What people want most is to know how to behave, now.
They want teaching that shall explain clearly what they ought to do; why they want to do it, and how they may best learn to do it.
Clear, strong, simple, convincing Explanations of Life—Directions for
Action; Stimulus and Strength; Courage and Hope; Peace and
Comfort—these are the things we want in our sermons.
Are they any better for the laborious far-fetched text?
THE LITTLE WHITE ANIMALS
Reprinted from "The Conservator," by courtesy of Mr. Horace Traubel.
We who have grown Human—house-bodied, cloth-skinned,
Wire-nerved and steam-heated—alas! we forget
The poor little beasts we have bandaged and pinned
And hid in our carpet-lined prisons!—and yet
Though our great social body be brickwork and steel,
The little white animals in it, can feel!
Humanity needs them. We cannot disclaim
The laws of the bodies we lived in before
We grew to be Human. In spite of our frame
Of time-scorning metals, the life at its core,
Controlling its action and guarding its ease,
Is the little white animal out of the trees!
It is true that our soul is far higher than theirs;
We look farther, live longer, love wider—we know;
They only can feel for themselves—and their heirs;
We, the life of humanity. Yet, even so,
We must always remember that soul at its base
Looks out through the little white animal's face.
If they die we are dead. If they live we can grow,
They ply in our streets as blood corpuscles ply
In their own little veins. If you cut off the flow
Of these beasts in a city, that city will die.
Yet we heighten our buildings and harden our souls
Till the little white animals perish in shoals.