Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-11-17


piety and the service Of God, for they
knew that God put every man into life, to
make life great a2d glorious The theater
Of his action aud his interest, was and is,
the world, mastering it. greatcnng II, max
ing it divine.
If you are a true man or rae woman,
count it kind of ecstatic joy when you
come into certain, kinds of temptations;
those temptations that mean trial or test;
those temptations that summon the stamina
in you to an examination day, that throw
| down be problem of GROWING or diserown-
| ing. For there is no other way to demon
strate Your eligibility To- hrones an1 donifn-
| ions. Conflict makes men, just SO tar AS
| they are masters. Count yourself of no
| demon strated value until yon have been
| tested; count yourself as no master of truth
until some poltroon has lied about YOU.
| Then see how you stand balanced Meth
er be guilty of the other thing, the opposite
| extreme Do not rush into temptation,
making virtue OF that; performing tue
lowest and most un'idy service fer tn pur
| pose of feeling and telling how disagreeable
| it is, and what a precious amount of self
| denial it requires Many lindle their OWL
| fires in that way, but the smoke that goeth
upis the incense of offence. Remember
that If you are seeking to live true life
| you must not dodge it; remember that right
in your own pathway are prepared diFinc
| tests and temptations; remember that
| wherever The roses bloom. there will be
plenty of thorns without your wnutling
them out. Steer clear of that extr me by
all means; don't make virtue OF elang
own making and doing.
Another thing, Christianity neve sets
man to fighting against his own nature, as
God made it. Where did true manhood
come from? will tell You whore it did not
those cells aud caves unto which men be-
took themselves, torsaking life and the
world and the glorious actions, that God
created them to prosecute. True manhood
| was not made there; the ascesics did not
get it up A thousand and one Of Chris
tian propositions had nothing to do
| with the statement Ct IT. mean
dogmatic propositions. God never made
| a human nature, whose duffy it was to
war upon itself Man is to unfold it, de-
veop it, expand it, exaft it, preserve tun-
| tainted and keep it pure. tits an acorn in
itself; make an oak of it. It is a grand as
| piration in US; battle it with pure air, ex-
pose 1t TO the potent summer of God s
thought and love and purity. It you want
| temptation YOU need not go away from
home to find it. The problem of your
character. the problem of your nature is
! skilfuliy strung and balanced; there are
| leeions'ot passions, there are armies of appe-
tiles. there are nnnumbered prope sites,
tha make the battle for man to fight. Con-
| troll them, balance them by the good ten
| denotes, give them law; do not extirpate
them. do not have any acid of asceticism
OR them. Develop every faculty, every
beautiful sentiment, every function of in
| teiligence, of taste. of heart, of brain, of
| being, as God made you. Thus exalting
your whole humanity you do the work of
religion. and Christianity is with you
You will find wrong enough to conquer,
| you will find damage enough to rectity but
| what we are saying is, it is no call of true
religion that man should raise fight
against the very nature that God made.
| What is Sunday for, my friends? A day
to retreat into, to be good, leaving it to go
out into the world and doing whatsoever
| we do without reference to the highest mo-
tive and good? Sunday has beautiful
| light, the blessedness Of which lies in the
| fact, that it can lave the hole week with
| lis cheer, with its illumination and it's
purity. What are prayer and meditation
for? 70 prosecute and win a suit with
I
God? He does not need that we move
against Him in that way. Prayer and
meditation are designed to lave all earthly
concerns with blessedness, with sweetness,
| with purity and with power. And pa
| tience theiwinEer of the Kingdom, what
| is that for? Il is the working temper of
| life, it is just that balance and power OF en-
durance by which we keep steadily on the
| way, whether breeze Or tempest come,
| whether drouth or drench fall upon U.s.;
a power to endure and grow great in en-
durance, and to hold on to the end. That
is patience, the intensest kind of action
What is repentance? Is it sorrow? Sor-
row indeed, sorrow for wrong, sorrow for
meanness, sorrow for failure, sorrow for
self-hum;lation. There are two kinds of
sorrow. They are like the herbs of the
| field; onezis curative, the other hursful.
| One has sanitary force within it, and will