PARK AND CEMRTRRY 
15 
mony of truth ; it is the life of beauty. To be brought 
into tune with good things is the first step toward 
being good. As soon as goodness becomes incar- 
nate, tangible, seen, it is inspiring. The order and 
harmony and beauty of nature are brought close to 
us and made visible in the park. Therefore, the park 
brings us into tune with goodness, and so the blessed 
ministry of the park is to set our feet into right paths, 
and order our thoughts to things that are true and 
high and noble and of good report. We think 61 
these things in sweet and cheering and healthful en- 
vironment ; and thinking is the first step toward do- 
ing.” 
“Granted that every wanderer through the park 
does not become an angel ; granted that if he brings 
mischief in his soul with him into these pure retreats 
he will carry mischief out with him. Would you 
repudiate the whole college of the twelve who followed 
the divine life three years because there was a Judas 
among them who brought mischief with him into the 
company and went out with it and hanged himself? 
Give the masses an opportunity to be good and 
they will reach toward goodness like as the roots 
reach for the water. 
Every cry against wrong makes it harder to do 
wrong; every impulse toward truth makes erroi 
harder ; every inspiration of right makes sin more 
difficult. A park in the midst of the evil of the city 
is a protest against meanness and sordidness, a cr}' 
against filth and squalor. 
Let us believe this too — for we know it from our 
own experiences ; some of our best lessons we learned 
unconsciously. It is not always what we set our- 
selves to learn that we learn most thoroughly. Often 
“cudgeling our brains” makes them obstinate. When 
mind can free itself from pressure, when change of 
scene bathes us in the refreshment of beauty and 
grace, then thought becomes pliable and we breathe 
things unconsciously. We do not know how much 
we have received in these moments of recreation until 
necessity compels us to draw on our reserve fund. 
I have an unconquerable faith iir the resistless- 
ness of nature. And even though the unthinking 
crowd roams heedless through the park, I will trust 
dear old Mother Nature to let none pass through 
without a gentle, kindly, helpful, and even saving 
touch of her rod and her staff. They may not know 
that they are learning; they may not interpret na- 
ture’s reproof of wrong and selfishness ; they may not 
be aware of nature’s inspirations to virtue ; they ma>' 
not hear nature’s beating heart of love, and yet pa- 
tient, preserving nature will not let any pass without 
her divine touch. The heart of every park visitoi 
receives something of the refreshment that nature is 
always holding out in full cup with equal liberality to 
the thirsty and satiated. 
Let us be compassionate, too, upon the masses 
we call the community. The wear and tear of lite 
is severe upon it. The denser the population, the hot- 
ter the friction. Out in the country, deep in the 
woods, life is not worn threadbare like in the crowd. 
But what I mean is that the broad plains and the 
mountains do not sap vitality as the exacting crowd 
does. In the city life is worn much harder than in 
the quiet country. 
Now if every little while we can change the sur- 
roundings that wear and kill for the surroundings 
that rest and refresh and make alive, we have poured 
the oil of life on this eternal and heartless grind, and 
just in so far have we made the grind more bearable. 
The park’s offer of recreation is a re-creation. What- 
ever re-creates is a savior from wear and tear ; what- 
ever re-creates sends us back into the struggle 
stronger to resist. 
In the city’s throng there are thousands who can- 
not get near to nature. The woods are too far oft. 
It costs too much money and time to get to the fields. 
The country is forbidden, even to the toiling multi- 
tudes of the city. At the gateway of the country the 
angel of necessity stands with the drawn sword ol 
want, forbidding the hard-working, bread-driver, 
crowd to enter. So the park lays itself at the very 
feet of the tired and offers its comfort to eyes that 
are hot with hatching work ; the park brings the de- 
light of the woods to the desolate tenement ; the pure 
healthy smell of the field to the badly ventilated and 
unsanitary condition of the crowded street. T\lo ange'l 
stands with forbidden sword waving away the tired 
and weary multitude ; no wall of wealth girdles the 
domain of nature as the kingdom of God opens itself 
in the park. 
The multitude need not stand outside and peer in 
through iron gates. The park gates are open con- 
tinually to all who will enter. No mother need stand 
outside the park and think bitterly as she looks 
through the chinks and sees some other mother's 
baby luxuriating in a private garden. Her baby, too, 
can roll on the grass and gather strength frotn kindly 
Mother Earth. The wealth of millions .serves her 
baby. No barefoot, tattered boy need stand on the 
hot pavement and sec other boys, no better than he 
is in God’s sight, playing where he dare not because 
he is poor. The park is his playgrountl, and his bat 
and ball are as dignified as the costliest plaything in 
the rich child’s nursery. 
And then when Sunday comes — what a safe i)lace 
and a true place and a lovely place the well-kept and 
managed park offers the tired multitude. How much 
they can add to the laborers’ day of rest ! 
There is just enough noise of children to make 
the place glad with that divine presence tliat once 
blessed childhood. There is just enough freedom to 
make people easy and natural in their social inter- 
course, there is just enough guardianship to keep out 
