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Thought and Culturc 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES LAING HERALD. 
 
 • » • 
 
 Grand Rapids, Ohio. 
 
 Azor Thurston. 
 
 1904. 
 

 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 JUL 6 1904 
 
 Copyright Entry 
 
 CLASS Cc XXc. No. 
 
 n / ^ 3 4- 
 ' COPY B 
 
 Copyright 1903 by 
 Azor Thurston. 
 
^^- 
 
 
 Dedicated to the. memory 
 
 of 
 
 Leonora Bradshaw 
 
 whose 
 
 beautiful and refined 
 
 life 
 
 devoted to the Master 
 
 went out for Him 
 
 in the 
 
 Soudan, Africa 
 
Introduction 
 
 by 
 
 Fanny J. Crosby 
 
Introduction. 
 
 During the month of August, 1901, 
 while attending the Chautauqua Assembly 
 at Tully Lakes, N. Y., it was my privilege 
 to hear one of the most brilliant and fas- 
 cinating lectures to which I have ever 
 listened. The audience was large and 
 appreciative. The subject of the lecture 
 was ''Thought and Culture." From the 
 commencement of the lecture every eye 
 was riveted on the speaker; and when, at 
 its close, he modestly retired from the 
 platform, the round of applause that fol- 
 lowed told the enthusiasm which his elo- 
 quence had awakened. The lecture was a 
 perfect success. Strength and beauty, 
 power and sublimity, were among its 
 peculiar characteristics ; each being made 
 to fit to its peculiar place. In short, it 
 was one of those rare specimens of genius 
 which can stand upon its own merits. 
 5 
 
Subsequently, while conversing with its 
 author, Charles Laing Herald, whom I 
 have the honor to rank among my choice 
 circle of friends, I ventured to suggest the 
 imperative duty that his lecture be pub- 
 lished in book form, which I knew would 
 be a stepping stone to his future useful- 
 ness. I am happy to learn that through 
 the advice of others also he has at last 
 consented to accede to our request. 
 
 This book speaks for itself. It needs no 
 eulogy to adorn its pages ; and it is my 
 earnest wish that I may be spared to place 
 my wreath of laurels on the brow of its 
 worthy author, and congratulate him upon 
 the success of his labors. 
 
 Fanny J. Crosby. 
 
 Bridgeport, Conn. 
 1901. 
 
Contents. 
 
 Introduction, 5 
 
 I. Definition of Culture, 8 
 
 11. The Relation of Thought 
 
 to Culture, 24 
 
 III. Sources of Thought, 
 
 1. Nature, 40 
 
 2. Books, 54 
 
 3. Persons, 61 
 
 4. The Spirit, 69 
 
 IV. The Influence of Ideals, 71 
 
I. 
 
 Definition of Culture. 
 
 Do you think that all the cultured 
 people of the world live in Boston? I 
 have met cultured people in Canada and 
 Great Britain ; in Denmark, Holland and 
 Russia; I have met cultured people even 
 m France. Do you think that all the 
 cultured people of America live in Boston? 
 I have met cultured people in Baltimore, 
 New York and Philadelphia ; I have met 
 cultured people even in Chicago. 
 
 You will agree with me, I am sure, 
 when I say that we should understand our 
 terms. Culture is a term not clearly 
 understood ; consequently a term that is 
 very much abused. Culture is character ; 
 character strengthened, beautified, and re- 
 fined. We may have character without 
 culture, but it is not possible to have cult- 
 ure without character. Culture, then, is 
 8 
 
the strengthening, the beautifying, and 
 the refining of character. 
 
 Strength is completeness in all its parts, 
 and weakness in none of its parts. You 
 would not regard a character as strong 
 if one of the cardinal virtues was lacking. 
 He is a strong character, but he is dis- 
 honest; he is a strong character, but he is 
 envious ; he is a strong character, but he is 
 useless. There is discord here ; there are 
 contradictions here. Again, strength in 
 all its parts is just as essential as com- 
 pleteness in its parts. A union of all the 
 virtues but weakness in the virtues des- 
 troys the confidence of strength. The 
 strengthening of character, then, is the 
 broadening, the deepening, and the height- 
 ening of what is strong comparatively, 
 and adding what is lacking, until there is 
 weakness in none of the parts, and until 
 there is completeness in all the parts. 
 
 There is beauty in strength ; the beauty 
 of strength. But strength unrelieved by 
 infinity, repose, moderation, and other 
 elements of beauty, is not beautiful. Last 
 summer I was boating on the Vermilion 
 9 
 
river. The river ran between cliffs of 
 solid rock at least one hundred feet high ; 
 age, permanence, strength, were sug- 
 gested ; storm and tempest, ocean wave 
 and centuries of time could not remove 
 those mighty cliffs. Now, take from 
 them the moss and the ferns, the wild 
 flowers and the shrubbery: take from 
 them the music of the little streams of 
 water running down, and the rainbows 
 that danced and sparkled in the spray; 
 take from them the refreshing shade and 
 the welcome rest, and there is nothing left 
 but a sad barreness, — strength but not 
 beauty. So some characters. 
 
 Why do you call that character beauti- 
 ful? We are told that it is not possible to 
 define beauty. I believe it. I have tried 
 and failed. I find that others have tried 
 and failed. We may, perhaps, be able to 
 analyse beauty, — separate and name its 
 elements. We may bring its elements 
 together. Now, define, if you please, the 
 combination, the synthesis. 
 
 Any poem, painting, or character, that 
 leaves a lasting impression, we are told, is 
 beautiful. 10 
 
There is in beauty an element of infin- 
 ity. Why is the setting sun so beautiful ? 
 Is it because we are carried away we do 
 not know where? We are carried out of 
 ourselves. You have stood upon the sea 
 shore? How suggestive ! What thoughts 
 are provoked ! Oh, the vastness, the in- 
 finity. We do not admire the char- 
 acter that we comprehend at once ; there 
 arc no depths, no heights ; limitation, fini- 
 tude. When we reach the limit of a man's 
 character our sense of beauty is gone. 
 
 In a beautiful character we recognise 
 the element of repose. We hear 'T am" 
 from the Divine. We hear "I am becom- 
 ing" from the human. W^hich is the more 
 beautiful? The consciousness that we 
 are in the path of rectitude, that we are 
 established in rectitude, is repose. I am 
 right is the strength of character ; it is 
 also the beauty. This need not be ex- 
 pressed to be seen and understood. Rus- 
 kin says, *'No work of art can be great 
 without repose; and all art is great in pro- 
 portion to the appearance of it. Repose 
 is the unfailing test of beauty ; nothing 
 11 
 
 L.cfc 
 
can be ignoble that has it, nothing right 
 that has it not." What a picture the 
 crossing of the Red Sea would make. 
 Look at it. Which is the most prominent 
 element of beauty in the picture? Let me 
 suggest. "Stand still, and see the salva- 
 tion of God." Am I not right? Repose! 
 The divine Being has powers within 
 Himself, — infinite powers. There is with 
 Him always reserved power. What if 
 He should exercise this power? He lives 
 within Himself. He is goverened by the 
 laws of His own being. We might do 
 many things ; the doing of them, however, 
 would be excess. We must restrain our- 
 selves. We must live within law. We 
 must live in harmony with ourselves, with 
 one another, with nature, and with the 
 Divine. Whenever we fail to do this, 
 this is ugliness. Beauty is harmony. 
 Ugliness is the opposite of beauty. The 
 man who is out of harmony with himself, 
 with God, is ugly. Would you say that 
 the man who is not a christian is ugly? 
 The lack of moderation is the destruction 
 of beauty in everything; in color, form, 
 12 
 
motion, thought, language, character ; in 
 color, glaring; in form, inelegance; in 
 motion, ungraceful ; in thought, undisci- 
 plined ; in language, coarse ; in deed, dissi- 
 pation ; in all, unchasteness. Infinity, 
 repose, and moderation are three neces- 
 sary and prominent elements in a beauti- 
 ful character. 
 
