Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-10-11

We enter upon our office, knowing that
certain things are expected of us, in ac-
cordance with long-established usage,
whether these things accord with our
ideas of right or not. If we should act
counter to those expectations, we might
either lose our place or lessen our infiu-
ence, or at any rate, shock and disturb
some truly good men and women. The
reluctance to do either of these things
constitutes temptation to insincerity
not always, but oftentimes. For it
cramps our freedom. 1t tempts US to
hold back our honest and mature con-
victions. 1t makes us less independent !;
and state of dependence is peculiarly
a state of temptation to some kind of
falseness. Whatever interferes with
the entire simplicity of Christian char
acter is also constant exposure to this
evil of insincerity. and we do not know
of any one virtue so hard for most min
listers to maintain as that of simplicity.
Gospel Messenger.
What miserable substitute the scien-
tifico-religious men would give for Je-
sus Christi Between them and us,
| however, this generation must make its
choice. The issue is getting palmer
every day. On the one side is Force, %
on the other the Goldman. Imagine the
struggling masses of humanity, the
hopeful and the disappointed, the living
and the dying, the fathers and the
daughters, the mothers and the sons,
the old and the young, the sick and the
| well, the sorrowful and the perplexed,
having nothing else to fall back upon
faith in resistless, Implying Force, y
steadily rolling up out Of the dim un-
known, pouring out generations upon
4 nf rf hnr
grinding them all back into dust
"Force" leaves no place for God, OF
rather no place for His personality, and
no room for Providence. All things un.
der it are necessities. No right, nc
wrong; no will, no choice; no future
to hope for, no past to learn from. All
our sensibilities, thoughts. emotions,
only 80 much natural secretion Of think.
ing and feeling organs. Our aspira
tions, all deceptions. Our self-dicipline
useless self-tOrture. Nothing noble
nothing generous, nothing praiseworthy
in life or life prospects. Everything
all our surroundings, the veriest and
darkest and the most grimly y-ludicrotf,
1 shams. ss
/ On the other hand, God comes to us
not in the appearance only, but In tn,
veriest of our nature. He comes in per
feet humanity. He appeals to our deep
est and purest consciousness. Ou
whole natures know him as the type o
their perfection. We have only to fol
low and grow like Him, in order to de
velOp the highest and nOblest we ar,
capable of. He does no violence TO tru'
human consciousness. He assures u
that there is reality in our sensibilitie
and thoughts and emotions, and tells u
that the fulness Of their exercise can b.
found only in communion with Him.
He encourages our aspirations, ant
promises the perfection of nobleness t.
all who will follow Him. He stirs tn
deepest affections of our souls, encOur
human companions we purely find: AM
declares that all true unions of human
hearts are under His care; while tn
elimination q completeness of al
love shall rest Him, aud we be salts
fed. He throws light upon the nigh
of evil, and warmth into the drearines
of. woe. They perplex us still, AM
wound us, and try our cOnstancy. Blu
we see Him going on before, and in fol
lowing after Him, discover a steady on
ward and upward progression ot tru
manliness going on within us. Th
nearer we get to Him, the more FL
seems ike ourselves, In all that is essen
TALLY human, and yet virtues come on
of Him into us, that we know to be su
perhuman and believe to be of God. In
deed, they who have drawn nearest t
Him, and become most like Him, ar
assured that He has fulfilled His prom
Use in making His abode in them witt
the Father and the Holy Ghost.
Nor does this high exaltation in. holi
ness-bringing as it does the conscious
ness of eternal life already begun AM
growing-daz the souls of the saints
and amaze their minds! but both ar
most at rest when soaring highest, AM
most serene when nearest this Goldman
The Chnrchnldn.