Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1880-09-16
THAT PURPOSE.

Take any blessing you have ever enjoyed. 1t
was in the mind of God TO give it. AS he can
not act without purpose, he designed to give
it. The purpose, of course, has preceded the
act. How long If we believe in the immu-
liability of God, we cannot believe that any
new purposes ever entered his mind. There
never was a time, then, when the purpose to
bestow that gift was not in the Divine Mind.
Before you existed Certainly, and before
there was any other existence than his own:
If there can be nothing new in the mind OF
God, then the purpose Of beStowing the bles-
sing has had an existence which runs back we
can have no conception how far. We cannot
think of any beginning of it's existence. There
was no beginning 1t has been from, and
through eternal ages, the Divine purpose to be-
stow that blessing.
That purpose has followed you, in i;S earth
ly history, from infancy through all the varied
scenes of life, to the present hour. 1t has not
faltered for a moment night OF day. In all
your wanderings from God, it has not been a
wanderer from the path of your best welfare.
In spite of a thousand repellances by sins and
follies it has not been repelled. 1t might long
ago have given up the pursuit and left you to
ruin. Would your kindness to others have
stood such trial?
You are standing by the walls of an edifce
of great antiquity. Ages and ages have rolled
away, and successive generations have come
and gone, but the walls are there. The hoary
voice of ages, as uttered there, deeply impress
es you. But the purpose of God concerning
your welfare, no memory, no thought OF man,
can measure the period of its duration. You
are lost in the immensely. of the idea, that
through eternal ages Divine Kindness has had
it's eye upon you. Amid all the changes of ma
terial and spiritual worlds, amid all the cares
and occupations of the Divine mind, it's love
has not grown dim nor it's natural force abated.
If one, in early life, had purposed a precious
gift to you, and his manhood had cordially
Joined in the plan, and old age had emphasized
the same DESIRE such unfailing continuity OF
purpose WOuld-give augmented value to the
gift. We hallow the memory of such a bene-
factor. We feel that every such blessing is
vastly enhanced in value by that mistaken
purpose and love.
To what height in preciousness and value
do our blessings rise when we admit and
thoughtfully muse upon the fact that they
have the stamp of Eternal Love; that every
one Of them has been put in our possession by
purpose knowing no beginning, but has ever
existed in the benevolent mind of God !
HUMILITY.-GOd knows ME better than
know myself. He knows my gifts and pow
erS, my failings and my weaknesses, what l
can do and not do. So 1 desire to be led and
not to lead to follow him; and 1 am quite
sure that he has thus enabled me to do great
deal more in ways which seem to me almost a
waste in life, advancing his kingdom, than l
could have in any other way. 1 am sure OF
that Intellectually, am weak. In scholar
ship, nothing. In a thousand things baby.
He knows this and so he has led me, and
greatly blessed me, who am nobody, to be
some use to my church and fellow-men. How
kind, how good how compassionate art thou,
O God o my Father, keep me humble. Help
me to have respect toward my fellow-men, to
recognize these several gifts as from thee. De-
liver me from the diabolical sins of malice,
envy, or jealousy, and give me hearty joy in
my brothers good, in his work, in his gifts
and talents and may be truly glad in his
superiority to myself if God be glorifed. Root
out all weak vanity, all devilish pride, all that
is abhorrent to the mind of Christ God hear
my prayer. Grant me the wondrous joy of
humility, which is seeing thee as all in ALL
DR.. Norman McLeod's Diary.
A BETTER WAY.-Because we are far be-
hind the standard of love and goodwill re-
quired for the adoption of the better way,
there is no reason why we should not set up
the standard directly and seek to draw all men
to it. The better way is the development of
principle in benevolent work the substitution
of duty for impulsive work; the pleasure OF
giving instead of getting. If we look into the
nature Of the Fair for Charity, or the Charity
Concert, or Charity Excursions, OF any other
scheme in which the sale of something is to
be made for the sake of a profit to be applied
to charity, we see that the selfishness or self
love of the party is appealed to; this is the
essence of the rattle or lottery; the hope of get
ting something, not the pleasure of giving
something, is excited and the purchaser is
not bettered, but made worse by the indul-
gence of the passion that prompted the pur-
chase. If money is thus cOaXed out of the
selfish and stingy, it may be said that it is a
good done it is fOraging Oh the enemy it is
reaping where we had not sowed. But it is
not charity, not benevolence. There is no love
in it. no goodwill to men. 1t has no Christ,
no blessing.
GET NEARER.-Some people imagine that
Sinai is extinct. Certain pulpits seemed to be
pitched so far away from the sublime noun
tain that it's august peak is no longer visible,
and it's righteous thunders against sin are no
longer audible With this school of rose-water
ministers the theology of law is voted obsolete
and barbarous; the world is to be tanned and
sweetened, sanctiiied entirely by a theology of
love. They preach aone-sided God-all mercy
and no iustice-with One-half of his glorious
attributes put under eclipse. Even sinners
are not to be warned, with tears and entreat-
les, to flee the wrath to come. They are to be
coaged into holiness by a magical process
which makes nothing of repentance, and SIM
ply requires u "faith" which costs no more Ia
Dor than the snap of finger, This shallow