Liberty advocate. [volume] (Liberty, Miss.) 1835-1866, 1846-02-07
tention OF our rcadersto it, in connection
with the present subject.
EXTRACT FROM A DISCLOSURE ON
SELF-DENIAL.

tits true, that as we are now made, on
appelites and desires often war agalns
reason, conscience and religion. But VIII.
lis this warfare appointed? No; to extin
gulsh these high principles but to ava
k and inyigorate them. II is meant Il
give them field for action, occasion TO
effort and me MS Of victory. Trdc, vlr
ltJH is thus opposed and endangered; bu
~ ue owes its yigor and hardwood tC
Iobslucle-, and wins its crown by conflict
do not say, that God can find no schoo
! for character but temptation, and tra
and sti org desire, but do say, that the
present state is a fit and noble school
You would have the path OF virtue, iron
the very beginning, smooth and strewec
with flowers; and would this train the
soul to energy? You would have plea
sure always coincide with duty; and how,
then, would you attest your loyalty to du
I,y? You would have conscience and de-
sire always speak the same language, and
prescribe the same path; and how, then,
would conscience assert its supremacy
God has implanted blind desires, which
often rise up against reason and con-
science, that he may give these high lacul.
ties the dignity Of dominion and the Joy
Of victory. He has surrounded US with
rivals TO himself, that we may love him
freely, and by our own un(ettered choice
erect his throne in our souls. He has
given us strong desires of inferior things,
that the desire Of excellence may grow
stronger than all. Make such world as
you wish, let no appetite or passion ever
resist Gods will, no object OF desire ever
come in competition with duty; and where
would be the resolution, ana energy, and
constancy, and effort, and purity, the
trampIing under foot oil low interests, the
generous self surrender, the heroic devo
lion, all the sublimities of virtue, which
now throw lus,re over mans nature and
speak Of his Immortality? You would
bio, the precep. Of seIfdenial from the
scriptures, and the need o: it from human
life, and, in so doing, you would blot out
almost every interesting passage in mans
history. Let me ask you. when you read
that history, what is it which most inter-
ests and absorbs you, which seizes on the
and memory, which agtates
he soul TO its centre? who is the man
whom you select from the records time
Is the object of your special admiration?
S it he, who lived to indulge hlmself?.
whose current Of life flowed most equally
md pleasurably? Whose desires were
crowned most literally with qualification?
Whose table was most luxnriantly spread?
md whom fortune made the envy Of his.
leighborhood by the lulness Of her gifts?
We're such the men to whom monuments
lave been reared, and whose memories,
'reshened with tears Of JOY and revcr-
,nce, grow and flourish and spread thro'
every age? o no! he whom we love
whose honor we most covet, is he who
mas denied and subdued himsell; who has
made the most entire sacrifice of appetites
and passions and private interests, to God,
TO virtue and mankind; who has walked
in rugged path, and chung to good ends
IN persecution and pain; who, amidst the
solicitations Of ambition, ease, aud pri-
vate friendship, and the menaces Of ~
ranny ard malice, has listened to the
voice Of Conscience, and found recon-.
pense for bighted hopes and protracted
suffering, IN conscious uprlghtness and
the favor Of God Who is it that is most
lovely in domestic life? Ills the martyr
to domestic affection, the mother forget.
ting herself and ready to toll, suffer, and
die for the happiness and virtue of her
Who is it that we honor in
public life? Ii is the martyr to his
he who serves her, not when she
has honors for his brow, and wealth for
his Golfers but who clings to her in dan
ger and falling gories, and thinks life
cheap sacrifice to her safety and freedom.
Whom does the church retain IN the
most grateful remembrance, and pro-
nounce holy and blessed? The selCdeny-
ing, self-immolatng apostle, the fearless
confessor, the devoted martyr, men who
have held fast the truth even in death, and
1t to future ages amidst blood
n
Did any man ever mourn, that he had
impoverished himself by integrity, or
worn out his frame in the service Of man
hood! Are these the recolections which
harrow the soul, and darken and appal
the last hour! To whom is the last hour
most serene and full of hope? Is it not
10 him who amidst periIs and alluremcnts,
has denied himself, and taken up the
cross with the holy resolution Of Jesus
Christ?
Two important bills are now before the
Senate, in re ation to the 100000 acres of