 Refinenment is the opposite of coarse- 
 ness and vulgarity. It is somewhat diffi- 
 cult for me to state the difference between 
 beauty and refinement; there is a diffen- 
 ence. Many men have strong sensibili- 
 ties but are lacking in delicacy. They are 
 deeply impressed with such beauty as 
 they perceive, but they perceive only what 
 is coarse and conspicuous. The man of 
 refinement, on the other hand, has not 
 only strength of feeling but also a quick 
 and nice perception. He sees differences 
 and distinctions that are lost upon others ; 
 neither the most concealed beauties nor 
 the minutest blemishes escape him. He 
 has a keen sense and appreciation of the 
 beautiful. He is a man with a refined 
 taste. All men have some taste, but all 
 13 
 
men do not have a refined taste. The un- 
 refined are delighted with masses of 
 bright colors, boisterous songs, sensa- 
 tional novels and extravagant language ; 
 such are to them correct representations 
 of art and human life. Whereas the man 
 with a refined taste seeks and finds the 
 very best in nature, language, music, 
 morals, religion, — in everything. When 
 he looks into a picture he perceives the 
 beauty in its finest shadings ; he is also 
 moved by the moral qualities expressed in 
 the beauty; and he makes these moral 
 qualities his own. There is a keen per- 
 ception and appreciation of the beautiful, 
 a delicacy of feeling aroused by this per- 
 ception of the beautiful, and the appro- 
 priation of the beautiful into his own life. 
 So also when he reads a good book, or 
 meets a beautiful character; there is keen 
 perception, delicacy of feeling, and appro- 
 priation. I think that you understand 
 what I mean by a refined taste. I am sure 
 that if it means anything it must mean a 
 general susceptibility to truth and noble- 
 ness ; a sense to discern, and a heart to 
 14 
 
love and reverence all beauty. 
 
 This refinement is largely a matter of 
 cultivation. Permit me, then, to enter a 
 protest to-night against coarseness and 
 vulgarity. Both are out of keeping with 
 true culture. How many characters, 
 otherwise beautiful, are marred, rejected, 
 because of these unhappy elements. 
 
 We all admire strength of character. 
 We are all desirous of possessing strength 
 of character. We believe that thought 
 and character are the only realities in the 
 world, except the Divine ; all else will be 
 destroyed. And, yet, we have seen strong 
 characters that we did not admire. The 
 reason was lack of beauty and refinement. 
 John Knox, the Scotch reformer, was a 
 tower of strength. His power made the 
 aflfable and charming, but deceitful and 
 impure Queen of Scotland to weep, and 
 her throne to tremble. But we do not 
 care to have John Knox as our ideal. He 
 was austere, severe, unrelenting. It is 
 quite true that he was just the man for 
 his day and age ; indeed, the day and age 
 produced the man. We do not have such 
 15 
 
men to-day simply because the influences 
 at work do not produce such men. Great 
 men, if not all men, are the product of 
 their age. 
 
 I think that no man, except it is the im- 
 mortal George Washington, is dearer to 
 the American heart than Abraham Lin- 
 coln. When you think of Lincoln you 
 think of a giant ; you think of a large, 
 tender heart, lively, full sympathies, and 
 a marvelous intellect; but at the same 
 time you think of awkardness and a lack 
 of polish. The life within him was 
 allowed to grow without much thought 
 of its culture. Lincoln was a thorough 
 gentleman in heart but not in culture. 
 He was too busily engaged in the service 
 of his country to pay much attention to 
 the niceties of life. Now, we do not lay 
 much stress on polish when compared 
 with the condition of the heart, — the con- 
 dition of the heart is supreme. A man 
 must be a gentleman in heart before he 
 can be one in culture. We gratefully 
 acknowledge the superior intellect and 
 benificent heart of this great man ; while, 
 16 
 
at the same time, we cannot help feeling 
 some regret that he did not pay more at- 
 tention to culture so that he might be our 
 ideal in all things. 
 
 While attending the University I 
 roomed for two years with one of the 
 noblest young men in heart you ever met. 
 He was home-spun. He came from a 
 small farm. He was poor. When in 
 society he was utterly embarrassed ; so 
 much so, indeed, that he did not know 
 how to ask a young lady for the pleasure 
 of escorting her home. A young man 
 who does not know that much is not very 
 highly cultured. We were at a swell 
 affair together. I was horrified to see 
 Jim eating with his knife. Next day I 
 said to him, '7i^^> you should not put 
 you knife in your mouth while eating." 
 His reply was, ''Where shall I put it, in 
 my eye?" The heart was there; the life 
 and the spirit were there, but not culti- 
 vated. I am happy to say that he became 
 one of the most highly cultured gentle- 
 men ever graduated from the halls of that 
 University. 
 
 17 
 
Someone has said that culture is the 
 developing of the best that is in man. 
 This definition would be accepted, per- 
 haps, if we were convinced that what was 
 in the man is the very best; if not it 
 would be very unwise to develop it. 
 Rather, culture is the filling a man with 
 the very best ; the man assimilating this, 
 making it a part of himself, bone of his 
 bone and flesh of his flesh ; then living it 
 out in a strong, beautiful and refined 
 character. 
 
 How many there are who seem to be 
 under the impression that knowledge is 
 culture. Knowledge is an essential ele- 
 ment in culture; knowledge of nature, 
 knowledge of good and great men, knowl- 
 edge of the Divine. Culture without 
 knowledge is impossible ; culture limited 
 to knowledge is most undesirable. A 
 man may be very intelligent and yet be a 
 scamp. Some of the most villianous men 
 whose lives have been a curse to the 
 world have been men possessing large 
 stores of knowledge. Those holding this 
 view of culture declare, of course, that 
 18 
 
culture is posssible for only the few, be- 
 cause the knowledge essential to culture 
 is attainable by only the few. Culture is 
 possible for all ; is, indeed, the duty of all ; 
 and the knowledge essential to culture 
 is attainable by all. And, further, this 
 knowledge is not the storing away in the 
 brain a large number of facts ; nor is it the 
 training of the mind to deep, clear, logical 
 thinking; but it is the knowledge, the 
 moral and spiritual perception, and ad- 
 aptation, of the good and true. 
 
 Then, again, you will agree with me 
 when I say that there is a class of people 
 called, and rightly called, the vulgar rich. 
 They are everywhere ; we are annoyed by 
 them everywhere ; we are amused by 
 them everywhere. I was riding in a 
 street car in the city of Chicago. The 
 car was crowded. A lady entered ; a 
 lady profusely adorned with gold and 
 diamonds, and dressed in the finest gown. 
 No one oflfered her a seat. She stood and 
 scowled. Presently a gentleman arose 
 and oflfered his seat. The lady bowed 
 awkardly and said, "Thank you, you are 
 19 
 
a gentleman ; all the rest is hogs." We 
 were all impressed with the wealthy ap- 
 pearance of the lady, but none of us were 
 impressed with her culture. 
 
 Furthermore, culture is the developing, 
 beautifying, and refining of the whole 
 man. We are not to be cultured in spots ; 
 our whole beings must come under this 
 gracious influence. Too little attention 
 is paid to this specific view of culture. 
 Our minds, our voices, our fingers are 
 cultivated while other parts of our being, 
 just as important, are suffered to take 
 care of themselves. A young lady, and, 
 by the way, a very pretty young lady, 
 was sitting at the piano in my home one 
 evening; she was rapidly becoming an 
 accomplished musician ; her heart and 
 soul were in the study of music. While 
 she was sitting at the piano I asked her 
 to play for me one of Chopin's composi- 
 tions. Her reply was, "Gee-whiz! I 
 hav'nt played that thing for a coon's age." 
 After making this elegant and refined 
 reply she charmed me with her interpre- 
 tation of the soul of this great composer. 
 20 
 
Now, you at once detect in this case a 
 development in only one direction to the 
 sad neglect of others far more important. 
 I had it in my heart to say to this young 
 lady: Will you not give at least some 
 attention to other things as well as to 
 music? 
 
