The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1870-07-22

MARIETTA, GEORGIA.
Friday Morn. Jusy 90, 1870
CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES.

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has come over the Puritanism of II. w.
BEECHER, on the contrary he appears
much more amiable than when poor and
in adversely with long visago and sob
er purpose ho waged "thc war of ideas"
against the Southern people. His
countenance has now lighted up-sober
hypocracy pays no more the victory is
won-t the Parson luxuriatcs in wealth
and can no longer tolerate the man who
wears a sober visage. Hear him:
"Evcry man should be sober some
times. once know one SO unfortunate
as to be sober all the time, apd yet an
honest man! We have known men
thatnevcr smiled, or seldom, whose face
was rigid as an iron mask, and yet they
were kind, simple, and really reliable.
But such are exceptional cases. Uni
form sobricty is p:csumptively very
much against man. He who gives no
play to the gcntlcr feelings, has some
thing the matter with him that should be
looked into before one trusts him far.
Mirth itself is not always honest
But it tends to openness, to sincerity, to
sweetness. Mirth has better stuff in it
to make man of than sobriety has 1t,
too, is used sometimes as mask for
hypocrisy but not half SO often as So
briefly is.
Only consider how many men quite
empty and worthless, inwardly neither
rich nor forccful, arc kept agoing by the
mere trick of gravity. When some men
come to you it is like sunrise. Every
thing seems to take new life, and shines.
Other men bring night with them. The
chill shadow of their sobricty falls upon
every innocent gaiety, and your feelings,
like birds at evening, stop singing and
go to their roost Away with those fell
lows who go owing through life, all the
while passing for birds of paradise =
He that can not laugh and be gay should
look we'll to himself. He should fast
and pray until his face breaks forth into
light
Here, too, arc tho immortal billiards
who, it is to be feared, will never for
sake the earth. Dull good men! They
live with the uniform consistency of
stagnation. They are said to be relia-
able. You always know whore to find
them. Safe men they are. They are
none of your highfycrs, never extrava-
giant, always where you found them last
Over their blessed faces hangs the twi-
light of sobricty. They are immense
negatives. Nothing saves them from
pity but their sobriety. Men worship
that and so dullness passes for con-
sistent piety.
Behind the mask of sobricty how
many pretenders pass themselves off :
Every one knows how wrctchedly in
consistent with honor their outdoor life
is, but they have such power of gloom
in meetings, that men respect their re-
ligious experience! And so the young
arc taught that one can be eminently re-
ligious without being strictly honest or
reliable.
Public sentiment is purifying itself
Men are beginning at last to understand
that nothing is 50 cheerful, so full of lib
erty, as genial and joyous, as true re-
Egion. Christ called this sort of men
children of LIGHT. He ridiculed and de-
nounced the long-faccd hypocrites who
ostentafiously prayed and prayed, and
got further from grace and humanity
the longer they prayed After Him
came the Apostles, who cry out to all
good and true men, Rejoice in the
Lord Away, and again ! say, Rejoice
With all this, sobriety ought not to be
denounced. Men have a right to be
solemn, in spots, and on just occasion.
If men of inelastic natures and of rigid
face live truly kind and upright lives,
their sobriety should be considered a
misfortune and not a fault. But such
men are not the types of Christianity
The typical Christian hangs full OF the
fruit of every faculty which God plant
ed in the soul. A man Of reason he is
a man of instinct and intuition too a
man capable of suffering, fall of light
and shadows stern if need be, but re-
lenting, placable, and mild: capable of
hating, choosing rather to love; strict
with himself, lenient with all others
loving this world dearly, but loving the
other even better; abhorring wicked
ness, and yet the best friend of wicked
mon gay and guilelcss as child, SEN
sitive as woman; loving joy in himself,
inspiring it in others; lover of actiyi-
ty, and lover of rest; full of thunder
and full of peace after it-this is the
man which the true Gospel breeds. As
cetics, cynics, eremites, mere sobricty-
mongers are all bastards.
Whatsoever things are kind, whatso
ever things are honest, whatsoever