Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-03-13

the audience.
Were we authorized, we would moi
hesitate to empower an honest anG
discriminating committee of non-pro,
fessors to select and align in CON
fronting ranks thousand each O.
the happiest and most miserable per
sons from any great city. We readily
anticipate the effect of the illustra
ton. Here we would see the solar
complacent, refined faces of fathers
and mothers of Israel, beaming witt
hope and love; there the drunkards
with bestial, bloated and blood-sho
visages that speak of souls in fame
and tongues that no drop can cool
Here our brothers, sisters and daugh
tiers of christian families and Sunday
Schools, with countenances radiant
with peace and purity there the den
liens of sinks of infamy who's,
hopes and joys are forever set behint
a lurid cloud of unspeakable shame
and misery. Here the prosperous
reliable and respected people who
lead in all benefcent enterprises
there the gamblers, thieves, murder
ers, occupants of prisons, tramps
with hands reeking with blood, oil
souls black with infamy. Here al.
most without exception are professed
christians; there those who have ever
defed the living God.
If the number be increased to in
clude all the people of a city, in SC
far as the contrast would be modified
and the horrid line of misery be re-
lieved by a flecking of seeming hap
piness or real responsibility, this
should certainly be attributed to the
influence of christian associations.
lnfldelity has urged that, if the in.
fluence of the christian religion is SO
refining, purifying and happifying,
how shall this be harmonized with
the fact that for ages its history has
been inseparably associated with
wars, inquisitions, cruelty, oppres-
sion, hatred, violence and greed
Can anything be more unjust and
wicked than to lay to the charge OF
our holy religion the very crimes it
SO invariably and scathingly repro
bates and donounces? Not one word
or act of the blessed Savior, not one
sentence of the living oracles can be
legitimately construed to justify
one of these crimes. The essential
principles Of christianity are love,
sacrifice, unselfishness, charity and
mercy. These universally received
and practiced, would Danish all wars,
exclude all hate, and secure the reign
of enduring peace and fraternity.
The legitimate effects of christianity
must be sought among those who
practice its precepts, not learned from
those who profess, yet habitually yio-
late them.
The young, and discriminating
have often been prejudiced against
religion by the fearful sins of those
who have name to live and are
dead, by the revolving aspect of the
CHASTITY corpses which have "been gal
vanized into the hcrrid mimicry of
life" Our answer to this has al
ready been given.
There are those who are deferred
from a life of godliness by the dread
of the sacrifices involved. How fire.
quent such expressions as, 81 intend
to become christian some day.
wish to enjoy life awhile longer"
The sacrifices are usually of imagin-
airy pleasures. All philosophy, all
literature, all Revelation have with
marked unanimity told of the illusion,
the unsatisfying nature of worldly
pleasure. e. d. Pressense striking
ly presents the thought when he says
"The fever ofdissipation that hurries
somany into the vortex.of gaiety arises
from mans desire to forget the reali-
ties of life, which seem to him so
sad and unsatisfactory, and 10 find
in pleasure that which it has not to
give" In any event, the joy and
benefits of the virtue which displaces
any sin most amply compensate for
the sacrifice. The reformed drunk
ard who has returned to the delights
Of temperance; the reclaimed de-
oauchee who has found again the
paths of purity and sanctified love
he outlaw who has been restored to
these most eloquent6
discourse of joys made more apparent
~ the agonies of a sinful experience.
Religion never caused one sorrow.
All pain and sorrow arise from our
,wn sins or those of others. Right
'ousness may be the occasion of our
orrows and suffering, never the
'ause. Every duty required by re-
igion is a joyous privilege in itself. |
Love, charity, devotion and minis
rations are of themselves the choic-
st blessings, the richest blisses.
Still, many doubtless, shrink in adj
'ance from the labors which a godly
life requires. No position is more uni
'ersally accepted than that the joys of
life are inseparably linked to its &C.
ivitles. AT the shrine of ennobling,
labor, Carlyle ever wor-
hiped. From the depths of his en-
husiasm he calls us TO work, sand
rorl>;,,n, hoI;oro ho c,oo ~ IA AL