Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-26

Sacrifice Is the offspring aud the truesttest
of Love Of the higher species. go
To sacrifice is TO suffer; to pay for others,
peace with pain; TO give the life-blood Of the
heart TO devotion's cause.
Sacrifice is hardly human: it now, as in
the earliest day, an offering to Heaven, not
10 propitiate but TO prove.
Who looks for sacrifice from mortals IL
pnwist; for rare are they, as, in the desert,
palms, who will surrender self TO soul, and
drain the henlock Fate prepared for other
lips than theirs. ,e .-sI,.7. ......
And yet there are--God pity theml-the
deep p-devoted few, even in this lower sphere,
who, when occasion needs, viii, silent bare
their bosom to the knife and bleed while
others smile.
No BorL from them Of murmur or COM
plant; no sigh nor groen. The atonement
passes as noiseless as the shadow falls. The
wounded bosom is concealed and he or she
that nestles there for whom the sacrifice was
made, is al unconscious ofthe past
If aught there be, on this unjustand hollow
earth, of pure divinity, it is in him who for
his fellows takes the cross and wears the
thctns.
The world win not believe that man makes
sacrifice for man; nor is it strange. Few
hold faith above the level of their heart,
or comprehend a principle unnatural to
themselves.
And yet were spiritual sepuichers dis
closed, and the air made witness of the
world, grim skepticism would soften to be-
lief. and hearts Of adamant know tenderness
again. s..
The glowing original, the primeval sacri-
ist,-regard him as a myth OF an ideal, it
matters pot,-gave to the world lesson, an
example more beautiful than poet ever drew.
His was the highest action, the loftiest
heroism that history has furnished. All was
| spirit there and love, and Gentiles in their
| fullest pride look on the record Of his sacri-
fee as on the mountain deed that ver-pin-
| nacles the world.
| Glorious as is sacrifice, it seems unuatural
it is too much to ask; too much TO hope for;
| too much 10 do, yof ... -,.-.
| When mortals immediate themselves, the
| angels feel their goodness put to blush, and
see the far-off Earth reflect the hues of
| Heaven. They then behold the true divinity
of man, and know bis soul is kindred 10 their
| own. ~', Csc.
| Sacrifice has no belief of recompense, no
| purpose beyond the rendering of some good
that must be purchased by Individual pain.
| II seems a morbid hatred of ones self for
love of all the woIld. 1t saves the meanest
worm to trample on itself. 1t throws itself
before the lifted arm Of the suicide to receive
on its bare breast the CORY wound.
e None praise the dead; some idly gaze, and
| many scotf The sacrilist cares not some
sad, strange feeling gives him strength and
consolation even to the end.
Perhaps he sees the fire of happiness burn
on the hearth his blood has sanctitied; de.
tects the glimmer of the peaceful stream that
owes its course to toll and suffering by him
alone. ~ '.Is y W. .-t
They who enjoy guess not the price o
their enioyment-behold. not through the
Derfumed pleasure of the hour the anxiou,
forehead and the saddened eye of one who
gave them what they hold.
They pe'er will know it-happy they il
ignorance The sacriicist bears his deeI
secret TO the tomb. He would not poison
the banquet he has prepared. His nature il
10 suffer secretly, to yield his benisons in re
| ticence.
More graves than we imagine hold thu
precious dust of the selfsscrificed. 5r
We owe to.saiuts uncrowned much of th
freedom we possess from misery.
| The sbroud-folds hide the wounds they
bear for U.s. the heart that molders ached 70
us through nights on which we soundl
slept, and its pure pain Was for a momen
stiIled by answered prayers.
Think sometimes, reapers of the harves
sacrifice has sown, of those that moistene
the hard soil with sacred tears Pause il
your revelry to think Jesus dies for ever
happiness, aud that, here and there through
out the world, like diamonds in the dust, ar
unrecorded Calvaries. yg3.,f JUNIUS.