Show Of 7 1 KINDLING THE DIVINE FIRE High up in th the scale of the most beautiful and affecting words ever uttered uttered ut ut- are those of the old Hebrew psalmist While I was musing t the e fire burned then I with my tongue Now ev everybody in the wide world is interested in the question of ot othow how most effectually to kindle fires and that all the way from the most ordinary smoker at his wits wit's end to know how to light his pipe in a gale of wind to the prophet how to set and keep burning on the altar of his own heart the divine fire of love and righteousness amid all aU the distractions distractions and of human life On a subject then of such universal universal sal interest might it not be worth ones one's while to ask the psalmist how he contrived to kindle his especial kind of fire His only answer answer would have to be the same he had made before before be be- fore While I was musing the fire burned then I with my tongue But curiously enough this answer will be found found- on examination to emphasize a principle of universal application to kindling fires of every conceivable kind whether kind whether on the hearth or on the wick lamp-wick or in the social circle the students student's study or orthe orthe orthe the saints saint's retreat of silent prayer This present age of ours in America America America Amer Amer- ica with its monotony of endless variety variety variety va va- and its ceaseless round of activities activities which drive so many at last into mental bankruptcy has been denominated denominated denominated de de- nominated by many the helter skip-jack skip age which has changed the theold theold theold old proverb Look before you leap into Leap before you look and then dont don't look but leap again As though one were no higher up in the rank of 01 creation than a grasshopper or flea instead of being capable of large discourse discourse discourse dis dis- course of reason looking before and after Now let any man try try and and try for fora a whole year If he pleases pleases to to think of any single vital and beautiful process process pro pro- cess of life that is not at the same time a process of burning burning-a a process of persistently concentrating on some chosen thought feeling or personality personal personal- ity the scattered else-scattered energies of ot a thousand rays He might as well try to think of a Minot's Ledge lighthouse lighthouse lighthouse light light- house set on a rock to warn off the mariner forty miles away from the perils of ot shipwreck yet whose keeper should declare It a matter of no import import im im- port to keep a fiery combustion going on by concentrating the fierce oxygen oxygen oxygen oxy oxy- gen of the air on the inflammatory carbon of the up pumped-up oil all and then sending up the splendid flame through the draught of a high glass chimney so crystal clear that its immaculate purity would drive to despair the most most- distracted private housewife in New England who should ever dream of entering into competition with him in the luster of her own lamps No there is the one immutable law everywhere prevailing The solar heat for example is all about us but so diffused as through diffusion to prove too feeble for a thousand needful needful need need- ful practical purposes Collect Its rays on the surface of a lens refract I them till they focus in one fiery center cen cent ter and forthwith your gunpowder explodes your solid oak leaps into flame and your refractory iron melts and runs And just so is it with us poor scatter-brained scatter and woolgathering wool gather ing mortals T Thoughts and emotions in plenty are there In all aU our minds but vague and Inoperative through only fitfully shining on a hundred diverging diverging di dl verging lines upon a hundred distractIng distracting distracting distract distract- ing objects And thence comes comes comes-as as we reflectively survey suney the thousand mechanical devices for concentrating foil nil i force on imperative ends which the ingenuity of man has his devised in cannon cannon can can- non non- steamship or 01 simple watch yes watch yes thence comes th the tremendous momentum momentum momentum momen momen- tum and striking striking home home power o of that saying of old The children 0 of of this world are wiser In their day and generation gen than the ch children of l light But to return to our Hebr Hebrew w psalmist psalm psalm- 1st with his thrilling outcry While 1 I Iwas was musing the fire burned then n I with my tongue What had he been doing to kindle and fan the fire that flamed out in such rapt inspiration inspiration in in- on his tongue He had been musing But what what did did did- he mean by mus musing ing He had been brooding incubating incubating ing quickening to throbbing conscious con con- conscious life a great theme of meditation meditation meditation tion and thereby had ben en setting on ona ona ona a marvelous mystically-divine mystically process process pro pro- cess he had often paused in love and reverence to witness in some little littlebird bird bird bird-a a wren or sparrow sitting patiently patiently pa pat In its nest on its little circlet of eggs in prophetic of a great joy to break out of them Little did the tiny creature reflectively reflectively reflectively reflect reflect- ively know of the creative function she was or of the seemingly seemingly seem seem- miraculous tra transformations going going go go- going ing on underneath her warm fostering fostering foster foster- ing body As a great mind has said It Is not always needful for truth to take a definite shape shupe it is enough if it it H hovers about us like a spirit and produces harmony if it it is wafted through the air like the sound of a abell abell abell bell grave and kindly The little littlebIrd littlebird littlebird bird was acting on an Instinct which yet to her was vague but delightful soul soul experience experience undifferentiated element element ele ele- ment of the vaguely-apprehended vaguely universal universal uni uni- versal soul And so a dim sacred impulse impulse im im- pulse held her patient and faithful to her often wearisome task Should she fly flyaway away and yielding to the fascination fascination tion of change and novelty stay away too long then bereft of her fostering warmth the working miracle-working process would cease its play playas as her eggs grew cold and addled So equally with our Hebrew psalmist psalm psalm- 1st in his brooding incubating process process process pro pro- cess of so quickening to life his great theme as finally to cry out While I Iwas Iwas Iwas was musing the fire burned then I with my tongue But it was wag no rapturous discovery for his personal person person- al alone It was to illustrate and emphasize an experience which must become tho the inheritance of universal universal uni unit versal humanity and apart from which there can exist no rich deep varied genial grateful interior life in any man or woman Until one has learned learned learned-In in some feeble measure at least least to to brood and incubate the pro- pro profoundest roundest problems of human relations and human destiny he must remain shallow trivial unsympathetic and tedious if it not unendurable to live with Perpetual surface activity with no underlying quickening process set seton seton seton on by habits of meditation is the one sure flinty and whirling dust-whirling highway to intellectual social and religious bankruptcy of ot soul And why Simply because every isolated I thought object or personality in the world is by itself trivial and con con- It must gather around itself rich varied beautiful cheery and devout associations And it is only through hours of ot profound grateful grate ful meditation on all that any single object wife object wife child nature art opportunity really really has been to us for years that we can cry out of them In rapture Not In entire forgetfulness And not in utter nakedness But trailing But trailing clouds of ot glory do they come From God who Is their home Boston Herald A Lik A t |