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

torment and begged for single drop of
water to cool his parched tongue. Nor is
this teaching peculiar to the Bible. 1t is
| found In the false religions as well as in the
true Heather mythology as well as Chris
tian literature teaches that the
wicked are punished beyond this life. This
| beng true, the grave offers no rest to him
who has not found rest to his soul ere he
enters its gloomy portals.
1t was the recognition of the failure to
md rest In the death of the body, coupled
with the idea that all earthly things are vain,
that led to the Buddhist belief in the rest of
Nlryana-the heaven that consists in the
extinction of conscious existence I think
/ that much of modern infidelity springs from
the same SOIL Be this as it may, the rest
that is offered by the infidel of to-day is the
same as that offered by the Buddhist Both
| consist in the extinction of conscious exis-
| tence, the difference between them lying in
the fact that the Buddhist offers this extinc-
ton to those only who comply with certain
conditions, while the infidel offers it to ALL
But is extinction the rest for which we are
signing? Are we yearning to be annihila-
ted? The consciousness of our race an
swers, no. The love of life is implanted in
| the human soul. No man ever did, no man
ever can regard death as an abso-
lutte good. No man ever did, no
man ever can accept death willingly until
he is led to regard it as the least of evils,
one of which must be endured
''Tis life whereof our nerves are scant;
Oh! ife-not death-for which we pant,
| More life and fuller that we want"
This love of life implanted in the soul of
man rises up and utters its protest against
! the heaven of humiliation offered to the
| world by the Hindoo dreamer and the inf
| del scientist
| Thus far have endeavored very briefly
to indicate some of the false conceptions of
rest-some Of the ways in which men seek
for it in things that were never designed to
| give it, and that by their nature are un-
suited to yield it. Man, looking for it In
such things, is doomed to disappointment t.
As the traveller on the desert, beneath the
burning sun, blinded by the heat and sand
tormented by thirst, footsore, weary, and
almost ready to die, sees in the distance
what seems green spot in the wide, burn
ing waste, where trees spread their shelter
ing branches, where cooling waters ripple,
and where the air is laden with the perfume
| of flowers, hastens thither 70 find only an
illusion so the worn and tired children of
men bowed beneath the manifold burdens
of life, worried by it's tolls and its trials,
see that which has the semblance of rest
and eargerly grasp it to find, alas! that it
is not what it seemed.
And now to these weary, heavy laden
ones the Great Master comes stretching out
his hands and tenderly saying, ''Come unto
me, and | will give you the rest which you
have tried in vain to find in the things of the
world, come unto me-take my yoke upon
you and learn of me, and you shall find
rest unto your souls.
Now | shall endeavor to show you that
the Lord in promising rest unto those who
come unto him, holds out no illusion that He
gives real rest and propose to show this,
not by appealing to the declarations of the
scriptures, but by appealing to the testimo-
ny of the soul itself. You know, my friends,
that we live in an age of rationalism-an
age in which men are no longer content to
take the unsupported word of God as
satisfactory, an age in which men are
demanding that the Word of God must be
tested ON philosophic grounds. Now,
whether this claim be right or wrong, l
shall recognize the demand this morning,
and shall endeavor to show, on philosophic
grounds, by the testimony of the human
soul itself, as that testimony is brought out
by the researches of philosophy, that Jesus
l.
will give you rest, speaks truly.
The first proposition lay down as true,
is that the human soul testifes that every
thing animate and inanimate finds its only
real rest in its own sphere, and in the full
tillment of its rightful mission. That the
soul does thus testify may be shown by
bringing before us things in their proper
sphere, and things out of their proper
sphere and marking the difference in the
effect produced on US by the presence of
such objects. When we look upon river
flowing between its grass covered banks,
its waters gliding smoothly and noiselessly
on toward the sea, feeling of quiet
steals insensibly into our hearts,
and we intuitively recognize
in that river symbol of rest When we
look upon the same river, swollen by rains
its waters surging and seething in torrents
outside the channel, the feeling of quiet
gives place to feeling of excitement, and
we as intuitively recognize in this surging
river no less striking symbol of unrest.
! Again, when we stand In a still, cloudless
| November night and look upon the heavens
| stretched above us, and behold the moon
and the stars moving silently in their APP
pointed courses, and quietly performing
their appointed work, we feel that we are in
the presence of a great calm, and its quiet
ing influence is perceived by our hearts; but
as we look, here and there, meteor, break
ing from its appointed place, dashes across
the heavens leaving tirery trail behind it,
and at once the feeling of quiet is displaced
by a feeling of disquiet. The same is true
in the immaterial as well as in the material
world. For example: temper well gov
erned and properly restrained will exert q
calming influence, even on an angry man,
and It's ''soft answer will turn away wrath
while a temper unchecked and unrestrained
produces just the opposite effect. So it is
everywhere. Things in their proper sphere
create within us feeling of rest, and things
out of their sphere create within us q feel
ing of unrest. And thus the human soul
on the one hand, recognizing things in theil
proper sphere as symbols of rest, and on
the other hand, recognizing things out of
their spere as symbols of unrest, testifes
that everything finds its real rest in its ap
pointed place, and work. The
angels that have kept their first estate en-
joy peace around the throne of God, annie
the sparkling glories and the enduring
pleasures of the eternal home; while the
angels that kept not their first estate, bu
raised impious war in heaven are tor
mented continually by the thought ''bott
of lost happiness, and lasting pain" Man
SO long as he lived in the Edenic home ant
occupied the place in Gods great universe
that he was made to fill, knew nothing O
sorrow and bitterness of soul; but 81
soon as he transgressed the law of God
overstepped his appointed bounds and
placed himself in relation to the universe
that he was not made to fill, he was Launched
on the wide ocean of unrest, thenceforth tt
be tossed by the pillows of care and pain
and woe.
The one word in our language which per
haps most strongly expresses the idea o
rest is "home," and the true home o
everything animate and inanimate is tn
place that God made it to fill. The on
word in our language which more strongl..
, than any other, perhaps, conveys the ide
} of unrest is "wanderer," and overythin,
not in its rightful place is wanderer. w
t may then truly say that rest is the fttini
of self to its sphere"
d But how may the soul be fitted to it