 And, now, I am convinced that you are 
 not satisfied with my definition of culture. 
 Will you be if I go one step further? 
 Culture is not wealth. Culture is not 
 knowledge. Culture is not the covering 
 up of my sinful nature. Culture is not 
 the polishing of my sinful self. Culture 
 is the becommg of all that is true, pure 
 and good. Culture is being, not having. 
 Culture is a growth, not an accumulation. 
 W^e become holy; this is life. I have de- 
 termined to develop a strong, beautiful, 
 and refined character. But how can I 
 possibly succeed with this sinful nature 
 unchanged? With it I am handicapped, 
 defeated. If I try to cover it, it is bound 
 to crop out. If I seek to polish it, the 
 polish will rub oiT. If I attempt to des- 
 troy it, it will ever raise its ugly head. If 
 21 
 
I build upon it, the superstructure will 
 totter and fall. Culture without regen- 
 eration is an impossibility. In regener- 
 ation the Spirit of God comes to us, des- 
 troys this evil nature by giving to us His 
 own divine nature. On this we build. 
 The height of a pinnacle is determined by 
 the breadth of its base. No character 
 can be loftier than the breadth and depth 
 of its foundation permits. In my Uni- 
 versity town there was a large, magnifi- 
 cent, catholic cathedral, unfinished. The 
 foundation laid was not sufficient to carry 
 the lofty spire intended. A character 
 built on a nature not regenerated by the 
 Spirit of God will never be finished ; but 
 a regenerated nature is a sure foundation, 
 and will carry the loftiest and most mag- 
 nificent superstructure. Culture, then, 
 is the strengthening, beautifying, and re- 
 fining of the regenerated nature. 
 
 Think of the strongest, the most beau- 
 tiful, and the most refined christian char- 
 acter, man or woman, that you have ever 
 met, and you have my thought of culture. 
 If you have not been so fortunate as to 
 22 
 
meet a strong, beautiful, and refined 
 christian character, imagine one, if you 
 can, and you have my thought of culture. 
 
 23 
 
II. 
 
 The Relation of Thought to Culture. 
 
 't>' 
 
 What is the relation of thought to cul- 
 ture? It is a vital relation. Culture is 
 the product of thought. We are what we 
 think. Let me take you to a dinner. 
 The guest is a man given to appetite. 
 The host is miserly. While the guest 
 eats the host begrudges him what he eats. 
 The host, however, must appear generous 
 and hospital so says to his guest, ''Eat 
 and drink/' but he does not mean it. 
 Now, this man's character is not known 
 by what he says but by what he thinks. 
 The Bible tells us that as a man thinketh 
 in his heart so is he. The stingy, insin- 
 cere disposition of this man is the product 
 of his thought. 
 
 All that is seen was first the unseen. 
 All that is in the material world was first 
 in the world of thought. The material 
 24 
 
world was in the mind of the Creator 
 before it was in time and space. The 
 material world is simply the expression of 
 a divine thought. The dense forest and 
 the delicate flower, the towering mount- 
 ain and the grain of sand, the mighty 
 ocean and the dew drop, all the expres- 
 sion of a divine thought. So in regard to 
 man : That house he built, that engine 
 he constructed, that railroad he laid ; all 
 were in thought before they were what 
 now they are. 
 
 Luther, the reformer; Gladstone, the 
 statesman ; Webster, the lawyer ; Agassiz, 
 the scientist ; IMcCosh, the philosopher ; 
 and Hodge, the theologian ; all these men 
 are the product of thought. These men 
 thought they would be what they became. 
 They determined to be and so they were. 
 
 Here is a man generous and kind, gen- 
 tle and forgiving, temperate and useful — 
 anything or all that is good ; he is what 
 he thinks. There is a man, a liar, 
 gambler, impure, malicious — anything or 
 all that is bad ; he is what he thinks. 
 This is a great truth. A Spanish proverb 
 25 
 
is, ''He who sows thoughts will reap acts, 
 habits, and character." This is quite 
 true. Our character is determined by 
 our thinking. Change your thinking and 
 you change your character. Let any man 
 who is indifferent to his duty, unambi- 
 tious, careless, useless, change his views 
 of himself, of life, and of God, and within 
 a year it will be said of him, What a 
 change ! The converse is true. Let any 
 man entertain unworthy thoughts and he 
 will become intemperate, lazy, disrespect- 
 ful, vicious ; and within a year it will be 
 said of him. What a change ! How sad ! 
 Our thoughts are the architects of our 
 characters. These architects are un- 
 ceasingly at work building or tearing 
 down, strengthening or weakening, beau- 
 tifying or marring, refining or making 
 vulgar. 
 
 I know a young man who a few years 
 ago was with his father on a small, poor 
 farm. A thought came to this young 
 man ; it was encouraged ; other thoughts 
 came and were encouraged. These 
 thoughts took possession of him. He is 
 26 
 
to-day one of the most highly educated 
 men in the church, and holds an honored 
 position among the missionaries of the 
 Son of God. 
 
 I know another young man, the son of 
 a mechanic. He was heedless, unam- 
 bitious, useless. Thoughts came to this 
 young man from a young girl nobler than 
 he. These thoughts were entertained. 
 They did their work most effectually. 
 This young man now sits in a professor's 
 chair in a large medical college. 
 
 I lectured in the city of Chillicothe, 
 Ohio. I was entertained in one of the 
 homes. My hostess showed me a picture 
 of Lincoln's log cabin home. She 
 showed me also, by way of contrast, a 
 picture of the White House. What a 
 change from the log cabin to the White 
 House ! The thoughts of Lincoln carried 
 him from one to the other. 
 
 Joseph when a boy had dreams of 
 future good and greatness. These dreams 
 set him at the right hand of Pharaoh on 
 the throne of Egypt. 
 
 If I am an unbeliever to-night and 
 27 
 
change my thoughts my changed 
 thoughts will lift me out of Hades and 
 set me at the foot of the throne on High. 
 
 When Leonardo de Vinci was paint- 
 ing his celebrated picture "The Last 
 Supper," he saw in the choir of the cath- 
 edral at Milan a young man whose face 
 was most beautiful. This face was put 
 into the picture as the face of the divine 
 Saviour. For ten years Leonardo looked 
 for a face to put into the picture as the 
 face of Judas the traitor. In a prison 
 cell in Rome he saw a face. This face 
 was put into the picture as the face of 
 Judas. While the crowds were admiring 
 the finished picture it was discovered that 
 the two faces put into the picture were 
 the face of the same person; — the singer 
 in the choir and the convict in the prison. 
 Evil thoughts in ten years had wrought 
 the change. 
 
 If the great Plato is right all things in 
 the universe arrange themselves under 
 three terms, the Good, the True, and the 
 Beautiful. The Good is the basis of 
 religion ; the True is the basis of science ; 
 28 
 
the Beautiful is at the base of all that 
 appeals to the imagination. The Good 
 appeals to the moral nature ; the True 
 appeals to the intellectual nature ; the 
 Beautiful appeals to the aesthetic nature. 
 Which of these is the most important? 
 Is one more important than another? 
 Which is absolute? and which is relative? 
 Which is the substance? and which is the 
 form? Dr. Shedd declares that the 
 answer to this question is vital ; so vital, 
 indeed, that it decides the whole style 
 and character of human culture, indi- 
 vidual and national. Would you place 
 the Good and the True first? If so this 
 thought will produce a certain type of 
 character and culture. Would you place 
 the Beautiful first? If so this thought 
 will produce a certain type of character 
 and culture. If you place the Good and 
 the True first the product will be sever- 
 ity and strength, growth and grandeur. 
 If you place the Beautiful first the pro- 
 duct will be luxury and enervation, de- 
 cline and fall. The Good and True are 
 absolute; the Beautiful is relative. The 
 29 
 
