Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-02-09
SHORT SERMONS.
by LAY PRrAcura.-So. -FOUR.
THE SPIRITUAL CRAVING.

The soul of man demands eternal news from
God and if it is banked there, it turns at
once to the Devil. There is a nameiess cray
ing in men whose thaumaturgie alchemy trans
mutes every thing into spirit.
There are two ways of producing intensity
of feeling-ope is by Stimulating the senses,
and one by Yiyifying he spiritual life from
within. The play Of the Imagination in the
brain of the opium eater is IS free as that OF
genius itself; and the creations produced in
that state BY the pen or pencil are as wildly
beautiful as those which result from the no
bier influences.
II is this very resemblance which deceives
The drunkaad he Is led on by his aspirations
as well as his feelings. 1t is not the sensual
pleasures ef the glut'7 HAT fascnates him !;
it is those fine thoughts and quickened sensi-
bLities which were excited in that state,
which he is powerless to produce ont Of his
own Being, or by his own powers. and which
he expects to produce by the same MEANS
Hence it is quite as often that the finer as well
as the baser spirits Of our race are found the
victims ofsach indulgcnces.
Many Of you will remember while l speak,
the names Of the gifted of their species. the
men of genius who were the victims of these
deceptive infuences--the inspired painter.
poet, musician, who began by soothing oPiatts
to calm The over excited nerves, or stimulate
the exhausted brain-v ho mistook the sefsa-
tion for somewhat half divine. and became.
ulIir ately, mere wrecks of humanity.
80 liTe not death for which we pant.
lis life Of which our nerves are scaHt;
More life and fuller than We want"
To escape from monotonv--to get away
from the life of mere routine and habiis-to
feel that we are alive, with more of surprise
and walsefulness in our exisience-to feel the
years before us--to be consciously existing.
Now this desire lies at the bottom Of many
forms Of life which are apparently as diverse
rs possible II constitutes the fascination Of
the gamblers life-money is not what he
wants-were lie possessed of thousands to-day
he would risk them al tomorrow every mo-
ment is one of intense feeling. This, too, con-
stitutcs the charm of all those forIas of life in
which the gambling feeling is Predominant
where a sense of skill is blended with mix
ture Of chance. II is this which gives TO the
loliticias 5, to the travellers and TO the war;
rior's life, such peculiar reality; and il is this
in a FAR lower form. which stimulates the pleas
ures of fashionable Iife-which sends the vo-
tan les Of the world in constant round from
the Capitol to the Watering place. and from
the waterins-Placo 10 the Capitol-what they
cave for is The power Of feeling Intensely.
Now the proper and natural outlet Cor this
feeling is the life Of the spirit. TO live in the
spiritual olement--to have kecner feelings and
migiiieT powcrs-to rise into a higher con-
seriousness Of life. This is an intense feeling
too intense to be exciied--protounI in its calm
ness. yet rising at times, in its higher flights,
into that exta;ic life which glances in a mo-
ment intuitisely through ages pentecostal
hours Of existence. when the spirit comes as a
mighty rushing wind, in cloven tongues Of
FIRE. filling The soul with God.