Article January 10, 1901 Issue

A century ago, an infidel German countess, dying, ordered...

with contributions from Anon, Theodore Parker

A century ago, an infidel German countess, dying, ordered that her grave be covered with a solid granite slab; that around it should be placed solid blocks of stone, and the whole be fastened together by strong iron clamps, and that on the stone be cut these words: "This burial place, purchased to all eternity, must never be opened." But a little seed sprouted under the covering, and the tiny shoot found its way through between two of the slabs, and grew there slowly and surely until it burst the clamps asunder, and, lifting the immense block, the structure ere long became a confused mass of rock, among which, in verdure and beauty, grew the great oak which had caused the destruction. Thus truth dislodges error: thus her branches spread in splendor above the ruins of the false, and thus "he that exalteth himself shall be abased."—Anon.

A man strives to know the everlasting right, to keep a conscience void of all offence. His inward eye is pure and single, all is true to the eternal right. His moral powers continually expand, and by so much more does he hold communion with his God. As far as it can see, his finite conscience reads in the book the eternal right of God. A man's power of conscience is the measure of his moral communion with the Infinite.—Theodore Parker.

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