Good and the True are the substance; 
 the Beautiful is the form. We must have 
 the substance in order to have the form. 
 Now, if we worship the Beautiful divorc- 
 ed from the Good and the True the pro- 
 duct will be, as I have said, luxury and 
 enervation, decline and fall. This is just 
 what the Greek did. The Greek had an 
 intensely aesthetic nature, he worshipped 
 the Beautiful, the Beautiful divorced from 
 the Good and the True. The Greek in his 
 adoration of the form lost sight of the 
 substance. This was his misfortune ; 
 this was his decline and fall. Emerson 
 says : ''As soon as Beauty is sought, not 
 from religion and love, but from pleasure 
 it degrades the seeker." Men have 
 sought beauty of form in women re- 
 gardless of the good and true. Such 
 men are sorry they had not been more 
 thoughtful. We men will never learn 
 that a beautiful behaviour is better than 
 a beautiful form ; that it gives a higher 
 pleasure than statues or pictures ; that it 
 is the finest of the fine arts. The Greek, 
 then, stands forth in the annals of history 
 30 
 
as the lover of Art, the worshipper of the 
 Beautiful — the Beautiful divorced from 
 the Good and the True. The result has 
 been most unhappy, the product most 
 undesirable. The product, however, was 
 the legitimate fruit of the Greek thought. 
 I have just spoken of the Greek char- 
 acter as the product of thought. Let me 
 now speak of the Roman character. 
 There is such a contrast between the 
 Greek and the Roman, and such a 
 lesson in the contrast. We admire 
 the simplicity and the severity, the 
 justice and the dignity of the Roman 
 character. Would you look for the 
 nobility and power of the Roman charac- 
 ter in his aesthetical nature? I think 
 not. Which is the greatest period in the 
 history of Rome? The nobility and 
 power of Roman character, and Roman 
 nationality, is to be found before the 
 third Punic war. The toughness and 
 the hardness, the severity and the 
 strength of the Roman character, that 
 kept Rome alive during her home and 
 foreign conflicts, found its origin among 
 31 
 
the mountains, amid the great thoughts 
 of nature, and was perfected by hard- 
 ships in the forests of Central Italy. 
 The intellectual and moral elements, not 
 the aesthetic, lay at the roots of the pol- 
 itical power and the greatness of Rome. 
 
 Why, then, did Rome fall? Conquest 
 led to the increase of wealth, increase of 
 wealth led to the increase of luxury; in- 
 crease of luxury led to the cultivation of 
 the aesthetic nature ; and the cultivation 
 of the aesthetic nature, apart from the 
 Good and the True, was the fall of Rome. 
 Rome conquered Greece, and by conquest 
 Rome gained not only the domains of 
 Greece, but also, to a great extent, Grecian 
 thought. This acquisition of Grecian 
 thought was the destruction of Rome. 
 
 Let us now turn to France for evidence 
 that character is the product of thought. 
 The empiricism of Locke crossed the 
 English Channel from England into 
 France. This thought swept and devat- 
 tated France as the plague of locusts 
 swept and devastated the land of Egypt. 
 The philosophy of Locke is materialistic. 
 32 
 
The mind is void ; it does not have innate 
 ideas ; the mind receives its ideas from 
 the objective world; nothing is in the 
 mind which was not first in the object; 
 there is no thought apart from the sen- 
 suous. Indeed, Locke did not hesitate 
 to say that the material prevails over the 
 intellectual. Indeed, he did not hesitate 
 to say that the mind is material. The 
 French carried the philosophy of Locke 
 to its final analysis. Let me give to you 
 some of the ultimate thoughts of this 
 philosophy: Faith in God is as ground- 
 less as it is fruitless : The world will 
 not be happy until atheism has been uni- 
 versally established : The soul is noth- 
 ing but a mere name: Immortality is 
 nothing more than to live in the thoughts 
 of coming generations : Man is a perfect 
 animal ; a brute is an imperfect man : 
 Sensuous pleasure and pain, in other 
 words, selfishness is a natural moral 
 principle. What was the influence of 
 this thought on the morals of France? 
 Moral disaster, of course. Is it true that 
 a man is what he thinks? If so, let me 
 33 
 
give to you in a few words the product of 
 Locke's empiricism in France. The 
 social life of France became diseased ; the 
 court became licentious ; the state sank 
 into unbridled despotism ; the church be- 
 came a hierarchy as hypocritical as it 
 was powerful. In short, France became 
 socially, politically, morally and relig- 
 iously rotten. And this disgraceful con- 
 dition was the product of the thought of 
 France. 
 
 There have been three sturdy classes 
 of people in the religious and political 
 worlds, namely, the Covenanters, the 
 Huguenots, and the Puritans. To these 
 people we owe much. These are the 
 people who have saved the church from 
 death, the state from chaos, and the 
 world from destruction. Each class has 
 left its impress upon the world's history 
 and civilization. These people will never 
 be forgotten because the world will never 
 cease to enjoy the fruits of their lives. 
 These people were the product of two or 
 three clearly defined thoughts. 
 
 No intelligent man will deny that re- 
 34 
 
ligious truth, christian truth, is the basis 
 of all that is good in art, literature, and 
 the morals. The reception of christian 
 truth is the reception of life, growth and 
 grandeur — all that is strong, beautiful, 
 and refined. 
 
 The study of the influence of creeds on 
 character is an interesting one ; in other 
 words the study of the influence of re- 
 ligious thought on character and culture. 
 Creed is the formal, concise statement of 
 religious thought and belief. It is with- 
 out doubt a fact that different creeds pro- 
 duce diflferent types of character. This 
 goes to verify the statement that we are 
 what we think. Dr. Warfield said, 'The 
 type of religious life that grows up under 
 preaching is determined by the nature of 
 the preaching." That is to say, the type 
 of religious character is in keeping with 
 the nature of religious thought. This is 
 so evident that no one will even think of 
 denying it. 
 
 We all know that the different denom- 
 inations present different phases of re- 
 ligious truth. Do the different denomi- 
 35 
 
nations produce different types of char- 
 acter? They do, indeed. This is so true 
 that we readily detect the different types 
 by their personal appearance. You can 
 pick a preacher out of a crowd ; you can 
 pick him out and tell to what denomina- 
 tion he belongs. The Episcopalian is in 
 the air, — upish, high church, apostolic 
 succession. You can see the fire flash in 
 the eyes of the Methodist. The Baptist 
 goes about looking for water, and has a 
 wet appearance. The Presbyterian looks 
 to the earth, believing, ''once in grace, 
 always in grace ;" thus he is sure of 
 heaven so is attending strictly to the 
 affairs of earth. The first schools of 
 philosophy believed that air, fire, water, 
 and earth were the beginning of all 
 things. The Episcopal, Methodist, Bap- 
 tist, and Presbyterian believe that air, 
 fire, water, and earth are the end of all 
 things. 
 
 Abraham gave to the world Mono- 
 theism, — one God. What an influence 
 this one thought has had upon the civili- 
 zation and culture of the world. Jesus 
 36 
 
of Nazareth gave to the world the 
 brotherhood of man. What an influence 
 this one thought has upon the civiliza- 
 tion and culture of the world. Martin 
 Luther saved Germany, Switzerland, and 
 the Netherlands with this thought : 
 Justification by faith. John Knox 
 saved Scotland with this thought: The 
 Bible is the only infallible rule of faith 
 and practice. Oliver Cromwell destroyed 
 root and branch in Great Britain the 
 claim for the divine right of Kings, and 
 so saved the British Isles. The epochs 
 of history, secular and religion, have been 
 brought about by the introduction of a 
 new thought, or the revival of an old one, 
 in church or state. Every revolution was 
 first a thought in one man's mind. And 
 when the same thought occurs to another 
 man, it is the key to that era. Every re- 
 form was first a private opinion ; and when 
 it shall be a private opinion again it will 
 solve the problem of the age. 
 
 I heard two men on the train discuss- 
 ing politics. What an interesting and 
 edifying discussion. The one was a 
 37 
 
republican, the other a democrat. The 
 republican said, ''Every criminal in our 
 penitentiaries is a democrat." He 
 offered to prove this rather startling 
 assertion by betting five dollars. The 
 money argument would, of course, be 
 conclusive. This republican assertion 
 made me think. I asked myself if there 
 were any principles in the democratic 
 platform that would land those in the 
 penitentiary v/ho accepted them. If I 
 become a democrat is the tendency of 
 democratic belief toward the peniten- 
 tiary? I know some democrats who are 
 not in the penitentiary, — but they should 
 be. Do the principles of the republican 
 party, if they have any, tend to keep a 
 man out of the penitentiary? I am sur- 
 prised that more republicans are not in 
 the penitentiary believing as they do. 
 
 Thus, this truth that a man is what he 
 thinks is recognized where you would 
 least expect any truth to be recognized, 
 namely, in the political world. 
 
