When the wild crabapple puts forth blossoms, Nature sermons presched, , Ill . ship with a broken rudder, drifting atthe mercy of wind and tide. How often thesegloomy orators are discomfited! These doubt-ers said that the ocean could not be crossed,that it would swallow its victims or hurl themover its straight-standing edge to destruction;and Columbus with puny ships and poor equip-ment and timid seamen, but boundless faith,put out to sea and proved that it could be done,and became the first naturalized doubters said that ships could not be pro-pelled through the water
When the wild crabapple puts forth blossoms, Nature sermons presched, , Ill . ship with a broken rudder, drifting atthe mercy of wind and tide. How often thesegloomy orators are discomfited! These doubt-ers said that the ocean could not be crossed,that it would swallow its victims or hurl themover its straight-standing edge to destruction;and Columbus with puny ships and poor equip-ment and timid seamen, but boundless faith,put out to sea and proved that it could be done,and became the first naturalized doubters said that ships could not be pro-pelled through the water, driven against windand tide by steam; and Fulton proceeded todemonstrate that it could be done. Doubtingones from the time of Darius Green have ridi-culed the idea that the air could be navigatedby men, and lo! while they sneer and scoff andspeak of those who have died in the attempt, NATURE AND REDEMPTION Bleriot wings his way across the channel anddrops down on English soil; and Curtis and theWright brothers come home from France withbreasts covered with medals and pockets bulg-. THE SINGING OF THE BROOK ing with money—visible proof of mans abilityto do. While scoffers were saying that thenorth pole never could be reached, men ofcourage said that it could be done. And if oneof our countrymen came back with the marksof fraud upon him, another returned—Peary,85 NATURE AND REDEMPTION the American, lugging the north pole underhis arm. The testimony of libraries and art-galleries, the biographies of men and nations,the echoes that are wafted from every age andcome floating across the centuries unite in say-ing, It can be done; it can be done. Man isso great, his achievements are so notable thatit is hardly safe to say what he can not sometimes in our pride or ignorance wefeel that he can do everything, that he can singevery song. God must be proud of His children at times,Oh! there are times enough when He has nooccasion to be proud; when man is refusing tobe great or
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