The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-08-02

alone. He has room and a boarding place.
1t is quite likely that his room has no means
Of heating; 1t s,quite as likely that the
boarding mistress does not care to have him
in the sitting room. The young man works
all day and comes home tired. After supper
he has three hours on his hands before bed
time. Remember three hours are the only
ones he has at his own disposal; the others
belong to his employer. These hours, there
fore, are the ones that determine his charae-
ter. Win any one of you point out the way
in which such young man can spend TINS
time proftably and enjoyably and at the
same time innOcently? Do you say, let him
sit down and read? Would you like that
yourself as the only resource for an evening
after hard days work? Do you say, let
him go to the prayer meeting? In all proba-
bility he has not learned to like the prayer
meeting; and even if he did occupy one or
two evenings in that way, what would you
have him do the other five? There are con-
eerts and lectures of a respectable character; ;
DuC JneSe are more expensive than the aver
age young man can afford; also frequently
above the appreciation of the unframed
mind. Take again the case of young women
who are away from home in shops and
stores. Did you ever think out for your
selves what evening after evening alone, fol-
lowing day after day of work must be to
them? viii you undertake to mark out in
your mind way for young men and
women thus situated to spend their eve
ningsin which you yourself would be
glad towalk? had not intended to preach
sermon on the doctrine of election;
but | will say this, that if the people
who from this audience had been exposed to
the untitled, joyless, lonely, evening hours,
that the dissipated men and fallen women of
our large cities have been exposed to in their
early life, large proportion of this or any
Christian audience in this county would
have become what they are. Our merit for
whatever degree of Christian virtue we have
attained is slight compared to that of many
a workingman and woman in our cities who
have had to win their victories in the absence
OF helps that have been as constantly about
us as the air we breathe.
Ii so large a part of the vices of society are
due to empty and unsatisfactory minds and
hearts seeking something to fill and crafty
them, one line of remedy is obvious. If the
reason why many young men become drunk
ards is that the rumseller, though with mer-
cenary and treacherous intent, yet in the
way OF lighted and heated rooms and jovial
companionship does more for these young
men than anybody else is willing to do from
motives either good or bad; if the reason
why many young women fall into abandoned
ways is that, though with most dastardly
and nefarious intent, the seducer does yet
speak words of seeming kindness which are
heard from no other lips clean or foul, is it
not the obvious duty of Christian men and
woman to do all in their power to surround
these lives with opportunities and influences
which contain the sweet without the hidden
the cordiality without the treachery? The
Young Mems and Young Women's Christian
Associations and Unions, the. Young Peo-
pies Societies of Christian EndeavOr, the
coffee houses, the public libraries and read
ing rooms and gymaslums are all steps in the
right direction, aiming at filling
empty hearts with goodness and empty hours
with gladness. The Chautauqua Circle fur
nl5hlng a center of wholesome instruction
and entertainment around which the social
itself hla
of becoming mighty factor in overcoming
these social evils, by filing up the empty
places wherein these evils root themselves
Let the circle not be too exclusive; let it
seek those who need good influence and i'm
pulse as we'll as those who will contribute it,
let it be animated by Christian charity as
well as by an intellectual interest; let it be
adapted to those whose opportunities are
limited as well as to those who have abund-
ant leisure; let the strongest members of
strong circles go out and with weaker ones
form new circles, keeping constantly in mind
the good of Others as well as the culture of
self and these Chatauqua Circles may become
radiatlng centres of pure morality social
stability and Christian life, as well as schools
of useful and interesting knowledge. In fill
ing with the fulness of Gods truth, and So
cial buman sympathy the minds and hearts
OF young men and women which otherwise
had been empty swept and garnished, these
circles scattered throughout every considera
BILE town and village are fitted to become a
mighty power to some society from the raw
ages OF the unclean and vicious spirits, and
establish yirtuous and intelligent society of
Christian men and women.
Thirdly, this truth that emptiness is the
prelude to corruption and that fulness of
good is the only preventative of evil has its
application to our individual lives. The es-
sence of all false and and abortive and in
sufficient schemes of righteousness, sloicism,
asceticism, quietism and morality without re-
ligion lies in the attempt to drive out evil
and keep it out by pure force of will. 1t is
the lmpossibility of such task that renders
morality alone. apart, from religion, incom-
petent to produce thoroughly virtuuus life.
The merely moral man is always fighting
losing battle, for the moment he thfustS out
one evil another besets him. 1t is only
when the soul is fully and completely given
over to the love and service of GCd that a
permanently righteous character becomes
possible.
The righteousness attained by ( g mere
assertion of the human will without ecogni-
ton of God and subsection to his vii is only
a tragmentary, negative approXin 8 tiOn to
righteousness; more than that it never can
be. The merely moral man may gallantly
drive out sin after sin and boast of his
successive victories. His victories are like
those of the lrishman who boasted that he
had slain his enemy every day in the week.
To rise above sin and vanquish it is to the
merely moral man sheer impossibility. Fill
cubic foot of space with iron or mercury
and the air is easily enough excluded. But
your air pump will enable you, after the
most elaborate efforts, only to approximate
to its exclusion; and every slightest flaw and
imperfection in the construction or manipula-
ton of your instruments will be taken .ad-
vantage Of, the slightest leak proving fatal
to the whole experiment. just so the only
way to keep sin out of a soul is to fill that
soul with the fulness of the life and love of
God. Sin excluded in that way remains ex-
cluded. But when it is merely the human
will that shuts it out, the evil spirit begins
at once to look about for some flaw in your
resolution for some break in the continuity
of your determination; some imperfection
in the moral fibre, throught which to regain
admission. | do not say that any of us ac-
tually attain this state of complete exclusion
of sin by perfect fulness of Gods life and
love. But hold this up as the ideal; and
assure you that in this direction lies the only
hope of real and substantial victory over sin
and evil. In 0 ne sense the Christian life is
never complete. In another sense it is COM
plete from the start. As a learned Scotch
writer puts it, the difference between the
moral and the religious life is this; the
moral life is a progress slow and halting to-
progress sure and steady within the Infinite.
In other words the moral life is perpetual
struggle to keep out evil. The religious life
is constant overcoming Of evil by the good
ness and grace of God.
We all have evil spirits, either already in
admission. The spirit of avarice is in one;
the spirit of self-indulgence is another; a
jealous disposition is a third a complaining
and repining spirit is fourth bad temper
is fifth a liking for scandal and evil speak
ing is a sixth a spirit of pride and vanity
besets seventh, and there is something of
each of these not far from every one of us.
How quick the seven are counted up for
each one of us How many times they might
be multiplied
How shall we keep them out? You can
not do it simply by contending against them
one by one. When you have put one out and
done nothing more you are left empty. And
the evil spirit is back again at once with his
seven companions. The fundamental trouble
is emptiness; lack of spiritual life and pow
er. The all-suficient remedy is fulness of
the Divine Spirit. Let every chamber of
your soul; let every purpose of your heart,
let every moment of your life be filled with
the love of God; with the grace of Christ;
with the inspiration of the spirit; and then
you will have no room for these contemplate
chickering's, mean, jealous, malignant scand-
ais false, ambitious, groundless spitss, mis-
erly motives and shameful indulgenees,
which make the lives of men so wretched
and pitiful and sinful.
The love and service of God is the only
thing that can fill out to the full capacity the
soul of man. Culture, business, society
each fill their Town little niche: and with