merson's essay on
Spiritual Laws, or The Over-Soul, and not be inspired? or Longfellow's
Resignation? or Bryant's Lines to a Water-fowl, or Thanatopsis, and not
be inspired? Then these must have been inspired, or they could not
inspire. Who today can sing the Star Spangled Banner, Geo. F. Root's
Battle Cry of Freedom, or Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the
Republic, without feeling a thrill of inspiration that stirs the very
depths of the soul? Then, these must have been inspired. Time and
space fail me to mention even any of the great orators of history from
Demosthenes to Woodrow Wilson, who by the power of their eloquence have
been able to so inspire men to action as to change the course of
empires and the destiny of nations. The secret of all this is that
these men were themselves inspired,--not by some miraculous
supernatural influence,--but by the natural intensity of their own
earnestness, sincere devotion to, and all-absorbing interest in the
cause they espoused, until they _lost themselves_ in their cause, and
became thus inspired, and inspired others.

Yes, inspiration is as common and potent in the world today as it ever
has been in any age of the past. Its spirit still "enters into holy
souls, making them friends of God and prophets."

Just a few words about Revelation will suffice. Revelation has been
generally looked upon as almost synonymous if not identical, with
inspiration; or so intimately connected with it that they could not be
separated. What might be distinctively called revelation was the
product, or out-put of inspiration. Whatever truth may still remain as
to these relations, since we have seen that inspiration is not
something miraculous and supernatural, but purely and wholly natural,
there can be no such a thing as revelation in any miraculous or
supernatural sense. And yet, all that man has ever learned,
accomplished, attained to, or achieved is a revelation. Man, with all
his boasted knowledge and achievement, has never created anything; all
that man has ever done, at his best, has been to discover and utilize
things and forces that are as old as the universe itself. All the
discoveries he has ever made, all the knowledge he has ever gained, all
that he has ever accomplished or achieved, has been the result of a
continuous, unfolding revelation from the dawn of time to the present
day; by which he has been able to discover, utilize and appropriate to
his own use and benefit,