The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, January 1884: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
History
The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, January 1884: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
“What we call the new birth is but the opening of the eyes of the
spirit upon its own world.” “There can be no kingdom of love to us,
unless we enter it by love. We can not be mathematicians unless
we enter the kingdom of mathematics. We can not perceive anything
unless we address to it the appropriate organ of perception.” “Have
we risen into any experience of the higher life? Are we in the way
of completeness of soul? A soul dark toward God is in sad plight. No
meaning in worship—none in prayer—that is a soul diseased.” “Baptism
makes a child of God as coronation makes a king. But remember, he was
a king before he was crowned.” As Lucretia Mott said, “We must have
truth for authority, and not authority for truth.” “Dorcas did not
bestow alms-gifts but alms-_deeds_; wrought not by a Dorcas society,
but by Dorcas herself.” “Christ’s miracles were subject to the laws of
the spiritual world. He could not spiritually bless those who were not
susceptible to spiritual blessing.” “If I would prove to any one that
God is his father I must first prove to him that I am his brother.”
When the delightful hour was over, among the loving group that
gathered around her, attracted by the healing virtue of her spiritual
atmosphere, came a temperance sojourner from the east. As my name was
mentioned, the face so full of spirituality lighted even more than was
its wont, and the soft, strong voice said, “Sometimes an introduction
is a _recognition_—and so I feel it to be now.” Dear reader, I consider
that enough of a compliment to last me for a term of years. I feel
that it helped mortgage me to a pure life; I shall be better for it
“right along.” For if I have ever clasped hands with a truth-seeker, a
disciple of Christ and lover of humanity, Sarah B. Cooper held out to
me that loving, loyal hand. The only “invitation out” which I gave to
myself, and insisted on keeping, was to this woman’s home on Vallejo
avenue, where, with her noble husband and true-hearted daughter, she
illustrates how near the gates of Paradise a mortal home may be. One’s
ideal seldom “materializes,” but in that lovely cottage, with its
spotless cleanliness, fair, tasteful rooms, individualized so perfectly
that he who ran might read how high the natures mirrored here, in the
flower-decked dinner table and the “good talk,” in the study upstairs
packed with choice books, and the sunset window looking out over the
Golden Gate, I stored up memories that ought to yield electric energy
for many a day. We talked of the past—and I found that my new friend,
as well as her husband, had been for years the pupil of my beloved
father in the gospel, our lamented Dr. Henry Bannister, late Professor
of Hebrew in Garrett Biblical Institute at Evanston, Ill. With what
reverence and tenderness we talked of that brave, earnest, sympathetic
life! We spoke of her experiences as a teacher in the South, and she
rejoiced in the good tidings I brought of a “Yankee school-ma’am’s”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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