Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-02-14

tAOu8lt w liAAucuCc ulIu Ill HIS KOOQ
works.J God ID no mans debtor; but
how much happier and nobler will he
be; how much loftier and closer to
Heaven his soul! And what about
the great day of reckoning. when the
books are opened and each mans deeds
are brought home to him?
Surely one of the great incentives to
good, to glorify God in ourselves, and
in our works, is the thought Of the
gratitude we owe Him for the untold
mercies and privileges we possess.
Who can number his own Individual
| blessings? and who can say he de-
serves the least of them? 1.-THE earth
is the Lords. and the fullness there
of. He it is who gives and has
power to take away. Render, 0 read
er! unto Caesar the things which are
| Cesar $, but remember, what is far
more important, to render unto God
! the things that are Gods. What we
owe to man in this world. the law
makes US pay; if we do not, it is sum
marily enforced. God speaks to us
only in the still small voice of con-
science; we can pay Him or not as we
| please; but there will come day of
reckoning.
4 But the most beautiful of all self
denial, and perhaps the most difficult
to practice, is that which is or ought to
be carried on in the sacred precincts
of home. AT home it is very proba-
bic that, if called upon, each would be
willing to lay down his life for the
i other. But we are not required to
perform heroic deeds; if we were, and
they became common, probably that
very fact would cause them to lose
their influence, and we should give
them up also. Life is made up of
small things. and it is precisely in
these that it is most difficult to be
! self-sacrlticing - everyday matters
which seem too trivial to mention ;
arising with the hour and dying with
it, to give place to something equally
uncomfortable. The constant giving
away in trilles and trihing inclinations;
sacrificing personal wants and whims
to each other. One wishes to go here,
another there; one wishes to do this,
another that two wish for some bau-
bic. or object of necessity-tLe purse
will admit of the qualification of one
only; two are invited to some delight
full country place, or the attractions
of London SeaSon-the duties of
home permit only one to be absent.
The key to solve the difficulties, the only
spirit able to meet them, is that of
self-sacrihce. This will go far to form
beauty Of character; to render home
that abode of harmony which all homes
should be; giving up one to the other.
To those who have never tried it,
cultivated or practiced it, it will be a
diiult matter at the outset. Nothing
is as hard as for a selfish man to put
down self. Self, self, self, has been
SO constantly the watch-word and key
note of his life, that it comes upper
most in all cases; an object which
pervades more or less every action: a
weed choking the good seed that, let
us hope, is lurking in every heart,
ready to take root and spring up. 1t
is an evil to which men are far more
prone than women. Taken in the az
gregate, men are essentially and eX-
ceedingly selfish, women self-sacri-
ticing, bearing in silence, yielding
To the shame of men be it spoken.
| They, the str onger, should be ready
to put forth all the greatness of char
acter which by their very strength is
able to shine forth in them. They
should be self-forgetful, not only to-
ward each other; seeking each others
good, promoting each others welfare.
| | would that each man reading these
words should examine his own heart.
If he sees lurking there the demon of
seltishness, and so spoilt and petted
are many of us from youth upward
that it often turks there unknown and
unsupported until accident or some
thing else points it out to us: if he
| finds lurking within him the hideouS
demon one of the most hateful sins
of our fallen nature-let him strive
his utmost to cast it out. A great
struggle will ensue; it may be a long
/ one. but as no man ever fought in
vain who fights earnestly in the right
way. so will he in the end gain the
crown of victory.
| No selfish man or woman was ever
yet completely happy. They may
cheat themselves into a belief that
they are, for thought and conscience
are lost in the mad whirl and rush of
life. But it is a mere delusive happi-
ness, which disappears at the moment
We think to clutch it; and, like the
willy ignis-fatuus, leads us an endless
dance over bog and moor. to escape us
AT last. Then, weary and spent. we
| lie down; and perchance that most
terrible experience. the remorse of a
wasted and misapplied life. comes in
| and takes possession of us forever.
! The spirit of self-sacrihce is one of
! the great beauties of holiness. Hus-
| hanl Ninllinc Il VI f.. vi "a N hnS-