American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-01-06

{" Moveless as the steed he reined," he
still sat behind his lord. Surprised, the
calf said: "Tell me, good fellow, why
you seek not your share of the perils ?
What will you gain by thus lingering near
to me?" any gain will be this, sire"
replied the Ethiopian; {" shall know that
l have faithfully guarded my king"
That noble reply won the calif's heart.
Speaking of his faithful Ethiop to his
friend, he said:
"No features fair
Nor conely mien are his;
Love Is the beauty he doth wear,
And love his glory is"
This legend finely illustrates difference
between the Christian and the worldling.
The former finds his good in the Creator
himself, as the Ethiop' found his gain in
serving his king; the latter seeks his good
in the " creature" as the calif's servants
sought their gain in the scattered pearls.
The former remembers, the latter forgets,
THAT If thou not to Him aspire
But to his gifts alone
Not love, but coyetous desire,
Has brought thee to his throne"
As worldling you, beloved youth, are
falling into the sad mistake of the latter
class. You are looking for the happiness
not in God, but in his gifts alone, in the
scattered pearls of earth's broken casket.
That this expectation must be quenched
in the dead sea of disappointment, your
past experience fully demonstrates. Per
NIT me now to unfold a truth which is
probably new to you. Let me show you
that the way to extract the utmost pleas
ure from the things of this life is not by
a studied indulgence of the appetites
and passions" but by seeking your chief
happiness in God. Before entering fur
ther, however, in this subject, | must
guard you against the dangerous idea that
your personal enjoyment is the true end
and aim of life. The poet, in his " Psalm
of Life" teaches you better. He says:
"Not enjoyment and not Sorrow
Is our destined end or way;
But to net, that each tomorrow
Finds US farther than today
The poet is right Your chief end is
neither selfish joy nor selfish grief but
such earnest action-such right use of
your powers-as shall daily carry you far
ther from the selfish and the carnal, and
nearer to the pure ,haracter of Him, who
is both the embodiment and the source of
all real felicity the result of that action
will be the highest happiness, physical,
mental, and spiritual of which you are
capable. If you will make it your object
to attain the image of God, he will make
it his care to promote your enjoyment
IF his service is your delight, he will see
to it that all things within you and with
out you contribute to your happiness. His
whole nature, which is love, moves him to
do this. Look backward along the far
stretching aisle of time.
See the first pair as they came from his
hands in Eden. So long as they made
him the sole object of their loving SER
vice, he made every thing tributary to
their pleasure. Beauty filed their eyes,
melody charmed their ears. Every move
ment of their limbs, every excitation of
their senses, every qualification of their
appetites, every agitation of their emo
tions, every exercise of their reasoning
faculty, every thought of each other, eve
ry perception of the Creator, caused
fresh wave of delight to pass over their
happy spirits But when they turned
their eyes FROM their Creator and set them
selves to the work of seeking their own
interests and pleasures in their own way,
then alas happiness fed from Paradise
and them, Then pain, and sorrow, and
discord and fear, were born into their
hearts, and misery became the heirloom of
shining mortals. Still Gods desire for
human happiness, like his loving nature,
remained unchanged. But as man lost
it by turning away from God as the su-
preme good, so he must recover it by turn
ing to him again with devoted love and
faithful service. Sought on selfish princi-
pies, and as a selfish end, happiness can
never be found; but sought in God, it
bubbles up within the soul "a well of wa
ter springing up unto d@rnal life"
You probably hold the opinion that to
be pious, you must so separate yourself
from the world as to take no pleasure in
anything but strictly religious exercises.
You fancy that true piety prohibits you
from enjoying any pleasure in earthly OBJ
jects, pursuits, and associations; that it
requires you to walk amid all the delights
of this terrestrial life with elongated
countenance, rigid muscles, and mournful
step, like some grave mute at funeral,
or some half buried old monk of the
middle ages, whose mystic creed taught
him that he was in the high road to saint
=. t L = Iii