In a recent publication I note a quotation from Carlyle: "Our grand business in life is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies closely at hand." This is true as far as it goes; but the shallow wisdom of the world seems to be unable to utter more than a half truth. For a fact, the first appeal of Christ is to things dimly in the distance, which we can see only by faith. Having perceived those, we are ready to consider the things that lie nearer. If we leave or neglect the wondrous themes of God's great plans and future dealings, the coming of the Lord, the glories and terrors of the ages to come, and confine ourselves to the consideration of immediate duties, those duties themselves become dreary and oppressive and commonplace. We need all the motive we can get. Man lives by every word that cometh out of the mouth of God--poetry and prophecy as well as precept. True, dreaming alone is of no value. But all great action and earnest life is backed up by such "dreams" and visions as God's word furnishes. Hope is inspiration to do, and not an empty dream. "Every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John 3:3.) But nothing is more blighting than a bald, bare utilitarianism.

[TAG 42]