Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1861-08-02
IRASBURGH, VERMONT, FRIDAY AUGUST 2, 1861.

an WIFI NIOli ~ ~ pANNC3''N 'AF' ANAtNtiOAls :
who has abundant charity tor the weak
and erring, and who takes life and what
it brings him contentedy, is an admirable
man, and good in all the points which
make him admirable. A house presenting
harmonious and handsome front to the
eye of the passenger, and whose interior
combines equal convenience and elegance
is admirable, and, by that token, good.
Now these very simple propositions
have their correIative, which it is not ne
cessary to set down in order any further
than fairly to illustrate my point. Things
that are not admirable are not good. II
the dress of a Shaker is not admirable it
is not good. If that sort of lie which is
led in cioister, by monks AMI nuns, is
not admirable, it is not good. If a man
who processes to be a Christial lives a
life out of which is shut all withwhich an
unsophisticated humanity symp,thizes-
life barren of attractive fruit-a life
bare in all its surroundirgs-a ife with
no genial outflow and expression-a life
Of niggardly negative rather than Of gen.
erous positive-then that life is not ad-
mirable, and if it be not admirable, it can
not be good in those respects. A man
may carry along with such lifeas this
a spotless conscience and stric devo-
ton to apprehend duty, and thea may
be admirable and good, but the other
characteristics cannot be either and how
ever much God may approve his honest
heart and honest endeaver, He cannot
admire the style of manhood in which
they have their dull and difficult illustra-
ton. The idea that l wish definitely to
convey is this : that on the basis of right
heart, God would have US build up a
bright, generous, genial, expressive
Christian character, and use gratefully,
and gladly all those things which He has
prepared to make life cheerful and ad-
mirable. Ibelieve a saint ought to have
better tailor than a sinner, and be in
all ways better fellow. l believe true
Christian should be in every thing that
constitutes and belongs to a man the most
admirable man in the world.
have an idea that God looks with the
same kind Of contempt on he prominent
characteristics of certain styles of Chris
tian men and women that men of the
world do. There is nothing admirable
in can't and whine, and nasal pslam sing
ing, and men whose hearts are liycrs and
whose blood is bile and l cannot believe
that he blames people for not admiring
them, and not being attracted to them. |
do not believe that an admirable Chris
tian life is repulsive to the men Of the
world. l believe that whenever the hu-
man mind recognizes a rounded, chas-
tened, rich and outspoken Christian char
acter, whether it belong 10 manhood or
womanhood, it admires it, and feels at
tracted to it by the degree in which it
admires it. l believe, moreover, that
the Christianity which discards as vani-
ties those things which God nas provided
for the pleasure of his children, and NOR
tifes the love Of beauty, and adopts the
theory that God is pleased with penance,
and degrades, abuses and traduces the
body to win greater sanctity Of soul, and
find sin in every sweet of sense, is
bastard Christianity. God is not the
God of the dead, but of the living.
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