The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-06-30

In hearing In the midst of prosperity of
this great disaster or Of that great
change even though truly shocked and
sympathetic. 1t is the sense of our sur
vlval OF destructive changes. Other
things are tossed go down; we survive.
1t is grand thing to survive and survey
around the wreck of men and matter. So
we feel. tits god-like. One has foolishly
imagined he could detect this feeling of
human nature sometimes in the agile
movements of men performing kind Of
fees at the burial of neighbor And
then what mine the death had opened
for fire-side talk and enquiry. The dom
inant feeling is, a0e survive" 1t seems
to augment the pleasure of living to see
others die. When we lay it bare this
may explain in some measure the inor-
dinate craving for news, for gossip, for the
dreadful Why? Because we are always
expecting to hear something which will
be to our advantage somehow Great
hess, glory is the ever-present desire of
every human soul. 1t is curious to reflect
that in rninistering to this desire our
deaths may give pleasurable sensations
to more persons, than our enemies Alas
man is poor creature 1t is happy
after-thought however, that in good men
these unworthy feelings are faint, and
that there are very many who, having
fought themselves free of them al
together are not chiefly dependent for
their pleasures upon the news of the
world, or of the neighborhood, or even
the converse of men. One there is whose
nrpSpnna w. - l..
around tranquil calm. They seek not
their own glory, but His They glory
not IN themselves, but in Him.
Man is ever following the impulses of
this desire to excel, to exhibit power, to
be great by engaging in all manner of
contests The desire to excel, to be
great, to be god-like is right; but mans
inventions do not conduct to it. His
contests are vain because not in the line
of religious motive. The glory of his
achievements he makes to terminate on
himself. Separated from God by nature
he feels himself not God, to be the CEN
ire of his being. The catechism of our
nature reads "mans chief end is to
glorify himself" AS pursuit stimulates
desire he finds an ever-increasing i'm
pulse to move in this direction for hap
piness, though the goal at which he
aims can never be reached. Man has
been seeking happiness in this general
way ever since he started out several
thousand years ago. Our first efforts
are necessarily simple. In childhood
we begin with marbles checkers, and
various minor antics Then we have
croquet, or ten pins, or billiards, when
one would think we are old enough to
have learned to transfer our efforts after
excellence or skill or power into grooves
suggested to us by the 7aeaO instincts of !
renewed mind" By and by it may
be more difficult as chess, or it NAV be |
arduous as wrestling, racing, fighting.
Little further it may be for fame, for
riches, for dominion. 1t is ever unsat-
isfying, for man can never attain. But
the secret hope impels him to surmount
every obstacle and the excitement of
the effort is feeling to him akin to sue
cess. Alexander (the GreatI) was ready
to die for very despair when an end Of
conquering and of exhibition of power left |
to wither the secret hope of his heart.
He was thrown back upon himself: it |
was only Alexander the son of Philip
after all, though he had once had him
self proclaimed the son of God. So too
Cyrus vainly tried. Once having tasted
the greatness of the game of conquering
nations no smaller contest could any
longer answer Napoleon III. lost his
crown from long pent up desire to show
himself Bonaparte. And the late
Prince Imperial must needs win supe-
riority somewhere though nothing better
offered than the Zulus Strange that these
last drew no Statutory lesson from the
scene of one standing with arms folded
behind him looking out at the world from
his little beat in st. Helena.l The bar
rier is ,insurmountable All alike come
back to the starting point to die. And
yet every man from very childhood finds
pleasure in little attempts The fascina-
ton inheres in a momentary fancy of the
god-like. And whether in plays and
games, or in more daring struggles, in
all alike men find 8teppiag-stone TO
tancled Iteration, a puff for vaia glory.
If we look around upon the seething mass
of human beings in the world, what do
we find the prevalent idea and desire in
order to happiness in the last analysis of
every unrenewed mans soul but the de-
sire to be great, to act the great for his
oa0n gJo1yi Let the Christian note these