Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-05-02

lhWc VI lAO eOul& w Aidt d y tii6 RIOlu Eti1iEo
of its nature? I have not time, and shall
not attempt this morning, to give these laws
in detail. l shall endeavor, however, In
accordance with the teachings of science
| itself, to lay down general law or princi-
pie that will include all minor ones. In the
| first place, state that the soul is by nature
active. Our souls are constantly active. Even
/ in our dullest moods if we look question
ingly into ourselves we shall find some
train of thought running through our minds.
Says DR.. McCosh Gas the lamb frisks and
the colt gambols and the child is is per-
petual rotation, SO mans internal powers
are forever impelling him to action indie
pendent of any external object and even of
any further internal end to be gained"
Almost all the great philosophers and stu
dents of the human soul, from the days of
Plato down to modern times, have held that
the soul is constantly active, that even when
our bodies are asleep our minds are at work;
that though we may forget our dreams,
there is no such things as dreanless slumber.
| The soul delights in action it finds its high
! est pleasure in activity. This is admitted
| by ali careful observers of human nature.
By this truth philosophers explain the fact
! that those who, by rank or wealth are ex-
empt from the necessities of labor, engage
in sports that are no less fatiguing than Ia
! bor By the same truth we must explain
| the fact that we derive pleasure from the
exercise of those affections that are called
emphatically painful There is certain
| pleasure found in the sorrow that we feel for
| our dead loved ones-those who have gone
from our arms into the grave. Hamilton
truly says that Lord Pembroke gave express
sion to a sentiment almost universal when
he said. 81 would not give my dead son
fD, hos in
christendom." He sorrowed for his
dead boy, but the memory of that boy was
precious to his heart, and there was mixed
with the sorrow sad joy that to some
extent compensated for the pain. Sorrow
is natural affection of the soul, with ten
deney to action, and, while it is painful in
itself, its exercise affords a certain pleasure.
So with all the living energy, delghting III
the exercise of its powers to such an extent
that it has been truly said, IAN pleasure is
the concomitant of activity" There can be
no pleasure without activity.
go a step further and say that the soul
is not only by nature active, but by nature
active in the pursuit of good. / hold this to
be true, notwithstanding all that has been
written and said about mans depravity. l
know that man is depraved. l know that
in his fallen state he is unrighteous and
prone to evil. but hold that that proneness
to evil comes from the flesh and not from
the spirit The Apostle Paul was never truer
to human nature than when he drew in the
7th chapter of his epistle to the Romans,
that splendid picture of the conflict between
the min and the flesh. 81 delight in the
law of God after the inward man, but l
see another law in my members warning
against the law of my mind" He said this
not of Paul the Apostle, not of Paul the
Christian, but of Paul the man. The soul
of man, in its normal, natural condition,
asks for the good, impels to the good, and
delights in the good; and it is only when
the beseechings and impulsions of his spirit
have been disregarded and trample under
foot, and crushed out by the fierce passions
and burning lusts of the flesh that any man
is enabled to rejoice in iniquity. On this
principle alone can we account for the re-
cognized facts of mans moral nature
facts to which his own consciousness bears
witness. Every man knows that, when he
is brought face to face with what he
recognizes to be right and wrong,
his soul approves the right and condemns
the wrong-urges him to do the right and
shun the wrong-and is grieved and dis
quoted within him, when in spite of its
promptings he does the wrong. Shakespeare
recognized this law of the human soul when
he said:
"a man cannot steal but it accuseth him,
A man cannot swear but it checks him."
That which men call conscience is nothing
more nor less that the human soul obeying
the promptings of its own nature, obedient
to the law of its being, uttering its protest
against that which is evil, ever aspiring
to that witch is good and true, and lament
ing in bitterness and in tears the dis
regard of right and preparation of wrong.
Yea, the human soul tends upwards by the
force of its own nature. 1t is not only
active, but active in the pursuit of good.
Hence, l lay down as the great law of the
soul that will include all minor ones: activity
in the direction of right-actiyity In
the pursuit of good. Now, linking this
thought with the premise already deduced,
we have the following: Since the true and
only rest of the soul is found in obedience
to the law of its being, is activity in the
pursuit of good. it follows that the soul
must find its only rest in actively pursuing
the good-that mans highest happiness is
found in the highest and hottest activity.
The same thought is expressed by Bailey
when he says:
He most loves,
Who thinks most, feels the mobiles, and acts
the best"
l make another statement This highest
activity in the pursuit of that which Is no.
lest and best is precisely that to which
Jesus Christ, the great Teacher, calls men
and women, and to which He has been call
ing them for the last eighteen hundred
| years Come unto me; take my yoke
upon you and learn of me-that is what
He bids us do that we may find rest unto
! our souls. He does not call US
to spiritual inactivity, which is
equivalent to spiritual death,
but He calls US to the highest spiritual
activity. The yoke is symbol of service;
hence, to take His yoke is to enter Christs
service, to become subject to Him, and to do
His bidding in allthings. Taking this yoke
and performing this service implies the
putting forth of the highest energies of our
being. The sacred writer used words ex-
pressive of the utmost exertion to denote
the condition of him who engaged in this
service and wearing this yoke. One of the
most common figures is that of the racer;
and, as the racer puts forth the utmost
powers of his physical manhood, stretching
every nerve and straining every muscle, SO
the child of God is expected to bring into
exercise all the powers of his spiritual man
hood in the service of the Redeemer.
Hyou would have an example of the un-
ceasing activity demanded in the service of
Christ, read the life of the Apostle Paul,
who says "Woe is me, if preach not the
gospel" and consecrating himself, body,
soul and spirit to the service of God, left
home and friends, and through hunger
and thirst and WEAKNESS and pain, and
perils by land and perils by sea, and perils
from false breathren, and perils from heath
en-, went everywhere proclaiming the I'M
searchable riches of the gospel of Christ.
Such is the tireless activity implied in CON-
ing to Christ, taking His yoke and learning
of Him, and it is activity in the pursuit of
good. He who comes to Christ has held
up before him model after which he shall
pattern-the blameless life of the Perfect
One, the life of Him in whom even His
enemies could find no wrong, the life OF
Him whose every act from the manager III
which He was Graded to the cross ON which
He died commends itself to the human soul