note is to be heard in modern subjects of study, is
noticeable in all paths of intellectual prestige. History is no more
looked upon as the story of the trophies of warriors, conquerors, and
kings. History, rising out of dim mists, is seen to be the marching and
the countermarching of nations in the throes of progress and of social
change. It is not the story of princes alone, but of peasants as well; the
result of myriads of small, obscure lives; of changing conditions; of the
movements of great economic, psychologic, and spiritual forces.
Looking backward over the moving processional of the nations of the
earth, we may see how, without rest, without pause, through countless

ages, the myriad legions of men have been passing across the scene of
life--passing, and fading away!
"_All that tread The globe are but a handful of the tribes That slumber
in its bosom_."
Empires have risen, and empires have decayed; dynasties have been
buried, and long lines of kings, wrapping stately robes about them,
have lain down to die. Thrones have been overturned, armies and
navies have been mustered and scattered, land and sea have been
peopled and made desolate, as the thronging tribes and races have lived
their little life and passed away. Babylon and Assyria, India and Arabia,
Egypt and Persia, Rome and Greece,--each of these has had its lands
and conquests, its song and story, its wars and tumults, its wrath and
praise. Under all the tides of conquest and endeavor but one fact shines
supreme: the steady progress of the Cross.
One principle of growth and development is being slowly revealed,--an
approach to symmetry and civic form, which is seen in freedom, justice,
popular education, the rise of masses, the power of public opinion, and
a general regard for life, health, peace, national prosperity, and the
individual weal. The day has passed when men merely lived, slept, ate,
fought; they are now involved in an intricate and progressive
civilization. Sociology, ethics, and politics are newly blazed pathways
for its development, its guidance, and its ideals. We are moving on to
new dreams of patriotism, of statesmanship, and of civil rule.
Literature, instead of being considered as merely an expression of the
primitive experiences of a race in its sagas, glees, ballads, dramas, and
larger works and songs, is more and