 Will my thoughts carry me where I 
 think of going? Yes, they will. How- 
 ever, do not overlook the fact that I 
 38 
 
speak only of character. All these good 
 and great thoughts are from God. He 
 would not hold out to us impossibilities. 
 And there is simply no limit to nor possi- 
 bilities in this direction. I could not 
 become a great mathematician no matter 
 how much I thought about it and de- 
 sired it. And, yet, it is possible for me 
 to become a most worthy man. Not one 
 gentleman in this audience may ever be 
 President of this Republic no matter how 
 much we may think about it and desire it. 
 We may never be wealthy or popular. 
 But what are these? Only means to the 
 end, — the higher end of character. I 
 refer, then, only to character. Whatever 
 we think of being in this sense we may 
 and will become. I may fail in other 
 things ; I shall not in this. Here, then, is 
 something definite, possible, certain for 
 me. Whether I succeed in other things 
 or not I shall not fail in this. Therefore 
 my life shall not be a failure. Then let 
 me look high. Let me build the founda- 
 tion broad, deep, and strong, so that it will 
 carry the magnificent superstructure ris- 
 ing upon it as the months and years go by. 
 39 
 
III. 
 
 Sources of Thought: Nature. 
 
 If thought has such an influence on cul- 
 ture the necessity of having the best, and 
 highest, and purest thoughts is self-evi- 
 dent. If we are what we think then to be 
 high we must think high ; to be pure we 
 must think pure ; to be refined our 
 thoughts must be refined. As I look 
 over this audience I see the products of 
 thought. If I knew you more intimately 
 I could almost tell what you think from 
 what you are. Is not this true? Some 
 are high ; others are going higher. Some, 
 perhaps, are low ; others are going lower. 
 We are forever receiving impressions. 
 All that we see and hear speaks to us. 
 We are forever hearing voices from 
 nature, books, persons, and the Divine. 
 These voices are calling us to stronger, 
 more beautiful, more refined lives. Other 
 40 
 
vioces, I am sorry to say, are calling us 
 away from what is good and true. We 
 receive thoughts from this or that object, 
 from this or that book, from this or that 
 person, and from the Divine. These 
 thoughts enter our lives and determine 
 our character, and so decide our destiny. 
 I walk out and see the sun and the sky, 
 the horizon and the landscape, the flowers 
 and the foliage, the shrubbery and the 
 trees, the streams and the rivers, the 
 lakes and the oceans, the mountains and 
 the valleys. I hear the birds in the trees, 
 I see the fishes in the streams, I see the 
 cattle upon a thousand hills. And as I 
 thus see and hear, I call to mind the 
 words of the astronomer, ''Give me mat- 
 ter and motion and I shall construct the 
 universe." No, no, you cannot. If you 
 had matter and motion you would not 
 have life. Life is more than matter in 
 motion. I see life everywhere ; rather, 
 I see the manifestations of life every- 
 where. Whence its origin? Life produces 
 life, it is true ; but the non-living does not 
 produce the living. The great scientist 
 41 
 
Darwin recognized this truth. But when 
 he went back, and back, to the beginning 
 of things, where he should have con- 
 cluded that life must have come from a 
 self-existent Being, he stopped and said: 
 ''There is a great gulf here — a great 
 gulf between the non-living and the 
 living that I cannot pass over. I pass 
 over this gulf; and in passing over this 
 gulf I reach the Divine. He is self- 
 existent. He is life. And He is the 
 source of life to all created things. Thus 
 even the recognition of life in nature leads 
 me to the Divine. And the recognition of 
 the Divine is the foundation, the begin- 
 ing, of a strong, beautiful, and refined 
 character. 
 
 The hills have a wonderful charm for 
 some minds. Byron said, ''To me high 
 mountains are a feeling." Have you 
 ever been among the hills? Have you 
 ever stood at the foot of a mountain, 
 looked up, and tried to look over? What 
 quiet abiding dignity ! What stability ! 
 The Divine is as the everlasting hills. 
 Do you know that hill countries have a 
 42 
 
marked influence on thought and culture? 
 Moses, before his education was complet- 
 ed, and before he was ready for the great 
 work of his life, had to be sent from the 
 Egyptian university to the wild, hilly 
 country of Sinai. Moses lived for forty 
 years in the presence of those rocky, 
 craggy peaks ; in the silence and solitude 
 of that awful place he learned lessons he 
 would not have learned elsewhere, and 
 he added elements of strength to his 
 character he would not have added under 
 other influences. 
 
 You have heard, I am sure, about the 
 hills of Scotland. — "The bonny hills of 
 Scotland." Perhaps you have seen them. 
 The Scotch have absorbed the stability 
 of their hills. When Napoleon at 
 
 Waterloo hurled his guard against the 
 squares of highland soldiers he might as 
 well have hurled his guard against the 
 hills of Scotland ; his guard trembled with 
 the shock and was shattered to pieces. 
 
 Oftentimes our hearts ache because of 
 the inequalities in life. I find that nature 
 helps to heal my heartaches. As I go 
 43 
 
down into the valleys and up upon the 
 mountains I observe a slow but mighty 
 law at work, — the law of levelling. The 
 mountains and the hills are being washed 
 down into the valleys, into the rivers, 
 and into the ocean ; and the rivers, and 
 the valleys are being filled. The mount- 
 ains are being brought low, and the val- 
 leys are being exalted. The observation 
 of this law of levelling carries me in 
 thoughts away from human ambitions, 
 strife, and oppression ; to the time and 
 place, when and where, all wrongs will 
 be righted, the proud humbled, and the 
 humble exalted. 
 
 If there is one pleasure that I enjoy 
 more than another it is a drive, or a walk, 
 along the banks of a river. I prefer, 
 however, to be alone. Between the hills, 
 under a bridge, a river ran ; not a house, 
 not a person in sight ; the sun had set ; 
 the birds were singing their evening 
 hymn ; lonely and sad I stood on the 
 bridge, and watched the deep, flowing 
 river. I heard a voice, "Oh, that thou 
 hadst hearkened unto me, then hadst thy 
 44 
 
peace been as a river." I was grateful 
 for these words at this time. I determ- 
 ined to hearken. Then there was a peace 
 as a river. And, then, my thoughts 
 carried me to a river clear as crystal flow- 
 ing from underneath the Throne of God. 
 
 Have you ever been at the sea shore? 
 Have you ever crossed the ocean? I 
 have, many times. Oh, thou unconquer- 
 ed, unreposed, and untired ocean, we hear 
 thy voice rolling like the wild, profound, 
 eternal bass in nature's anthem. As we 
 look upon thee and try to grasp, limit, 
 confine thee our efforts return upon our- 
 selves. And so we ponder upon thine in- 
 finitude. And this infinitude of thine is 
 a revelation, — revelation of thy Creator. 
 And as we try to fathom thy depths we 
 are reminded that His judgments are a 
 great deep. 
 
 Emerson says that in every landscape 
 the point of astonishment is the meeting 
 of the sky and the earth, — the horizon. 
 This is very sugestive of thought and 
 feeling. The effort of all good people is 
 to bring heaven and earth together. Let 
 45 
 
heaven touch the earth, and let the earth 
 touch heaven, as sky and earth touch at 
 the horizon. This thought aided by the 
 clearer, fuller thought of the Incarnation, 
 the God-man, lifts me, fills me. The Son 
 of God came to earth. He became flesh, 
 and he has taken human nature with Him 
 to heaven. The Divine and the human 
 are united in Him ; they are forever united 
 in Him. In human form He sat down 
 upon the Throne ; and in human form He, 
 the God-man, shall remain upon the 
 Throne forevermore. 
 
 I could not pass the flowers by. You 
 do not pass them by. In our walks we 
 always stop to admire the flowers, and 
 catch their odor. The flowers are mes- 
 sengers of beauty, delicacy, and love. To 
 Wordsworth, "The meanest flower that 
 blows could give thoughts that do often 
 lie too deep for tears." Little flower, I 
 hold you here, root and all, in my hand. 
 If I could understand what you are, root 
 and all, and all in all, I should understand 
 what God is, and what man is. The 
 flowers have dried many tears, gladdened 
 46 
 
many hearts, prevented many vicious 
 deeds, and beautified many lives. 
 Whence their beauty? The beauty of 
 the flower, like all beauty, is derived. 
 The flov^er derives its beauty from the 
 sun. And as the flower takes its beauty 
 from the sun, so we take beauty from the 
 flower and add to our culture. The 
 flower derives its beauty from the sun ; 
 so we derive our beauty from the Sun of 
 Righteousness. What the sun is to the 
 flower, the Lord Jesus is to our souls. 
 
