Faith in divine progress is exprest in these verses by John Philo
Trowbridge:
The eternal truth of God moves on
In undisputed sway,
While all the narrow creeds of men
Decline and pass away.
The eternal light of God shines on
Beneath an eternal sky,
Tho human luminations cease,
And human watch-fires die.
But faith still mounts the endless years,
And truth grows lovelier still,
And light shines in upon the soul
From some immortal hill.
(2533)
* * * * *
Professor Guyot, of Princeton, says that progress in the world
is like the development of plant life. It has three periods
of growth. The first is that in the soil--growth by the root.
The second is more accelerated--growth by the stem. The third
is the most rapid of all--growth by the blossom and fruit. The
world has been growing by the root, obscurely, lingeringly,
slowly. It is growing by the stem now, very much faster. It is
beginning to break into the blossom and fruit, when progress
will be wonderful compared with our past experience in all other
periods.--HENRY WARD BEECHER.
(2534)
* * * * *
Modern ministers, while they should not be stagnantly
conservative, are sometimes apt to make too little allowance for
the inveterate habits in old saints of clinging to the past.
These old saints in many cases can not easily get into line with
the word “go.” They are not prepared for new eras of thought or
the inauguration of new epochs. Hume destroyed the faith of his
mother and made it a wreck. Arterial sclerosis is a hardening
of the walls of the arteries, so that they become unable to
bear the pressure of the blood when impelled by the heart under
excitement. A similar process of hardening of the avenues of
mental operations characterizes many excellent folk in old age.
(2535)
See IMPROVEMENT.
=Progress, a Sign of=--See SURGERY, IMPROVEMENT IN.