Morning journal and courier., 1883-06-25

reject Christ as at once the real and ideal of | human perfection and the inspirer of the | highest activities in the battle of life, the con test of living without Christ which will force | itself upon every man must be either sem sual or selfish on the one hand or aimless and | helpless on the other. Men without faith | must either disown the seriousness of life and turn it into shallow comedy or mimic l tragedy or, accepting it's seriousness, make it 1 an unsolved and cruel mystery {; or take the l shallow creed of 8 materialist of g brief and uncertain bodily existence with it's aspirations and hopes. Whatever may be true of philos- ophers and dilettanti, practical and earnest men will not be satisfied . ith of their destiny and their capacity. They will sooner or later decide that they will not 1 because they cannot, fight the battle of life without faith. They will because they must, come back to the only faith which will give them an assured and satisfactory victory. 3. The contest of faith is good contest First of all it is 8 successful contest. If continued to the end it cannot but terminate I in victory. There can be no defeat, no failure, no final disappointment. The great 1 result is secured for which life on earth is appointed, and every incident and act, every sacrifice and service, every suffering and la bor all contribute to it's completeness. Not only, is the supreme end made sure, but 1t IS possible every single act and sacrifice, every l labor and relaxation, every friend
  and lifelong friendship should each and all appear iR the final accumulation of good that is harvested at the end of the con- l test. It is the peculiar glory of the Chris | tian strife that evil suffered and defeat en- countered count something more than good 1 acquired and victory achieved. When the 1 battle of life is fought aright, there is no l waste or loss of the opportunities of living, 1 while there is the saving of the soul. There need not be, there is no difficult and scant
 admission into the eternal kingdom on the 1 condition that the habits and mistakes, the ! gains of wealth and honor should all be abandoned as worse than useless lumber, or I condemned as hay, wood and stufHe in the l trying ordeal of Gods fiery scrutiny. On 1 the other hand the total of the active con- | hicts and patient endurances of the struggles l with fortune and one's self, with bad inhu- ences and bad men, the whole of 1t may be gathered in and housed as the accepted har- | vest at the end.
 The contest of faith is good contest, be- l cause it is progressive. Each preceding vic-
 tory gives the promise of the next All the
 strength accumulated in the past, whether by act or suffering, is carried forward to the
 uses of each conflict which follows. From progress comes courage Courage says Elm
 erson, consists in having done the thing be-
 fore, and courage In the Christians conflicts
 with evil eminently grows by experience of
 previous success. The Christian contest is
 eminently attractive because it unites the
 distrust of self with an explicit and loyal al-
 legiance to its master. While it is bold and
 in sense self reliant. it isin proportion rever-
 ent and humble. While 1t fears nothing but
 infdelity and dishonor, it enlarges it's concep-
 tion of both by recognizing Christ
 as it's leader and conscience as it's rule.
 The Christian humility has no strain of
 weakness or affectation. It simply as- 1 serts the honest self estimate which attends
 the comparison of ones self with the high est standard and that complete knowledge of one's defects which attends the direct in-
 spcctien of the inner life. In such an hon
 est judgment there can be neither weakness nor meanness, but the conscious and modest
 dignity which attends homage to the truth.
 But what is best of all in this contest of
 faith is the confirmed assurance of it's ac- eeptance with God which is marked by the man who has often come with trusting faith
 to his feet. When this consummate and comprehensive act is confirmed as the inner habit of the man and the controlling spring
 of his life, the peace of God which pas
 seth understanding will certify that the
 life and strife of faith is only good. Out of
 this peace and as 8 piece of it there
 springs up the hope which is full of
 immortality. This explains why the apostle
 In bidding his people to fight the good fight
 of faith, bids them also as necessary incident
 and consequent to lay hold on eternal life.
 It was because the one was connected with
 the other by necessary and inner bond of
 scriptCral relationship. It is because the
 man who fights the good fight of faith so far
 anticipates the life which is immortal. The
 temper of earthly service is in it's nature and
 spirit of heavenly triumph. The man who j is bold and constant and self forgetting in
 the contests of Christian warfare shows him
 self to be fitted for the peace and perfection
 of the heavenly state This truth
 reconciIes free forgiveness and unques-
 tioned pardon with more devoted consecra- I tion to abundant labors in the service of the
 master. It meets the prayer of the publi-
 can and the last appeal of the dying thief
 with instant and gratuitous pardon and at
 the same time stimulates the patient laborer to long and laborious Christian life by the hope of rich reward. It meets us at the
 beginning of fife and every crisis in life with
 the hope of rich and permanent harvest of
 spiritual good from every contest of either trial or suffering; while it constantly removes
 our despondency and fear by the fullest Of
 fer of pardon, it stimulates so as not to
 be weary in we'll doing by the assurance that thereby an open and abundant entrance
 shall be ministered to us into the everlasting
 kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 It is no secret to any of us that the re- | lation of the eternal to the present life | has of late been the subject of free and perhaps not always of reyerent speculation. l Some evil may come from the fippant way
 the theme has been handled by some critics
 and theologians. It is possible that from all
 InlS great SOOC Snall 1OllOW.
 That men will continue to think of the fu- | ture life in every conceivable light and in
 every possible attitude of thought and feel
 ing may be easily imagined, but the solemn
 majesty of that eternal life which broods
 over the present brief existence can never be ] abated by the blasphemy of the profane, nor ] the testing of the scorner The solemn vet
 sacred shadow which it's presence will con- 1 tinue to cast over the activities and scenes of | the earthly life will never cease to be recog. nized by thinking men. That shadow instead ] of being less will become more solemn, as it's mysteries are interpreted in [ a more enlightened spirit, If the | discussions of the revelations of nature and 1 of Christ concerning it shall bring that life | more frequently and closely to the thoughts | of men, 80 as to enlarge and elevate their 1 conceptions of what it is, and how nearly re-
 lated the present is to the future, it cannot | but infuse new energy and elevation into the l life that we are all of us living and baptize 1 tEis life as with the Holy Ghost and with fire. 1 Could the men of the present generation, and l especially the young men in their ardor and hope be made to feel that by the life which ! they are living here they are hourly and daily laying hold of the eternal life which they are to live hereafter and that life without God hereafter in darkness and loneliness, is alienation and com 1 fortlessness. it would put new energy nnd into every tba saerans and pssf denials of the fight of faith with dignity and glory that would shine in the face of every combatant. The powers of the world to come in other days proved force of enormous energy, when this immortal life was made near and living fact by the res urrection of Christ from the dead. In those days the believing church under the new in- spiration lived it's earthly life in thankful triumph and went to it's martyrdom with 1 songs of blessed anticipation, literally laying hold On eternal life with faith and joy There are many reasons at the present time why it's inspiring glories should take a stronger hold than ever of the hearts of men and completely sway their energies. The Chri stian life is now better un- aerstood than ever before in it's spirituality and it's unselfshness, in | it's innocent pleasures combined with l it's uncompromising unworldliness, in it's Catholic charity added to it's sacrificing hero l ism and above all in tha intinnata cnnnactinr