Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-10-04
&eadiua fur the Sabbath.
CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM
| lOriginal.l |
s.TRJJST IN THE LORD"

III the ulSpellStUlOll Ol IIONlucliCS lllCiC Id
much that is exceedingly dark. There are
some persons who declare that the revela-
ton which God has given us, in the Bible,
of his will, is so obscure that the human
mind cannot comprehend it; but that the
| dealings of God, as a God Of Providence,
or, in other Words the revelation which God
makes of his will, in his works, is clear. IL
those whomake thisasserti0n would reflect a
moment, they would conclude that the book
ofrevelatiOn, contained in the works OF God,
is darker and harder to be understood than
the Bible. Strange as it may appear, there
are many persons, who assert that God mas
only distant connection, if any connection
at all with the events which are contlnu-
ally taking place i'm the world. Such per-
sons do not reflect that the whole cannot be
preserved and governed without preserving
and governing the parts. Either God gov
erns and controls the world, or he does not.
| If God governs the world, then he must
govern all the parts of the world. If God
does not govern the world, then the world is
either not governed at all, or some one be-
sides God governs it, or it governs ltself.
| No sane man will assert that the world IS
wholly without government; neither VIII
any sane man arg lie that the world governs
| itself. No creature, it is clear, is competent
| to govern the world; or, even supposlng
some creature, that government, no matter
who may be the governor, must consist lr
controlling and directing each and every
event which takes place.
! It will be taken for granted, without any
further effort to prove it, that God is Goa
of providence. Admitting this, it still re-
mains true that the providences of God are
dark and obscure-hard to be understood.
We would expect, viewing things from a
human standpoint, that the righteous would
be free from all trouble, and that the lives OF
the wicked would be full of disappointment
and trouble. Such we do not find to be the
case. The rains of heaven fall upon the
fields of the wicked and upon the fields OF
the righteous alike. The troubles of the
righteous are, in number, many and grlev-
Gus in character, while those who trample
Gods law under foot often havemore of this
worlds pleasure than their hearts desire.
Gods dear people often pass through life
with their heads bowed down, while the
wicked spend their days amid scenes of rev.
elry and mirth.
The conclusion to which many come, is
that God is q careless observer Of the events
which are continually occurring. In their
haste, they decide that he neither approves
of the efforts of those who struggle to obey
his laws, nor disapproves of the conduct or
those who contemn his commands. Such
persons make two fundamental mistakes.
They have erroneous notions as to what 1t is
that constitutes real happiness, and they
lose sight of the end or design of all things.
For ages it has been held that the human
family, universally, are in pursuit of hap
piness. This is true but there is among
men wonderful difference of opinion as to
what constitutes happiness. There are two
kinds of happiness. The one kind is mere
| = &c NV ms n
in common with the lower order of animals.
The other kind of happiness is soul enjoy
ment, and is enjoyed by man in common
with pure spirits. Now it is not true that
all men are in pursuit of soul-enjoyment
The majority of the human family have no
| higher and holier aspirations than the OK.
| All their struggles are to obtain those things
which contribute to the comfort of their
bodies, or to their unholy ambition. In be-
slowing these things upon the human faml-
ly, God gives the wicked as many rs he does
! the righteous.
The end or object for which everything
| was brought into existence, was Gods glory.
The good of the creature, no matter what it
may be, and the glory of God are, by the Or
dering of God, inseparably connected. EV-
ery act of the creature which tends, either
directly or Indirectly, to show forth the de-
clarative glory of God, secures to the crea-
ture performing the act its greatest good.
On the contrary, every act Of the creature
which is dishonoring to God, involves the
creature performing such act, in trouble.
So far as we know, or have the means of
knowing, the whole of happiness to the
lower order of animals, consists in gratify-
| ing the appetites. This may be regarded as
| temporary enjoyment, but it cannot be COM
pared to soul-enjoyment. 1t is not happi-
ness, it is not soul rest. 1t is true that man
is ca pable of higher order of enjoyment
| than irrational brutes, which enjoyment is
not soul-happiness but intellectual pleasure.
This intellectual enjoyment or happiness is
| far more refined than the enjoyment which
arises from the qualification of the appetitess,
but it is not to be compared to that happi-
ness which the soul enjoys when in full COM
munion with God.
It is admitted that on account of the sinful
condition of all men, communion with God
is only occasionally enjoyed by any member
of the human family, and even then, only
partially. We know not what.we shall be,
but we have some foretastes of the bliss that
lies beyond the tomb. We get occasional
glimpses of the good land that lies beyond.
All our sOul-happiness springs from COM
munion with God, the father of our spirits
This is the source of all our real bliss. The
human family are miserable, not because Of
what they have or what they have not. 1t
is fact that the multitude fret on account of
the thorns in the flesh; or on account of their
poverty; but Paul and Silas sang praises to
God in prison, and gold failed to make Cre-
sus happy man; and Alexander, with the
world at his feet, was miserable. The only
possible way by which soul-happiness can be
obtained is by trusting in the Lord and obey
ING his commands. The man who does this
can lie down at night and sleep. Trusting
in the promises of God, he feels a security
that no man can feel who seeks happiness
in anything else.
The poet truthfully says:
''Man wants but little here below
Nor wants that little long"
The actual physical wants Of the human
family are few and easily supplied. Their
supposed wants are many, and all the re-
sources of nature cannot supply them. The
thing, and that one thing is communion
with God-its author.
The channel through which this COM
munion flows is trusting in the Lord.
Through this channel, there flows to the
soul not gold nor silver. Not landed estates
nor the laudations OF our fellow men but
what is better than all these together
| liberty, freedom and redemption. The hui
man family are slaves. The miserable
slaves of the most merciless tyrant in the
universe. They toll and labor from the
cradle to the tomb, in the service of Il mon
ster who deceives them and then deserts
them. This tyrant is the devil. Never
can we be happy so long as we are his
may accumulate property; win for our
selves fame; but with all our possessions
acquired in the service of this monster, we
will he still miserable creatures