 Now, do I not have a right to these 
 thoughts from nature? Do I not have 
 the right to make them mine for the pur- 
 pose of developing, beautifying, and re- 
 fining of my life? Agassiz saw markings 
 on rocks in the State of Maine; these 
 markings led him to the glacial period. 
 Columbus saw pieces of driftwood 
 brought to the shore ; this led him to 
 America. Rubens accepts the sugges- 
 tions of a few colors in nature ; and, now, 
 the art galleries of Europe are adorned 
 with his magnificent visions. Bethoven 
 heard a few sounds in nature; and, now, 
 47 
 
we can hear his heavenly symphonies. 
 Now, if marks on a rock led Agassiz to 
 the glacial period ; if pieces of driftwood 
 led Columbus to America ; if Rubens has 
 filled the galleries of Europe with mag- 
 nificent visions suggested by colors in 
 nature ; and, if Bethoven has filled the 
 world with heavenly symphonies suggest- 
 ed by sounds in nature, why may not 
 nature lead me to the eternal Father, 
 give to me visions of His holy habitation, 
 and fill my soul with heavenly symphon- 
 ies? 
 
 I lectured in the city of Toledo, Ohio. 
 I met a gentleman from Wisconsin who 
 asked me if I had ever visited the Dells 
 in the Wisconsin River. He asked me 
 if I cared to know how he felt as he 
 looked up through the caiions. "I felt," 
 he said, '*as though I ought to fall on my 
 knees and worship Someone ; give to 
 Someone the credit for such magnificent 
 workmanship." Thus thoughts from 
 nature almost forced this man on to his 
 knees, — a worshipper. 
 
 I know very well that many persons 
 48 
 
pass through this world without seeing 
 any of its beauty. We may, of course, 
 reach the end of our journey with a 
 lantern ; but we shall not see as much as 
 does the man who walks in the light of 
 the sun. If the end of our journey is all 
 that we seek the lantern will do ; but if 
 we seek to enjoy our journey, and finish 
 it with as much enrichment for ourselves 
 as possible, let us walk in the full light 
 of the sun. "Earth's crammed with 
 heaven, and every common bush afire 
 with God ; But only he who sees takes off 
 his shoes : The rest sit around it and 
 pluck blackberries" — Mrs. Browning. 
 Other persons see only the utility of 
 the world ; they see only what it yields 
 for themselves in a lower sense apart 
 from culture. Well, I must admit there 
 is much in nature for the Utilitarian. 
 See that pig wallow ! hear him grunt ! — 
 ham and eggs. The cattle upon a thous- 
 and hills, — sirloin steak smothered in 
 onions. What a pretty sight is a flock of 
 sheep! — boiled mutton and caper sauce. 
 See that flock of geese vSwaggering to- 
 49 
 
wards the pond for divers reasons? see 
 them coming out of the pond for sundry 
 reasons? — goose and apple sauce. Thus 
 we may view nature from the different 
 sides of our own natures. The objective 
 world touches the nature of man every- 
 where ; and from whatever side of our 
 nature we seek, we find. The study of 
 nature for the purpose of culture is fruit- 
 ful and rich. She has much for us. It 
 is well to commune with her at times. 
 Nature has many great, grand, beautiful 
 thoughts for those who will listen to her 
 voice. Sometimes let us go away from 
 ourselves, from one another, from the 
 superficial ways of society, and from the 
 bread and butter of life. Let us go 
 where the birds live and sing; where the 
 trees and shrubbery grow and utter their 
 silent messages ; where the streams and 
 rivers run and sparkle ; and where the 
 hills rise up to welcome us to their pres- 
 ence. There are messages here ; God is 
 here, and here we shall oftentimes find 
 the depths of our own beings. "One 
 impulse from the vernal wood may teach 
 50 
 
you more of man, of moral evil and of 
 good than all the sages can." — Words- 
 worth. 
 
 But this is not all that I mean by our 
 surroundings. I include also our homes. 
 We cannot enter a home without re- 
 ceiving impressions though a word is 
 not spoken. We must not deny the in- 
 fluence of a refined home on thought and 
 culture. I mean what is in the home ; 
 not the persons in particular, but the fur- 
 nishings. It is not possible for us all 
 to have elegant homes ; and, besides, an 
 elegant home is not essential to culture, 
 although very helpful. Ben Johnson, the 
 English writer, was poor, and lived in an 
 alley. One of Johnson's enemies re- 
 marked to a friend of his, "Why Johnson 
 lives in an alley." When Johnson heard 
 of this unkind remark he said, '*Go tell 
 that man that his soul lives in an alley." 
 Now, if we are obliged to live in homes 
 that are not very elegant this is no reason 
 why our souls should live in an alley. 
 Sometimes we find the purest and sweet- 
 est characters in very humble homes, 
 5X 
 
However, such homes as we have, let 
 them be to us all that is possible. Let 
 our own rooms in which we spend at least 
 a third of our lives suggest to us all that 
 is clean, pure, and religious. We cannot 
 separate the pure and the good from the 
 beautiful. If we dwell habitually among 
 beautiful thoughts we shall become im- 
 bued in mind and feeling with their 
 beauty. The silent influence of a single 
 aesthetic object does more to refine a 
 character than a houseful of spurious im- 
 itations, gaudy knacks, or silly novelties ; 
 hence the force of Tennyson's lines : — 
 
 "To look on noble forms makes noble, 
 through the sensuous organism. That 
 which is higher." 
 
 I would like to speak a word of warn- 
 ing to parents against the careless way 
 many have of furnishing and keeping the 
 rooms of their children. Many parents 
 seem to think that anything is good 
 enough for the children, especially for 
 the boys. This is a sad, fatal mistake. 
 The boy enters his room ; bare floor, per- 
 haps ; no pictures on the walls, no books 
 52 
 
on the table, the furniture not dusted, 
 the bed not made, the lamp chimney as 
 black as night. How empty ! How un- 
 inviting ! How lonely ! Nothing here 
 to hold the boy ; nothing here to influence 
 him for good. There is no message here 
 of self-control, purity, religion. He will 
 not stay. He will go where he is wel- 
 come. He will go where there is bright- 
 ness and cheer. He will go where he will 
 hear messages of intemperance and im- 
 purity, messages of vulgarity and pro- 
 fanity. He will go where there are pic- 
 tures on the walls, pictures, the sugges- 
 tion of which, will leave the trail of the 
 serpent across his soul. 
 
 We do live our thoughts. We are 
 what we think. We are to a very great 
 extent the counterparts of our environ- 
 ment. 
 
 53 
 
IV. 
 Sources of Thought : Books. 
 
 A man is known by the books he reads 
 as well as by the company he keeps. In- 
 deed, books are largely our company, and 
 their influence is very marked. Let me 
 speak of good books only. It seems a 
 waste of time to speak to those who are 
 so superficial and so unpromising as to 
 read books that are not good. Senti- 
 mental, superficial reading produces such 
 thoughts, and such thoughts produce 
 such characters. 
 
 The influence of an evil book cannot be 
 estimated. How many persons have 
 been deceived, destroyed by them. They 
 poison the mind ; they pollute the heart ; 
 they incite to evil ; the end is death. Let 
 me simply remind you of the power of an 
 evil book, and the destruction they work. 
 1 refer especially to. a book entitled **The 
 54 
 
Prince," written by Machiavelli, an 
 Italian. This book in its day worked 
 such wide spread destruction that its 
 author has been called ''the tempter;" ''the 
 Evil Principle ;" "the discoverer of ambi- 
 tion and revenge ;" "the inventor of per- 
 jury." It is said that before the publica- 
 tion of this book there had not been "a 
 hypocrite, a tyrant, a traitor, a simulated 
 virtue, or a convenient crime." The 
 underlying principle of the book is that 
 the end justifies the means. Reputable 
 authors and historians attribute to the 
 influence of this book the following 
 crimes : Maurice of Saxony learned all 
 his fradulent policy from this book: 
 Since it has been translated into Turkish 
 the Sultans have been more addicted than 
 formerly to the custom of strangling 
 their brothers : The manifold treasons 
 of the House of Guise and the massacre 
 of Bartholomew are to be attributed to 
 this book, and even the Gunpowder Plot 
 is the fruit of this one volume. Such a 
 display of wickedness, naked, yet not 
 ashamed, such cool, judicious, scientific 
 55 
 
atrocity as is exhibited in this book seems 
 to belong to a fiend rather than to the 
 most depraved of men. 
 
