Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-22
GOD.
This Life Not a Blessed Ono for a Worlu
Man-To BE Truly Happy One Needs !
Feel Safely So.

This Life Not q Blessed Ono for a Wor,m-
Man-To BE Truly Happy One Needs y.
Feel Safely So.
If u man is ever to be happy withouI
God, it must be in some such world j
this. 1t must be in a material World
where it is possible to Danish the though
of God and of responsibility, and ipd
occupation and a species of enjoymcpl
in other beings and objects. Ii a creay
ure desires to be happy away from God
and in opposition to His commanding,
he must accomplish it before he goes int
a spiritual world; he must effectit am
these visible and temporal scenes. Tbi
is his only opportunity. No sinful GREAT
ure can be happy for a moment in tn
life to come. He must therefore obtai
before he dies all the enjoyment he wi
ever obtain. Like Dives, he must I'd
ceive all his "good things" here. If
man can ever dispense with the help an
favor of God. and not feel his need q
Him, it must be when he is fully al
sorbed in the cares and interests of tM
life, and when he can center his aleq
tions on father and mother, on housd
and lands. Standing within this spher
he can, if ever, be without God, and nd
be miserable; for he can busy h
thoughts and exert his faculties an
send forth his affections, and thus fin
occupation away from his Creator; an
hence it is that there is SO much Of sa
full pleasure in this life, while there
none of 1T in the next. In this maleri1
world q man can make himself his ow
end Of living, and not be constant
wretched; but in the spiritual worl(
where God and duty must be the primo
pal subjects of reflection. no man Cd
be supremely selfish without being
premely miserable. Take, therefor
your sinful enjoyment in this life
who banker after this kind of pleasHl
for it is impossible to find any OF it
the next life. .'Rejoice, o young MAJ
in the days of thy youth, and walk
the ways of thine heart, and in the sig
of thine eyes, but know thou that for
these things God will bring thee IN
Judgment"
Still, even this life, with all its sini
enjoyment, is not a blessed life fol
worldly msn. There is Heaven-wH
difference between earthly pleasure al
blessedness. The wording sees da
days and sad hours, when he is @d
PEELED to reflect, even in the midstof
that this life gives him. All serious
Election tends to destroy the happind
of such a man. He can not commn
an instant with his w heart withd
beginning to feel wrctched. Thinki
makes him miserable. He has fasteH
his at1ections-which can really find
rest but in an infinite good-upon 60
honor and pleasure. But he knows
his rejecting moments that his q
will perish, and if it did not, that
must ultimately grow weary OF
He knows that worldly honor and $
sual enjoyment will flee away from
dying bed; and that even if they
not, they could be no solace to him
that awful crisis of the soul. He kno7
in these honest and truthful hours, t
the chief good is not his, because he
not made God his strength and portid
A mar needs to feel not only happy,
sate'y happy--happy upon solidand
movable grounds-in order to be tn
happy. Probably Dives himself sou
times had a dim intimation Of the II
cry that was to burst upon him when
should stand before God. Proba
every worldly man hears these wo1
said to him occasionally from the cha
bers of his conscience: ''You are co
p%aratively at ease now, but this
can not be permanent. You know,
may know, that you will have no sou
of peace in death and the judgmd
Your portion is not in God, and tla
fore you can not rest upon Him "
flesh and heart fail.''-Dr. Medd.