rine--that the finite cannot by any possibility help the infinite,
or the infinite be indebted to the finite; that the finite cannot by
any possibility assist a being who is all in all. What can we do? We
can help man; we can help clothe the naked, feed the hungry; we can
help break the chains of the slave; we can help weave a garment of joy
that will finally cover this world. That is all that man can do.
Wherever he has endeavored to do more he has simply increased the
misery of his fellows. I can find out nothing of these things myself
by my unaided reasoning. If there is an infinite God and I have not
reason enough to comprehend His universe, whose fault is it? I am told
that we have the inspired will of God. I do not know exactly what they
mean by inspired. Not two sects agree on that word. Some tell me that
every great work is inspired; that Shakespeare is inspired. I would be
less apt to dispute that than a similar remark about any other book on
this earth. If Jehovah had wanted to have a book written, the
inspiration of which should not be disputed, He should have waited
until Shakespeare lived.

Whatever they mean by inspiration, they at least mean that it is true.
If it is true, it does not need to be inspired. The truth will take
care of itself. Nothing except a falsehood needs inspiration. What is
inspiration? A man looks at the sea, and the sea says something to
him. Another man looks at the same sea, and the sea tells another story
to him. The sea cannot tell the same story to any two human beings.
There is not a thing in nature, from a pebble to a constellation, that
tells the same story to any two human beings. It depends upon the
man's experience, his intellectual development, and what chord of
memory it touches. One looks upon the sea and is filled with grief;
another looks upon it and laughs.

Last year, riding in the cars from Boston to Portsmouth, sat opposite
me a lady and gentleman. As we reached the latter place the woman, for
the first time in her life, caught a burst of the sea, and she looked
and said to her husband "Isn't that beautiful!" And he looked and
said: "I'll bet you can dig clams right there."

Another illustration: A little while ago a gentleman was walking with
another in South Carolina, at Charleston--one who had been upon the
other side. Said the Northerner to the Southerner, "Did you ever see
such a night as this; did you ever in your life see such a moon?"