AESTHETICISM AND ALTRUISM. 109 "Our Father who art in Heaven," placed no limit to the number of God's children, and said: "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me,"a universal Saviour. God is our father and all men are brothers. All his early apostles, that left written testimonials of the doctrines of the Master, emphasized love as pre-eminently God and God pre-eminently good: "There is none good but one, that is God." (Mat. xix:17.) The good and the beautiful! Nothing is good and nothing is beautiful that divides men into warring factions into sects falsely calling themselves disciples of him who said, "Be ye one as I and the Father are one." God is all and in all. Wherever we see goodness or beauty we see God. He is manifest in the good, as in Jesus. God was "manifest in the flesh." He is manifest in all nature, in forests, clouds, the setting and the rising sun, in the lily and rose of field and garden, in the human form, in beauty everywhere in music; for harmony is another name for God. The artist is a seeker after God, because he would discover the lines of beauty. Beauty is divine as are goodness, love, truth and wisdom. The time is near when there will be set up in all the temples of worship, in our country, statues of the promoters of the good-of Washington, of Lincoln, of Longfellow, of Whittier, of Phillips, of Garrison of Thomas Paine, of Channing, of Father McGlynn, of Colonel Ingersoll, of Horace Mann, of Lucy Stone, of Mrs. Livermore, of Miss Anthony and of many, many more church buildings the palaces of art. The worship of the good and the beautiful is the only true worship of God. Who, then, is truly a saint? He that does great good; not he that lives a barren life. Edison is a saint of the first order. But neither he nor his kindred would approve for him the title. So we will all vote to substitute for the title of "saint" that of benefactor. He that has been in no sense a benefactor has lived in vain. But, as with the widow's mite, it is not the superior amount, but the all that counts. gave all she had." He who gives his heart, his soul, his mind and his strength wholly to make the world the better, the wiser and the happier is a benefactor though he give but the motion of a finger to cheer on the good. He that was not put to work before the eleventh received the same compensation as he who worked from the first. "She hour hour to the twelfth. Why? Because wage is subsistence and to work much or little, subsistence is the same; and, let the hours of toil be many or few, the pay must equal the sum required for subsistence. It cannot be less. That is the law. YE 73D LESSON. Aestheticism and Altruism. of Jupiter. Altruism sprang out of aestheticism like Minerva from the brain Why is Jesus perfect and hence divine? It is because his character contains, figuratively speaking, but one elementary substance-as we say of the diamond, and, like the diamond, that substance surpasses all other substances in purity, brilliancy and impenetrability or unyieldableness. And what is the name of that all-comprehensive element of his nature or character? It is altruism. And what is altruism? It is the infinitude of love, like mother-love. Does one need to attend an art-school to learn to appreciate the unsurpassed beauty of motherlove? And do I need to say to the reader, "You know that to love your neighbor as yourself is a good because the Bible tells us so?" There never was a sane human being that did not appreciate the beauty of disinterested love long before there was a Bible or book of any kind? The time will never come in the future when any sane man will say that Jesus did not live an ideally beautiful life. And when that is said all is said; for beauty is a perfect crystal or a perfect globe or a perfectly symmetrical tree or shrub or leaf or flower or fruit or a character best fitted to make others glad, like the Saviour's—symmetrically perfect. Suppose every man on earth stand upon his feet and with uplifted hand swear this oath: "I will not live in a better house than my neighbor; wear better clothes than my neighbor; ride in a more costly car or carriage than my neighbor; eat more costly food than my neighbor, and I will be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame"-would he not swear as every Christian man ought to swear? The man who takes pride in being better off than other men is-according to the Christian standard-a Pagan. The ideally perfect man is a creature of art. The material of the statue is the ivory and gold of infinite love identical with mother-love. Mother-love is Christ-love-the love that the New Testament stands for. It is Christianity. Why so? Because it is disinterested, yea, selfsacrificing selfishness no part of it. We have had our fill of dogmatism. We have had our fill of the philosophy of greed. One says, "Marshall Field got his wealth in an honest and righteous way." How many thousand homes did he make dark? How many lamps put out? He got rich by monopolizing opportunities. Here is a business that will support a family. Marshall Field breaks up that business-absorbs it in his store-not only that but a thousand other establishments, and he installs lady clerks behind his counters to do the work for a pittance that the fathers of a thousand families were doing before Field broke them up. starves the girls on small weekly pay, while the profits that supported the families Marshall Field places in his own pocket, and so becomes a millionaire-the deed of an highwayman! He The monopolist who puts out the light of homes and takes to himself the profits that would have gone to support thousands of families, giving food, clothing, shelter and education to multiplied thousands of children--is a public enemy. So "Mr. Field owned the largest store in the world," did he? Yes, he took to himself dishonestly and dishonorably the profits of a thousand stores and pauperized a thousand families. He did it "legitimately," of course. So a gambler gets his gold-in a fair risk-approved by the "code" of the gaming world"legitimately.". What may be done? Bring in public ownership. Of the department stores? Yes, and of all other monopolies. YE 74TH LESSON. Woman and the Ballot. Equal rights in Colorado applying to both good and bad, male and female, in relation to the ballot, have proven harmful, it is claimed, WOMAN AND THE BALLOT. 