Beulah - Page 346/348

"What are you thinking of?" said he, passing his hand over her head

caressingly.

"Thinking of my life--of the bygone years of struggle."

"They are past, and can trouble you no more. 'Let the dead past bury

its dead!'"

"No; my past can never die. I ponder it often, and it does me good;

strengthens me, by keeping me humble. I was just thinking of the

dreary, desolate days and nights I passed, searching for a true

philosophy and going further astray with every effort. I was so

proud of my intellect; put so much faith in my own powers; it was no

wonder I was so benighted."

"Where is your old worship of genius?" asked her husband, watching

her curiously.

"I have not lost it all. I hope I never shall. Human genius has

accomplished a vast deal for man's temporal existence. The physical

sciences have been wheeled forward in the march of mind, and man's

earthly path gemmed with all that a merely sensual nature could

desire. But, looking aside from these channels, what has it effected

for philosophy, that great burden, which constantly recalls the

fabled labors of Sisyphus and the Danaides? Since the rising of

Bethlehem's star, in the cloudy sky of polytheism, what has human

genius discovered of God, eternity, destiny? Metaphysicians build

gorgeous cloud palaces, but the soul cannot dwell in their cold,

misty atmosphere. Antiquarians wrangle and write; Egypt's moldering

monuments are raked from their desert graves, and made the theme of

scientific debate; but has all this learned disputation contributed

one iota to clear the thorny way of strict morality? Put the Bible

out of sight, and how much will human intellect discover concerning

our origin-our ultimate destiny? In the morning of time sages

handled these vital questions, and died, not one step nearer the

truth than when they began. Now, our philosophers struggle,

earnestly and honestly, to make plain the same inscrutable

mysteries. Yes; blot out the records of Moses, and we would grope in

starless night; for, notwithstanding the many priceless blessings it

has discovered for man, the torch of science will never pierce and

illumine the recesses over which Almighty God has hung his veil.

Here we see, indeed, as 'through a glass, darkly.' Yet I believe the

day is already dawning when scientific data will not only cease to

be antagonistic to Scriptural accounts, but will deepen the impress

of Divinity on the pages of Holy Writ; when 'the torch shall be

taken out of the hand of the infidel, and set to burn in the temple

of the living God'; when Science and Religion shall link hands. I

revere the lonely thinkers to whom the world is indebted for its

great inventions. I honor the tireless laborers who toil in

laboratories; who sweep midnight skies in search of new worlds; who

unheave primeval rocks, hunting for footsteps of Deity; and I

believe that every scientific fact will ultimately prove but another

lamp planted along the path which leads to a knowledge of Jehovah!

Ah! it is indeed peculiarly the duty of Christians 'to watch, with

reverence and joy, the unveiling of the august brow of Nature by the

hand of Science; and to be ready to call mankind to a worship ever

new'! Human thought subserves many useful, nay, noble, ends; the

Creator gave it, as a powerful instrument, to improve man's temporal

condition; but oh, sir, I speak of what I know, when I say: alas,

for that soul who forsakes the divine ark, and embarks on the gilded

toys of man's invention, hoping to breast the billows of life and be

anchored safely in the harbor of eternal rest! The heathens, 'having

no law, are a law unto themselves'; but for such as deliberately

reject the given light, only bitter darkness remains. I know it; for

I, too, once groped, wailing for help."