Extracted text
Editorial transcription, mechanically normalized from the cited scan. The claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
Is God something or nothing? If something, this forty-inch lens, the grandest achievement of human genius, would now demonstrate and corroborate "his" existence. It fails to do so. "He" cannot be the invisible ether, nor abstract space. "He" must be a tangible reality or a myth. The telescope says, "all search is in vain." Shall we ignore the highest authority of a civilized race, or shall we prostrate our intellects and worship a myth?— The Lostou Investigator. A SINGLE grain of musk shut up in a room for years, will fill it with matter thrown off from itself without any appreciable loss of bulk. No glass, however great its magnifying power, can make a particle of this material substance visible. The writer above quoted ought therefore to deny that it exists; but if he does, his own sense of smell, which he cannot doubt, will prove him a liar. A deer, or even a man with shoes on his feet, passes over the ground. Many hours subsequently, a hound is shown the track and follows it at a rapid speed. At every step, a material substance so refined and subtile that no instrument ever invented by man, or that can be invented, can reveal its presence, is left in the track, yet if a hound scents it he will follow the trail on the run. Obviously, then, taking the infidel materialist on his own ground of materialism, there is plenty of room for God to exist in the world without his blind Stray Sparks Flying Here and There. Uf\\V< LORD, one .Faith, one Baptism." We saw ^-^ this legend over a holy pile of brick and mortar wdiich some people denominate a, church, and we marveled thereat. We have met many who thought themselves lords, and held many human lives in their hands, to be lightly broken or cast into the gutter of despair and degradation. We have seen these lords wring another drop of blood out of quivering hearts, and sanctimoniously dedicate brick and mortar as a temple, holy and pure, for the worship of (iod. Then a light dawned upon our benumbed faculties. Gold was the god, the power of money was the faith, and greed was the baptism. There aretwo kinds of salvation which are offered to the world. One is a plan—whose plan no man stateth— wherein all must die to be saved. The other kind declares that youmust live, and live righteously with God, the neighbor, and self in order to be abletoattain to the possibility of salvation. Who says farming doesn't pay? A Minneapolis flouring mill man has made |2,000,000 on wheat. He "He must be a tangible reality or a myth." Tangible means touchable. Flectricity is certainly a reality. It is tangible too, but a man must be careful how he touches it, or he will never touch anything again. Light is a reality, but does not respond to touch; it is not, therefore, a myth. Thought is something real, yet not tangible nor visible by Yerkes' great telescope. The mightiest realities in nature are not only intangible, but escape our senses altogether. Life is certainly a reality, that by the means of moisture and various other material and spiritual substances brings into being incalculable amounts of various products every year, but it can hardly be said to be tangible. Yerkes' telescope never enabled anybody to see it, nor is it appreciable by any of the senses. Idiocy can no more see God, than a blind man can distinguish colors. It is only the "pure in heart" that have the promise of "seeing God," and that will be when they "awake in his likeness." raised the wheat himself—raised it $2.000,000 higher than he paid the farmer for it, who raised if from the ground. In the meantime, the consumers of flour and wheat furnished the |2,000,000. Here is another evidence of prosperity with silk fringes on it! Lost: An ante-election prosperity raquet. somewhere between the 1st of November, 189(>, and the White House. Finder will be suitably rewarded upon the return of the same to Wm. Mc Kinley or Mark Ilanna. as it is essential that they have it to use in the next national tournament. Don't get puffed up with the vain conceit that you are better than your neighbor, for you will, if you harbor such thoughts, turn yourself into a habitation for bats and owls. Any fool can lose his temper, but it takes a wise man to keep it and train it for good use. If any one calls you a fool, don't get angry, for that would only prove his accusation.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 12, No. 16 · Mar 4, 1898 · PDF p. 8