111 in their effects on society. The bad have the balance of power. Hitherto abandoned women have been the principal source of income to grafters, the women being blackmailed and bled by the municipal authorities ad libitum. Brought up monthly and "fined" a given sum, the price of "police protection," they have been no inconsiderable source of revenue-pocketed by officials. Now the fact that those women vote at the city elections compels respectful treatment. It has brought about a condition that will determine whether, after all, there is need of a "submerged tenth." The need for that tenth, hitherto, has been financial neutralizing the moral evil in the eyes of the grafters that fattened off profits derived from the hells tolerated and protected for the money wrung from the victims. If, as some contend, our civilization demands that a system of concubinage be kept up and whitechapels are a good-a social necessity, then should the unmarried women, who fill this needed office of good at so great a cost and sacrifice of themselves, becoming outcasts for the public weal-abandoned by father and mother-lost to homedemoralized by drink and cigarettes-these poor girls, I say, should be pensioned for their sacrifices to the public necessity, instead of being robbed and blackmailed and so cruelly treated, as has been done and is the custom of city officials to do who fatten off the spoil exacted from the poor creatures. The votes of these women of the hells will compel a change for the better, if their way of living is injurious to public morals and to family life and the sacrifice of their own well being not, after all, for the public weal-abandoned by father and mother-lost to hometo save the outcasts that graft has heretofore rendered powerless. Or, if we must have the hells, they will become respectable-the girls be made queens of society. For the sake of their votes they will be the "pets" of the municipality. And the only way to lessen their influence will be to save them from that life and so do away with that class of voters. The better way, I say, to destroy the influence of bad people is to make good people out of them., ballot to protect With the ballot But do not give these back again, without the them, to the tender mercy of corrupt city officials. in their hands they cease to be victims of tyranny and graft, and they become free agents able to rise out of the mire-able to save all their earnings and find respectable occupations. There is not an abandoned woman in the world that is so from choice; but only, because having once gone wrong, she cannot now rise on account of the villainy of policemen who rob them and trample them down deeper and deeper in the mire, with no possible means of protection where they have no vote. The wrongs suffered by them are greater than were suffered by slave women. These were very much better off than are poor abandond girls. They had place whereon to lay their heads in peace. The girls have not. It is too late to claim that men or women are helped by cruelty and abuse. Where women or men have no vote they have no protection anywhere. Give them an equal voice with any and all others -all equal, male and female-in government, then will women protect themselves and their homes. Then will their boys and girls be surrounded by environments that will make for right doing-for temperance for purity, and a new civilization will come in. There will then be no slums no hells-no liquor selling-no drinking men or women long outside of insane asylums. Give women the ballot tomorrow everywhere and, for a time, as in Colorado, their power for good may not be unitedly exerted. But soon there will be a mighty uplift. The Mothers' Congress will soon have as big an influence on legislation as the Bankers' Congress has now. When the mothers and their unmarried daughters all vote one way--as they will rather than see the wrongs that now afflict society continue-lo! there will be a shaking of the dry bones of reform. Cigar and cigarette idiocy, and beer and whisky guzzling will soon go out of style. All men will look upon home as paramount-will come home early in the evenings, and wives and husbands universally will become each other's companions. Young men will no longer puff cigar smoke into the faces of young women an outrage! Whitechapels will cease to be a "necessity of civilization" in the estimation of any, and the daughter never be "abandoned." The wayward will be restored to virtue, and all adults will marry and estabilsh homes. The law of love having taken the place of the "law of retaliation,' evil will be at last "overcome of good" and Christ be King. YE 75TH LESSON. The Christian Family. The New Testament definition of a Christian man is an exalted one, viz: "Priest," "king," and "son of God." (I. John iii:1.2. Rev. 1:6 and V:10.) Jesus taught us to say "Our Father." If every man, from boyhood, realized that he is divine-a "son of God"-would he not believe positively that he had a sublime mission to fulfill in this earth-life, as had the Master? This is the ideal of our religion that renders it superior to all other religious