The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1857-07-29

5 Another nofiion that disturhs won yery


] a Another notion that disturbs YOU very
much, is syaar positive dislike of long
sermons, and Of such singing. as they
have when the organist is away. You
cannot get the force vaf that verse of DR.
Watts which Kkens heaven to reverend
ing Sabbath; you do hope-thongh il
] seems alhalf wicked hope-that old DR.,
E-r- !, will not be the preacher. You
think that your heart in its best moments
Graves for something more, loyable. You
suggest this perhaps to some Sunday
teacher, who only shakes his head sourly,
and tells you it is thought that the
| Devil is putting in your brain. 1t strikes
you oddly thdfsfhc Devil should be using
q verse q, Dr. Watts to, puzzle you! But
fit be 50, he Yksaps It sticking By
1 your thought very pertinaciolisly, un-
til some simple utterance Of your mother
about the Love that reigns in the other
world, seems on sudden to widen Hea-
ven, and to wait away your doubts like a
cloud.
1t excites Your wonder not littls, to
find people who talk gravely and heartily
| of the excellence of sermons and Church
going, do sometimes fall asleep under it
all. And you gwonder-if they really
like preaching so vel, -why they don't
| buy some of the minister's old manu-
scripts, and read them over on week
days ;-or, invite the Clergyman to preach
to them in quiet way in private!
All, Clarence, you do not yet know
the poor weakness of even maturest man
hood, and the feeble groupings, Of the soul
toward souls paradise, in the best of
the world! You do not vet know that
either ignorance and fear will be
thrusting their untruth and false show
into the very essentials of Religion. .
Again, you wonder,-if the Clergymen
arc such very good mon as you are taught
to believe, why it is, that every little while
| people will send them off; and tryto prove
them very stupid and bad men At that
day, you have no clear conceptions of the
distinction between stupidity and vice;
and think that good man must necessa-
rily say very eloquent things. Youwill
| find yourself sadly mistaken on this point,
before you get on very far in life.
Heaven, when Jour mother peoples it
with friends gone, and the little Charlie,
and that better Friend, who, she says,
took Charlie in his arms, and is now his
Father, above the skies, seems place to
be loved, and longed for. But-to think
that Mr.. Such-an-one, who is only good
on Sundays, will be there too; and to
think of his talking as he docs, of place
which YOU are sure he wonld spoil if he
were there,-puzzles you again; and you
relapse into wonder, doubt and yearmng.
| And there, Clarence, fer the pres
emit l shall leave you. 4 wide. rich Hea-
ven hangs above you, but it hangs very
high. A wide, rough world in around
You, and it lies very low. ~
i am assuming in these sketches no
office of a teacher. am seeking only to
make truthful analysis of the boyish
feeling. But having venturecd thus far
into what may seem sacred ground, |
shall venture still farther, and c!inch my
matter with moral
There is very much Religious teaching,
even in so good a country as New Eng
land, which is far too harsh, too dry, too
cold for tho heart of a boy. Long SER
mons, doctrinal preecpts, and such tedi-
/ ouslyworded dogmas as were uttered by
those honest, but hard-spoken men-the
Westminster Diyines, fatigue, and puzzle
and dispirit him.
They may be well enough for those
strong souls which strengthen by task
work, or for those mature people whose
| iron habit of self-dcnial has made patience
cardinal virtue: but they fall (erperto
crede) upon the unhedged faculties of the
boy. ike winters rain upon Spring flow
ers,-hke hammers of iron upon 1.-THE
timber. They may make deep impression
upon his moral nature, but there is great
| danger of sad rebound.
Is it absurd to suppose that some adap-
ton is desirable! And might not the
teachings of that Religion, which is the
Egis Of our moral being, be inwrought
with some of those finer harmonies of
speech and form-which were given to
wise ends and lure the boyish soul, by
something akin to that gentlenes, which
belonged to the Nazarene Teacher; and
who proyided-not only, meat for men,
but milk for babes p
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