Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-03-05
&eadiug fur the @abbath.
CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
STRANGE INCONSISTENCY.


(original.l
STRANGE INCONSISTENCY.
Inconsistency is one of the marked char
acteristics of the human family. This we
are all able to see in others, but not in our
selves. Our inconsistencies are seen in the
manner in which we conduct our worldly
affairs, but more strikingly manifest in the
manner in which we manage those affairs
which are intimately connected with our
spiritual and eternal welfare.
1t is, in some sense, admitted by us all
that we are sinners. This admission we are
forced to make, and we do make it. We
acknowledge that sin makes us miserable.
We are conscious of this. In some way or
other we trace all our misery to sin. We
may have, in fact, we do have exceedingly
erroneous notions of the nature and final
consequences OF sin. Still, however, we
cannot get rid@ of the notion that sin and
misery sustain to each other the relation
ship of cause and effect. We long for hap
piness. This is the thing for which we are
all searching. The rich man desires happi-
ness and the poor man desires happiness.
Oar ideas of Happiness may be, and in fact
are, as different as it is possible for them to
be. Still we desire happiness. Experience
teaches us that there is absolutely nothing
which human skill can deyise that will rem
der us happy.
In the Scriptures it is revealed that the
Glowing kindness of God is better than life."
In the loving kindness of God we have an
inexhaustible source of happiness. In this
we have what we are all, in some way or
other, striving night and day to obtain. TO
secure happiness we have the burning suns
of ofsummer and the cold, bleak winds of win
ter. We endure hunger and thirst, we toll
1oh oil fn ho
life's Journey is drawing to an end we dis
cover that we have been pursuing shadow.
In the word of God there is offered to us
freely and fully, and in good faith, the low
ing kindness of God, which is not only bet
ter than anything which is possible to be
obtained by human effort, but which is bet
ter than life itself, and yet, strange to say,
the multitude refuse to accept this boon
which all desire, and the few accept it with
strange mental reservations SO as to have
happiness and misery mingled in their cup.
This is one instance Of human inconsistent
cy, and another is, we all are continually
making vain efforts to do what we cannot
possibly do, and we are persistently refusing
to do what God has made it possible for us
to do. In other words, we worry ourselves
in vain attempts to manage those things
which God has seen tit to reserve exclusive
ly to himself and we fold our arms in indif-
ference and make no eXertion-put forth no
effort-to do those things which God has
made it both our duty and privilege to do.
What multitudes of us worry and fret in
useless efforts to make an atOnement Tor our
sins, and at the same time neglect, if we do
not stubbornly reject the atonement made
by Jesus Christ, and freely offered to us in
the gospel. Common sense as we'll as the
Scriptures, plainly teach that it is impOssi-
for fn f11 q a a n afnnQnoant
mon sense as we'll as the Scriptures, teach us
that unless our sins are atOned for cannot
be saved. In some sense, we all desire to
be saVed-at any rate, none of US are wholly
Indifferent with regard to being lost, yet in
our marvellous Inconsistency, we try, in
some way, to make an atonement for sin
and reject, or treat with strange Indifference.
the atOnement which God, in his wonderful
love, made for us. Our ingratitude to God,
and even to our fellow-men, marks US as as
toundingly inconsistent. He who discover
Iected; he who relieved, with his private
purse, the wants of the suffering Americans
during the dark days Of the struggle for
independence was, when the cloud of war
had passed away and liberty achieved,
suffered to die in poverty by the American
people. The Greeks put Socrates to death,
Charles the Second had the Duke Of Argyle,
his firm friend, and the man who crowned
him at leone, beheaded. No wonder that
poor, neglected Robert Burns said,
"Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn
More strikingly is our inconsistency seen
in our ingratitude towards God. What
countless multitudes of the human family
are as ungratehIl towards God as if they had
never received anything from him, and
were dependent upon him for nothing.
They eat and they drink, they lie down and
they get up without permitting a grateful
word to escape from their ungrateful lips.
When Jesus beheld the ingrattude of Je-
rusalem he wept. go, Jerusalem, Jerusa-
lem, thou that killest the prophets, and
stonest them which are sent unto thee, how
often would have gathered thy children to-
gether, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her WINGS and We would not" This
is sad picture. Weare ready to pronounce
the doom of 50 ungrateful people as were
those at that time inhabiting Jerusalem.
No wonder that that once illustrious city,
the pride of the most remarkable nation of
antiquity, is to-day dirty ruin. The un-
grateful inhabitants not only despised, but
they crucifed the Lord of glory. Let us
not forget that what the Jews did eighteen
centuries ago, we Gentiles are still doing.
Ungrateful wretches, we, by our neglect,
cruelty the Lord Of glory as we'll as did the
Jews. Let us not forget that when we con-
denim the Jews we condemn ourselves. In
fact, we are even more ungrateful in reject
ing Jesus than were the Jews in crucifying
him. .....