or philosophical ideals. And, speaking to those not church members, I say that, looked upon as philosophy, the New Testament teachings of man's nature and his obligations to himself, to his fellowmen and to God, occupy a higher plane than the teachings of any other book now extant. That transcendental idealism or philosophy we owe to the eclecticism of the school of Neo-Platonists of Alexandria-to the union of Occidental with Oriental thought, and, possibly, it is the expression of the highest ethical truth conceivable, and which can never be outgrown or superseded. The climax of this truth is the sublime doctrine of the divinity of humanity contained in the expression, "Ye are sons of God" and the lofty ideal of our mission as "priests and kings." How ought a priest, king and son of God live and act day by day? Here deductive reasoning comes into play. What should our demeanor be? Would we know any superior on this planet or in Heaven itself but the Divine Being? Accountable only to "our Father in Heaven" for our beliefs and knowing no shepherd to follow but the Master, we are free men, "sons of God!" Animal instinct ignored, divinity bestirs within and a Gough rises from the gutter to be a savior of thousands-a "priest, king and son of God" undoubtedly. The divine nature that is his is become master-God that "dwelleth in him" makes eloquent his tongue and he proclaims, "Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts”—the dram drinker his cups. But every man has one primary duty to fulfill. What is that? It is to build a home-not one made of brick and stone, but of immortal souls laid in the mortar and cement of aspiration and love. This must be builded throughout and entirely by father and motherthe two that are one. Parents, by love, devotion and good example, and by these means only, may form good characters in their sons and daughters. To be a college professor, a railroad king, a money king or a billionaire broker of Wall street is nothing; but to bring up a family of noble children is all there is of life-the only purpose of human existence. There is no great fortune but one-a household of magnificent sons and daughters. "How may I bring up a family of good children?" each parent should ask himself or herself-make it the only real object of his or her life to answer intelligently and correctly-and not how may I make money or how win at cards in the social club or set and "have THE CONSERVATION OF THE HOME. 113 a good time." As regards riches only the "golden mean"-if not the minimum is desirable. "Man wants but little here below is a most important truth regarding wealth. "To make money should be the least object of effort; but to be a teacher should be the supreme object of endeavor especially of your own sons and daughters, and, above all, by example as was he the "Great Example." Blest with a large family, how may the character of each child be properly shaped? Each must be "discipled," not "disciplined." I saw a preacher fifty years ago lash his twelve year old son, with a five-foot hickory withe, so severely as would today bring upon one a heavy fine to beat even an ox thus cruelly. What sin had the boy committed? He went to bed before family prayers the night before. "I want my boy to be what I am morally-every father says by implication if not in words. And if the son have regard for him he will be as was the parent, or good or bad. Why do sons of preachers go wrong by times? Because they have not been discipled. Whose fault The parents'-the negligence of one or both. Why do boys take to cigarettes? Because the parents have not given sufficient warning of the danger to disciple the child-have not convinced the boy of the wrong of the vice. The child forms positive beliefs while yet in the kindergarten that determine his conduct through a long The good parent will make a great noise against wrong-doing in the presence of his children as when his house is burning he will vociferously cry, "Fire!" "Fire!" with no thought of decorum, but he will not abuse the child. is it? life. and YE 76TH LESSON. The Conservation of the Home. Above all other motives to human action towers the building preservation of the home. It is the one superior incentive to "promoting the general welfare"- -a fundamental aim of government. political and religious organization of all kinds. It is the only purpose of all human effort of every order. is the purpose of human life, as of the wasp to build its mud That nest, gather the spiders to place with its eggs; then she dies, her work completed. So Nature ordains for the human kind-one single work to do. Diverted from this and not moving toward it, life race suicide ensues. Whatever retards, or prevents in any degree home-building is disease of the social body that should, and must, be quarantined against, and stamped out. It is not necessary to build great and costly domiciles. But the family is the vital necessity. Do the best you can to build a happy home, O fathers and mothers, but do not make it a slave-pen for yourselves and children to "keep up appearance." If mankind were, like the beaver or muskrat, satisfied with a fixed type of home-shelter within the reach of each household to erect all alike, and no idiotic struggle to build larger and larger and, as they say, "better and better," which is a falsehood; for no home is, or can be, better than the old log cabin in the woods and, if all looked to the freedom and happiness of children and the safe-guarding of their own mental and physical well-being, we would keep close to Mother Nature. Great riches are a humbug. Wealth, as an end of endeavor, is madness; worse, it is idiocy. How little we need! How small the cost! But what waste by madmen for no benefit! What |