The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-04-21
OUR MASTERS MEAT.
A Perpetual Feast Which All May Have
and EnIOy-Do Well and Live.

A Perpetual Feast which All May Have
and Enloy-Do Well and Live.
Dependence for our happiness on
others is the order of our life; but it is
given to us to possess some resources
in overselves, and entire dependence
on others is a dangerous habit of mind.
The Master had meat to eat which His
faithful disciples knew not of, and all
good men have like nourishment Life
is in some respects nice balance be-
tween extremes. Here is one: to keep
at equal distance from starved inde-
pendence on one side and an infantile
dependence on the other Tne more
common and the more wretched soul
is he who depends for every satisfac-
ton on the whims, caprices, accidents
and vicissitudes of his social world. To
live our own life-to have meat in our
selves-is privilege of immeasurable
value, and such life Is rich and fruit
ful when it is watered by the showers
OF grace and lit up by the light of Di-
vine love; but we are under the moral
law so completely that these fruits of
the cOnscience-in all those ongoings
of the soul in which right-doing and
rght-being are the seeds of feeling and
action. Christ's hidden meat was to
do the will of the Father. Obedience
fed Him, fidelity refreshed Him, pure
conduct strengthened Him. The wear
and tear of our inner life must destroy
us if it is not compensated in the same
way. In brief, we must have Christ's
meat or we shall perish, and His meat
is obedience, fidelity, purity. If we
hav' such food our souls will not fam
ish merely because human honor or
earthly rewards are denied to us. He
who sits down with Jesus at this ban
quet need not sorrow because the world
has neglected to invite him to its feasts
of pride.
The truth is indescribably precious.
A man may have a perpetual feast
with the Master at the head of the
table. In all poverty of worldly re-
source, he may draw upon the eternal
treasury. 1t is an awful thing to
despise such an opportunity, and pre-
fer husks of pride to the bounties of
eternal goodness. Even the prodigal
son found bad taste in the husks; all
sinners have come to that bitter expe-
rience. There is only one Joy for men,
and that is Christ's Joy, the JOY of
doing the will Of the Father. There
must be an evil spirit in us when we
turn away from this satisfaction and
try once mOre-as infinite millions have
done before ns-to gnaw some nourish-
ment out Of the husks of vanity. There
is a Divine life in us when we can, like
our Master, nourish our joys on the
purposes which drive us forward in
the paths a. obedience. On what do
we feed our souls? Let us ask our
selves the sources Of our pleasures of
the spirit. Take an inventory of your
delights. Have you any which
come from well-doing? Then you
have common bond with the
Master. His wealth was all of this
sort He had no other, and yet He was
the richest soul in the fellow ship of our
race. You never tried His way Of
happiness without satisfaction; no
other way ever pleased or profited you
long. All the experience which runs
parallel with that of Jesus is a happy
experience; all other runs down inevi-
tably into decay and death. The years
become too numerous; the delights of
the flesh pail on the palate; strength
succumbs to disease and death. This
life is only show of life-galvanized,
SO to say, into spasmodic limitations of
life, and relapsing into death when the
strange concealed battery ceases to
play upon the quivering flesh. 1t is a
fire in stove which must always be
replenishing, which no replenishing
will keep burning very long. There is
no hidden meat for the life which shall
nourish it by self-feeding forces. 1t is
a counterfeit of life, a parody on true
vitality, figure in which the shadow
suggests by Its shades the outlines Of
blessed reality. Christ's meat is the
only true meat; it alone feeds the soul
and makes it self-sustaining.
The practical aspect of the matter il
that the way of peace is to 60 about
cur duties in the expectation that they
will yield us satisfaction; the best salts.
faction, the only sure satisfaction which
we can get in this life. The feverish
expectation that this one or that one i
to make us happy, that worldly sue
cess is to bestow felicity, that earthly
honors are to abide upon us-suci
hopes are sure to be Knocked aud II
cruelty US in the end of the account
Right-doing is the royal highway O
life. Right-living Is the settled, self
sustained condition of the soul. Th'
most of our desires--is 1t . hard say
ingP-are probably Of fieeting charac
ter and Importance. We get only =
want more. We lose with biting pail
less because we lose value than becsus
we save so little OF true inward values
The fire has gone out In the stove; W
are not cold because it warmed us, bu
because we never were self-warme'
and have lost the illusion OF !externs
waislth. Nothing sbides with ma
and perpetually refreshes him but th
Masters meat. The delusions pie
with US only because they deceive. w
shall never truly live except ~ We Nv
In Christ. who & our life.
Il II we could all learn our Master
blsssed oct Of seA-centered and set