The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-03-20
SUNDAY READINGS.

DSyOuu Gne power OF man to lift him
self; he can only prevent himself from
sinking. It is not we that set the lights
before us at which we aim they CLEAN
upon us from beyond us, if not by the
immediate gift of God; and our part is
complete if we keep our eye intent to
see them, and our foot resolute to climb
whittier they show us the way. The
beacon aloft is given the path to reach
it alone is found But there is another
saying, not less true, needful to com
plete the story,-that whoever is faith
full to a first grace that opens on him
shall have a second in advance of it:
and, if still he follows the messenger of
God, angels ever brighter shall go be-
fore his way. Every duty done leaves
the eye more clear and enables gentler
whispers to reach the ear; every brave
sacrifice incurred hghtens the weight of
clinging self which holds us back every
storm of passion swept away leaves the
air of the mind transparent for more
distant visions; and thus, by a happy
concord of spiritual attractions. the
| helping graces of heaven descend. and
meet the soul intent to rise. Though.
therefore, it is not ours to elevate our
selves, we shall assuredIy be sent for.
if we will only go. But, then, this
growing scale, this more and ever more
OF opportunity, must be referred to
God; and it gives us a mark by which
we may track the lines of Providence in
life.-Janses Martineau.
BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY DIGNIFrEs AND
ENhARaEs LIFE.-What sense of great
ness one receives as he gazes at the stars
through telescope, and reflects that
this myriad-orbed domain is his home
The tradition of a line of ancestors
reaching back into an unknown antiuui-
ty lmparts a dignity to consciousness
which no reasonable estimate of ones
self can give. One stands on an ances-
tor as on the top of a deeply based
column, his foundation the accumulated
life of many souls. A wealth of expe-
rence belongs TO him which he alone
never could have acquired. In his
veins runs redder blood on his shout
ders rests a graver responsibility those
shadowy hands bear him up to higher
level of duty, and clothe him with gar
ments of peculiar honor. Similar is the
effect of great look forward. IF one
is persuaded that he shall enter on an
other sphere of existence when this is
ended, that his activities will go on with
increasing power till their possible
achievement is accomplished, that his
affections will find new objects, his
dreams new fulfllment7, his Iongings
| new developments, he surely will rise
to a greater moral dignity than he
would otherwise. The sense of Iimita-
ton of circumstance, of opportunity.
of faculty, the disabling consciousness
of mental and moral inability being in
anticipation removed, the discouraeing
feeling that here at least you can do no
better being modified by a great hope.
the natural result viii be patience. re-
signation, trust on the one hand. n
cheerful alacrity on the other.-O. B.
rockingham.
HE CULTURE OF THE ESToTlvR NATURE.
To be complete men we want much
more power of emotion, much more
love, human and divine, than is allowed
in our schemes of education. But we
want it not as our master, but only our
helper. Reflective man must be the
lord of the instructive emotions. Feel
ing masters the savage child but the
well-grown man is self-nastered. and
rules his feelings, not they him. The
/ feelings may be made the end of the
mans spiritual experience he may
stop with emotion and go no further.
Such men remain children. If a man
cultivates his afectional feelings. and
does not put them to their natural work.
then the feelings become sickly and
morbid, and dwindle into mere senti-
mentalsm. So the religious feelipps
may suffer similar estopped and
dwindle into mysticism and mere quiet
ism. Men, oftener women, may have
great warmth of feeling-love of God.
trust IN God, reverence for God. de-
light in God, prayer to God, thought of
God,-which yet has no influence ON the
life. 1t bends the knees, keeps Sunday
idle, crowds the meeting houses. but
never opens the purse toward the poor.
nor turns the capitalists money to
building reasonable tenements for them.
When men seek religion as a means of
pleasure to cultivate emotions of trust
and love of God for their own selfish de
light, it becomes as fatal to them as
thesgaming house, the drinking shop or
the brothel. The very inquistion was
built up and sustained by men who riot
in mere voluptuousness of religious
emotion and stop there. These are the
dangers of a wrong cultivation of the
feeling. - Theodore Parker.
PRIDE AND HUAmArY-We hear a
deal said against pride. I wish there
we're more pride-of one sort less of
another. A man without pride is gener-
ally man without character. Self-re-
sloect is oDa of the browning elements ;
and it is derived from the feeling of
self-esteem, on which pride is based.
And yet, the Scripture represents pride
as odious, and condemns it severely. It
is condemnable-one kind of pride.
What is that kind of pride which is to
lie condemned It is that which leads
5, man to think he is too good for any
ether use than that which pertains to his
own comfort and satisfaction. You
think you are not pro@d, because you
do not hold your head up. You see a