 The Alexandrian Library contained 
 seven hundred thousand volumes. Schol- 
 ars have heaped execrations upon the 
 head of the man who is said to have burn- 
 ed it. Modern discoveries, however, go 
 to show that God must have interfered 
 and overwhelmed these works of ancient 
 civilization as He interfered and over- 
 w^helmed the cities of Sodom. 
 
 The geologist will take you to some 
 rock formation, and will show you mark- 
 ings in the rock made by the waves, the 
 track of birds, the print of leaves, the 
 trail of worms and serpents. These 
 markings were made in the mud. The 
 sun hardened the mud into rock, and the 
 rock has held these markings through all 
 these centuries. So every evil book read 
 by us leaves its mark upon our beings ; 
 these marks become a part of our beings. 
 Will the centuries erase these despicable 
 markings? I sincerely hope so, but I am 
 afraid of it. 
 
 56 
 
Let us turn away from this unpleasant 
 phase of our subject. Let us go into our 
 own libraries where only the best books 
 find a place. Let us close the door and 
 spend an hour or two with the most 
 highly cultured men and women the 
 world has ever produced. We are per- 
 mitted to enter their presence ; none are 
 excluded. They will entertain us, speak 
 to us ; they will give to us their most 
 beautiful, helpful thoughts ; they will 
 express to us their most refined feel- 
 ings ; they will extend to us their most 
 profound sympathies ! they will permit 
 their spirits to touch our spirits ; and they 
 will pour their souls into our souls. 
 Many of these men and women are long 
 since dead, but from their urns they rule 
 our spirits. Homer, Horace, Virgil, 
 Dante, Milton, Tennyson, and Long- 
 fellow will recite their poems. Plato, 
 Aristotle, and Descarte will teach their 
 philosophy. Shakspeare will present 
 his immortal dramas. Motley, Carlisle, 
 Macaulay, and Bancroft will tell us about 
 the great events of the world's history ; 
 57 
 
while Thomas a Kempis, Jermy Taylor, 
 Fenelon, and Doddridge will lead us into 
 the mysteries of godliness. These men 
 are not dead. They shall never die. 
 Many of them, if not all, are more alive 
 to-day than they were centuries ago, and 
 their lives are more potent for good. We 
 have fallen heir to all these men and 
 women thought and were ; to all the rich- 
 ness of thought, feeling, and being. But 
 we enter into this inheritance only by 
 reading their works. 
 
 What an inspiration is a good book? 
 How helpful they are ! Blessed be good 
 books! As Emerson says, "Give me a 
 good book, health and a June day and I 
 shall make the pomp of kings ridiculous." 
 So he might. Coming under the influence 
 of the best minds means receiving the 
 best thoughts, and this means the highest 
 character and the noblest life. 
 
 If you wish to be inspired to better liv- 
 ing by the example of good men read 
 Plutarch's ''Lives of Illustrious Men." 
 If you wish to see God in the vegetable 
 world read Grant Allen's "How Plants 
 58 
 
^1 
 
 Grow." If you wish to be convinced of 
 the wisdom of God walk with Agassiz 
 through the animal kingdom. If you 
 wish to hear the rocks, hills, and moun- 
 tains bear their testimony to the exist- 
 ence, power, and goodness of God, listen 
 to Hugh Miller as he interprets to you 
 their testimony. If you wish the history 
 of this country with all its lessons recited 
 to you by a master mind, live for a time 
 in the presence of Bancroft. If you wish 
 to follow the light of revelation up to the 
 Throne of God, and understand more 
 clearly the depths of Divine love, and feel 
 more fully the workings of Divine power 
 in the realm of redemption, read Calvin, 
 or Hodge, or Shedd, or Strong, or Wat- 
 son. If you wish encouragement and 
 comfort, and light for every day living 
 read Myers, or Murray, or Miller, or 
 Drummond. And if you wish to come 
 into living, sanctifying contact with the 
 incarnate Son of God read the Gospels. 
 Thus instead of living under the influence 
 of the ignorant, superficial and unworthy, 
 you will live under the influence of master 
 59 
 
minds ; and master minds produce master 
 thoughts, and master thoughts produce 
 master lives. 
 
 Perhaps you will say that all this is for 
 the few, not for the many. Indeed, I 
 anticipated that objection, and made up 
 my mind in presenting this subject I 
 would keep within the bounds of the 
 possible and practicable. What is here 
 suggested is for all ; if you have the in- 
 clination, the opportunity is yours. 
 
 60 
 
V. 
 
 Sources of Thought: Persons. 
 
 The thought of some writers is not so 
 clear. Take the following: "Nature is 
 loved by what is best in us. It is loved 
 as the city of God, although, or rather 
 because there is no citizen." What 
 author did I quote? Well, never mind. 
 What is the thought of Emerson here? 
 Does he mean to say that we would love 
 nature more if man were not a part of 
 nature? Well, I might, but I am sure 
 that a woman would not. Go where you 
 may and you find man ; he is a part of 
 nature. Man is an object of curiosity, 
 astonishment, and sometimes admiration ; 
 more times he is an object of pity. The 
 flowers and the trees, the rivers and 
 oceans, the valleys and mountains have 
 their influence on thought ; so has man. 
 \\^as it not Tennyson who said : 'T 
 61 
 
become a part of every man I meet?" 
 This may be an extreme view. It can 
 be said that we become a part of every 
 object that we see ; every object in nature 
 suggests some thought, — the mountain, 
 stability; the ocean, infinity; the river, 
 peace ; the flower, delicacy and love. 
 
 Perhaps Tennyson is right. Certainly 
 one man has a mighty influence over 
 another. I am thinking about society, 
 and companionship. We are deeply, and, 
 perhaps, permanently influenced by the 
 society in which we live, move, and have 
 our being. I do not wish to quote this 
 Scripture irrevently, but the thought is so 
 true and applicable here. We do, indeed, 
 receive our being from the society in 
 which we live and move. I wish that I 
 could have you understand, if you do not, 
 what a force society is in giving to us 
 thoughts of life and character. Our souls 
 insensibly take in virtue or vice by the 
 example or conversation of good or bad 
 company. Thoughts are expressed, man- 
 ners seen, deeds done, and a general de- 
 portment manifested that leave their im- 
 62 
 
presslon upon us. Superficial thoughts, 
 coarse conversation, vulgar manners will 
 have their due efifect. As one v^riter says : 
 'Intercourse with even commonplace, 
 selfish persons will prove most injurious 
 by inducing a dry, dull, and selfish con- 
 dition of mind more or less inimical to 
 true manliness and breadth of character." 
 This is quite true. And I would add that 
 the opposite effect is produced by the 
 society of the true, pure, and good. I 
 have gone from the presence of friends 
 with the most intense longings for a 
 beautiful life. I have gone from the pres- 
 ence of others with the profoundest dis- 
 taste for what is coarse, vulgar, and 
 wrong. But, unfortunately, this reaction 
 against the wrong does not always follow. 
 Live with persons of elevated character 
 and you will be lifted ; but, as the Spanish 
 proverb says: "Live with wolves and 
 you will learn to howl." 
 
 We must have society because we are 
 
 social animals. But what society shall 
 
 we have? We breathe a certain social 
 
 atmosphere. The air we breathe enters 
 
 63 
 
the blood and becomes a part of our 
 beings. The flowers take their coloring 
 from the sun. We take our coloring 
 from the society in which we move. 
 Society is the mould in which our charac- 
 ters are being formed. We set our tables 
 as others do. We eat after the same 
 fashion. We laugh at the same jokes. 
 We enter or retire from a room after the 
 same manner. We dress, or go half un- 
 dressed, according to custom. Indeed, 
 our whole lives are influenced by the 
 society in which we live. The thoughts, 
 words, sentiments, actions, manners, and 
 general tone of the society in which we 
 live are rapidly becoming a part of our- 
 selves, and determining our culture. 
 
