Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1849-08-18
The Better Choice,
EY REV. DIR. CUMMING, LONDON.

Never forget that if you set out to gain
the world, il is but chance, peradven-
ture if you succeed. Nay. for one that
succeeds, who does notknow that nine fail
But If you set out to seek the world, and
let the world absorb your heart, and con-
centrate upon that world the best, your
hottest affections, the certainty is that while
you may lose the world you will lose your
soul. Yet man, when he thus loses God
and feels miserable, goes and joins him
self TO anything and everything that will
promise to remove his misery and restore
his lost happiness. The prodiga joined
himself to citizen of the strange coun-
try; 80 does the natural man join himself
TO trade, devotIng 10 it every energy. or
to pleasure, or ambition, or political duties,
OR he joins himself TO gayety, TO brilliant
circles, shining fetes, great parties if per-
adventure amid this worlds splendor, that
he may extibguish every beam of light
that leans to solemn inquiry. He joins
himself 10 the strange citizen Of strange
country. When man loses God he does
not cease 10 have God. The prodigaI
had no sooner left his father, than his
growing sense Of separation made him join
himself 10 the citizen OF a strange country.
Man no sooner leaves God, than he takes
something else in his room. There is no
such animal as an atheist; even the brutes
are not so; for in their ministry, and :heir
Instincts, they indicate a recognition of
superior to themselves. There are plenty
Of atheists-men opposed TO the true God
but there is no such thing as a man with
out God; ifthey leave the true God, they
take the strange god in His stead. Mans
soul was made TO be temple, and when it
is not the temple of the living God, it
becomes the temple Of an idol. Mans
heart was made to be an altar, and incense
will rise from il either to Jehovah or TO
Jupiter; whosoever it be that absorbs all
your thoughts, whosoever il be that draws
forth your first morning and last evening
reflections; whatever IT be, to gain which
you bend every energy, mould every in
fnence, subordinate everything you have
you may call it trade, or pleasure or poll.
tics, Or law, or physic, that is your God,
that IS The cistern out Of which you are
drinking, that is the being for whom you
are risking the safety of your souls, the
happiness Of world to come. Are we
living in or without the living God !! are
we still drinking at some strange cistern,
and joined to some citizen of this world =
If any are so, and thus hoping for happi.
ness as the prize, they ought TO know,
that they are not the first persons that have
made The experiment, but the repeaters
merely of an experiment that has been
made ten thousand times, and ten thou |
sand times failed. | will give you the re-
suit Of the experiment as tried by one who |
had the greatest power Of his age; great
skill, great resources and the fullest oppor- |
iuhliles for the experiment, that ever NOR
tai had, and under the most favorable cir
cumslances. He thus describes the pro.
cess, Il sought mine heart to give myself
unto wine, THAT was one ofh experiments
II sought to lay hold Of foIly'-balls,
plays, &c.-Ihat | might see what was
gooo Tor the sons Of men, that they should
60 under heaven all the days Of their life. =
l made me great works'-when had
nothing TO do but to pull down the old walls
anu build new ones-'I buiIded my houses
- thought that the cause Of my disquiet
was The smalIness or the Inconvenience Of
lie rooms, the smokness of The chimries,
.'S "ant Of color here, and gliding there;
VI! l thought, if | built large and spa
,.oo' I house should be happy; forgetting,
,"at IS not the house that makes the in
"'9''an' happy, but the inhabita Mt that
".fe' the house delightful; ard that chang
~ 'he bed Of a sick man il not to heal his
''''dse what we want is not change Of
''''n''ances around Us, out change Of