Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1869-04-29
COMMON SENSE ABOUT RELIGION.


| glorious visions and experiences. oni
such good time, such joyful time, as
I have hadP' man says. We'll. let me
see him day or two afterward. and
can tell better whether it is genuine
Christian experience or not.
Here is a man that has had quar-,
rel. He never has lost chance to say
an ugly thing, or to have an ugly thing
said against him; and his wife and
children have taken it up; and here is
set of families that have warm times.
They are as spiteful as cats and
dogs. and throw sparks like black
smiths forge all the time. And YET
this man is roaring good Christian,
He goes to meeting. There is revival
and his religious feelings are all aglow,
And it is all right. He does feel just
as he says he does. There is no hypoc-
riey in his profession. He takes his
hymn book, and the minister happens
to be fortunate, and the hymn comes
right home, and circumstances concur
and the electric influences are favor
able, and the meeting is joyful one,
and he won't go home until twelve
O'Clock. He has sung twenty hymns;
and he does feel as though he could
not keep himself on the ground. "a
little more, Lord" he says, "and l
shall fly away"
.Now, / want to see if tomorrow,
he will so to that neighbor, and say,
"Look here, nay dear fellow, we are
wrong-at any rate am, whether you
are or not. l have been ugly. For,
give me. l had such good time last
night, that I must clean my heart
My pride must come down, my vanity
must come down, and must be recon
ciled to you"
He did have good time, and that il
the sign that the feeling which he ex
perienced was genuine. That he roarec
his hymns joyfully was no sign of it
that he had an ecstacy of prayer wa
no sign of it; but that, having tha
elevation, he changed it to mora
purpose; that out of that feeling b
wrought garments of duty; that out o
that experience he came back to hii
fellow-men more sympathetic, more
gentle, more humble, more Christian
like-ah! that was sign that the
feeling was genuine one. Otherwise
it would have been simply sign o
self-indulgence.
A man that takes his excess o
moral, social, and religious excitement
to raise the tone of his moral anC
emotive feelings, is just as dissipatet
as if ne raised the tone of his physica
feelings by physical stimulants. | an
not institutinga comparison as to which
is the better and which is the worse
l merely say that one is intemperanc'
Just as much as the other, though one
is grosser than the other, and is more
disastrous in undoing the very struc
ture of the body itself. And mel
ought to be made to understand tina
there is such a thing as moral intoxi
cation, and that man can take re
ligious feeling, and that he can-wha
shall 1 say? imbibe and imbibe, ant
imbibe, for no other reason than be
cause it feels so good. 1t is self-in
diligence. 1t is luxury-a highe
luxury, to be sure. And he imbibes
and imbibes, and is more joyful. HI
is not better man: but he is a mucl
happier man. And he imbibes, ant
imbibes, until by and by he swigs, ant
swigs, and swigs; and the man is be
sotted. l have seen men that wer
literally debauched at the top of thei
brain, and who had gone into sys
tematic self-indulgence. They neve
were happy except under circumstanc
es where they had this peculiar form
of enjoying themselves.
If / found that the whole form o
this enjoyment was mighty sprinI
that was pressing them toward self
denial for the sake of their fellow-men
if l found that it was securing thei
morals as white as snow; if | founc
that it was multiplying the avenue
of their usefulness; if | found tha
they we're gentle and meek in follow
ing Christ, then l should say tha
there was no debauch there, that ther
was no moral intemperance there
Feeling which, beginning as feeling
has transmitted itself into life and con
duct, and become wholesome-that
genuine piety; that is true Christia
character; but the mere feeling with
out the transmutation is nothing of tn
kind, and it is not desirable. If it
not going to be transmitted into any
thing but emotion, it is not only a
undesirable thing, it is a dangerou
: thing. "a Isica is ra.taaL.
Let us take instances that are famil
l lar to us in common life. A man sit
} in his door, and sees bully abusing
! child that is weak, gentle, mild an
meek; he fairly swears with rage t
see such an abominable bully abus
, such helpless, nice child. A yer
staid and quiet apprentice in sho
/ near by witnesses the occurrence. ID
does not feel half so much indignation
), but he drops his tools and claPs on !, hi
paper cap, and rushes out into tn
! street, and knocks that bully, and send
t him sprawling to the ground; and whe
three or four of the bully's compan
ions come out to help him, the ap
r, prentice squares up to them, and ap
pals the whole of them, and he res
! cues that boy. should like to know
which of these two men felt indignation
best and most salutary. One felt'it II
his head, and the other felt it in his fist
In one it took on the form of helpless pro
test-the form of lazy indignation in
lazy man. And so he sat and reeke'
with indignation. The other man trans
| mitted his indignation into a fire whicl
carried him out, and made him th
champion and protector of the weak
and the punisher of the oppressor.
, say that the last feeling was the heart
l r l. Al ~