 Let me speak more particularly about 
 friendships. "A faithful friend is the 
 true image of the Deity." *'Good com- 
 pany is the very sinew of virtue." *'He 
 that walketh with wise men shall be 
 wise." George Elliot said of a distin- 
 guished man: ''Each epoch in his life 
 could be distinctly marked by the intro- 
 duction of a new friend." What an in- 
 64 
 
fluence! The old fable, "I was common 
 clay until a friend planted roses in me." 
 is full of truth. Mrs. Browning asked 
 Charles Kingsley for the secret of his 
 life in order that she might try to make 
 hers beautiful. His reply was: "I had 
 a friend." A friend is for the purpose of 
 giving to us the best that he has, and for 
 the purpose of bringing out in us the very 
 best that we have. 
 
 You will find the following sentence in 
 the writings of an American author: 
 ''Our destiny is determined by our friend- 
 ships." This appears from observation 
 to be true. How many have decided 
 their destiny by their friendships. The 
 influence of companionship on character 
 is simply beyond estimation. Did you 
 ever know a great man but what owed his 
 greatness largely to others greater than 
 he ? You never did. Did you ever know a 
 man that had made a miserable failure of 
 life but what had been helped to failure by 
 others worse than he? You never did. 
 Therefore we cannot be too careful in 
 forming our friendships. Wq are not to 
 65 
 
keep an open door like a street car to all 
 who may care to enter. We must, of 
 course, be courteous to all, but all must 
 not claim our friendship. We are imitat- 
 ors. We learn more in the school of ex- 
 ample than we learn in any other. Indeed, 
 Burke asserts : ''Example is the school 
 of mankind, and they will learn at no 
 other." Nothing is so infectious as ex- 
 ample. Two neighbors owned parrots. 
 One parrot had been taught to sing 
 hymns ; the other had learned to swear. 
 The neighbors agreed to hang the cages 
 near to each other so that the parrot which 
 swore might cease to swear and learn to 
 sing hymns. The result was most dissa- 
 pointing. The parrot that sang hymns 
 ceased to sing hymns and learned to 
 swear; while the one that swore refused 
 to sing hymns, and became more profane 
 than ever. This was the power of asso- 
 ciation. However, it worked the wrong 
 way as it generally does. I know 
 parents, christian parents, who allow 
 their children to associate with doubtful 
 children in order that they may elevate 
 66 
 
them. I have seen the sad resultant of 
 such unwise and dangerous experiments. 
 No man, let alone a child, unless he is 
 most firmly established, can be in the 
 presence of a coarse, vulgar, vicious man 
 or woman without being degraded. Shun 
 the coarse, vulgar, vicious if you are at 
 all anxious for culture. 
 
 It is so easy to be good while with some 
 persons. They expect beautiful things 
 of us. Consequently we do not dis- 
 appoint them. Their presence is a con- 
 tinual inspiration. I met a young lady in 
 Illinois. We were talking about friend- 
 ships. She said to me "^Ir. Herald, I 
 made up my mind long ago that if I could 
 not have a friend who would be a positive 
 help to me in my life, I would not have a 
 friend at all.'' Now, I admired that 
 young lady very much for that senti- 
 ment. You will not be surprised wdien I 
 tell you that that young lady is to-day one 
 of the sweetest and most beautiful char- 
 acters you will find. I know other young 
 ladies who refused to give up doubtful 
 associations ; their lives are blighted, 
 67 
 
Live in solitude all your days rather than 
 take into your life an associate who is not 
 good, whose influence would mar and soil 
 your purity of soul. He who would pol- 
 lute you is not your friend. The friend 
 that does not help you to a better life is 
 not worth having. 
 
 68 
 
VI. 
 
 Sources of Thought: The Divine Spirit. 
 
 I am sure that you will agree with me 
 when I say that we would be stupid, 
 indeed, if we failed to recognize the in- 
 fluence of the Divine Spirit upon our 
 minds and hearts. He is in the world. 
 He is the mightiest force in the world for 
 culture. He, the Spirit, touches our 
 spirits ; and He touches our spirits as no 
 one else can. He is ever present ; He is 
 ever round and about us ; He is ever in 
 us. We are now convinced, I think, that 
 the influence of thought on culture is 
 almost infinite. What thoughts we re- 
 ceive from Him ! If we ever have reve- 
 lations they are from Him ; if we ever 
 have dreams of future good and greatness 
 they are from Him ; if we ever have 
 glimpses of the King in His beauty the 
 Spirit gives them ; if we ever have visions 
 69 
 
of the majesty, holiness, and truth of 
 God, the Father, so that our souls are 
 purged from sense and sin, the Spirit 
 gives them. He throws light on the path 
 of duty. He fills us with the determ- 
 ination to walk in the path of duty ; and 
 He strengthens our spirits so that we are 
 able to walk in the path of duty. How 
 we feel Him stirring at our hearts ! 
 What mighty impulses to right doing! 
 He is continually presenting to our minds 
 and hearts the highest, the noblest, the 
 truest type of culture. And the highest, 
 noblest, truest type of culture is the Man 
 of Galilee. Let us, then, encourage the 
 presence of the Spirit; obey His voice, 
 follow his leadings, and he will fill us 
 with thoughts divine; and he will help us 
 to work these thoughts into our beings. 
 
 70 
 
VIL 
 
 The Influence of Ideals. 
 
 This address would not be complete 
 without a brief reference to our ideals. 
 We have our ideals ; unconsciously, per- 
 haps, but we have them. So much 
 depends on our ideals. The thoughts of 
 our ideals yield a mighty influence on 
 character. Young men of generous 
 minds have their heroes ; nations have 
 their heroes. If not our poets would in- 
 vent them for the inspiration of our youth. 
 Who is your ideal? Who is your hero? 
 I had an ideal once : A man with a sun- 
 burnt face, hands stained with tar, the 
 sailor's roll to his walk ; who could splice 
 a rope and spin a sea yarn. This ideal 
 influenced me mightily for a time. How- 
 ever, I rose above it. Then my soul went 
 out in ardent desire to be a man who, 
 standing upon the public platform, could 
 71 
 
sway the crowds with his eloquence. 
 But I have been forced to admit that this 
 is an impossible ideal for me. Therefore, 
 I have risen above. One morning before 
 the sun had given any intimation of his 
 coming I stood upon a foreign shore ; and, 
 as the southern sea rolled and broke at 
 my feet, I took off my hat, bowed my 
 head, and promised God that if he would 
 open the way for me through university 
 and seminary, and make me a clear, 
 forcible preacher of His eternal truth, I 
 would not ask anything more in this life. 
 
 "In youth, beside the lonely sea, 
 Voices and Visions came to me; 
 
 In every wind I felt the stir 
 Of some celestial messenger." 
 
 Shall I say that I have risen above that 
 ideal? To-day I see as the end of my 
 being the Man of Galilee. The desire of 
 my heart is to be good. And the Man of 
 Galilee is my ideal of goodness. He is 
 the strongest, the most beautiful, the 
 most refined character that has ever in- 
 spired this world. He is the highest 
 possible type of culture. 
 
 72 
 
Let me say in conclusion, although we 
 do our best, thoughts that injure will 
 enter ; they intrude themselves ; they 
 hinder, they blight. Sometimes the 
 flowers are nipped by the frost ; they drop 
 their leaves ; they lose their bloom ; they 
 hang their heads ; their life has been 
 hindered, blighted. However, the sun- 
 shine, warmth, and moisture start the 
 life again. They put forth new leaves, 
 they bloom afresh, they lift their heads. 
 So our lives are hindered, blighted by the 
 intrusion of unworthy, evil thoughts. 
 We lose the buoyancy, and the bloom, 
 and the sweetness of our lives ; we hang 
 our heads. However, we come again 
 into the sunshine ; we lift our heads, and 
 our lives are stronger, more beautiful, 
 and more refined than ever. 
 
 Please remember this law in the physi- 
 cal world, — the attraction of the sun. 
 The nearer an object is to the sun the 
 greater the power of the sun's attraction 
 upon the object. The nearer we live to 
 the Sun of Righteousness the greater is 
 His power in us for character and culture. 
 73 
 
I 
 
.lif 6 1904 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 III