Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-06-10
REMEMBER THY GOD.
REV. oH. COURT ON THE SUNDAY
SCHOOL LESSON FOR JUNE n.


Youthful Folly and Failure TO fscmembe
the Crestor-The Evil bays Of Goddess
Old Ase--The silver Cord.
i Golden Text, Rememb Der now thy Create,
IN the days Of thy youth Tccl. xii, ".
Lessons Feel. xii, IL, 10, IA.
The weary search for soul satisfaction
without God has ended Solomon, as rep
resented by Koheleth, the preacher, has
found In every scene vanity and vexation.
There are, however some natural pleasures
that, because they are ordained by God,
Igive real satisfaction az far as they 90
work, food. honorable marriage. The
young are very liable TO indulge to excess
In the pleasures of sense. Such indulgence
involves double retribution--here In the
sadness and sorrowfuness OF the old age
that succeeds fast life, hereafter In the
judgment at Gods bar. Religion relieves
life Of its vanity.
LIN DAYS or YoUTH REMEMBER COP
Verse l.)
I. A duty enjoined. (a) "Remember"-
sword that intimates that this duty is very
apt to be omitted. Youth is gay, giddy
and thoughtless The flow of young blood,
the activity of the limbs, the exuberance
Of the animal spirits are not favorable to
| pcnsive exercises. The young man is only
too ready to "let his heart cheer him In the
days of his youth and walk in the ways Of
his heart and in the sight Of his own eyes,"
spending with lavish recklessness the rich
funds Of health, strength and energy ON
The pleasures that weaken and dem0ralize,
unthinking of the day Of reckoning. (b)
"Rememb mber"-that Is, keep In mind, make
1t ruling principle Of your life to
act as II God were looking on you
all thetime There Is something sublime
In Milton's resolution that IL he had grace
he would use his time ''as ever in his great
Taskmaster's eyes" Yet there is sense
Of constraint, of compulsion, of coercion in
this thought. Far better would it be to
live as ever in our Heavenly Fathers eye.
This may be translated into terms Of. The
Christian faith, for, as John Stuart Mill
has eaid, it would mot be easy even for an
unbeliever to find better translation of
the rule Of virtue from the abstract into the
concrete than to endeavor SO to live that
Christ would approve our life," or as it was
better expressed long before Mill said this:
FIJI our minds with thoughts of Jesus,
And Of heaven where He is gone,
And let nothing ever please us
He would grfeve to look upon.
To remember our Creator is to remember
that God is looking at us and to act ac-
cordingly.
Q. Who is to be rememberedS (a) God as
our Maker. Individually is this duty in
sisted on-"thy Creator" Whatever others
may do is no rule to thee. God will deal
with thee hereafter in thy individuality;
therefore do thou deal with Him here in
thy individuality. b) All evil conduct,
fast life and ruinous excess are the result
of practical atheism. To think of God. Of
His commandments, of His retributions,
must be deterrent of vice and crime. Listen
to Joseph's cry, "How can l do this great
wickedness and sin against God" (Gen.
xxxix, 0)p
.. When God il to be remem bered. (a) In
youth when the character is as yet plastic,
when habits can be easily acquired, when
the bloom and fragrance of the affections
may form bouquet that even God will be
delighted to accept. There Is q kind of
meannsss in giving the deyil the best of our
days-our choice days, as the Hebrew here
calls ouryouthfuidays.5 Young Christians
are lovely flowers in the garden of the Lord.
(b) II Solomon's experience is here pre-
sented, as the book says it is, then there is
deep pathos in the reference to the days Of
youth in contrast with the evil days Of an
old age that follows a goddess youth.
. 1.-THE EVIL DAYS OF A GODDESS OLD
AGE. (Verses E-7) .B B
1. Evil days. (a) This sad picture Of old
age does not show what godly life brings
one to. There is good old age" as well
as an old age OF "evil days" There was,
as Tayler Lewis says, the good old age Of
Abraham and David, the serene old age Of
Isaac, the honored old age of Jacob, the
hale old age Of Moses and Joshua" See
Gen. XIV, Is; I Chron. xxx, 2S; lisa. xl, 30,
81: Ps xcii, 10. Even solomon says ''the
hoary head is crown of glory when found
in the way Of righteousness" prov. xvi,
80; xx, 29). For the Christian, old age is
not an evil time. God is with him. Grace
u in his heart. Often love and re
spect surround him. Finally he dies
in peace and with a blessed hope. (b)
The old adage depicted here is the pic
ture Of the wornout votary of goddess pleas
ure, too often old before his prime, like By
ron, but certainly the subject of sad old
age of evil days-days without pleasure. A
fast youth makes a dull old age. 10y In
such dreary season there is no pleasure.
Old companions have gone. The means OF
enjoyment nave no longer Vue eHecJ tndt
they once had. Besides the eyes are dim,
the ears dull. the taste pals, the nerves are
less sensitive, and the appetites flag. mo
pleasurel" How dull, dreary, forlorn is
such stateI This is evil indeed.
3. Breaking up (a) Dark is the prospect
for the votaries of sensual pleasures. An
elaborate allegory is introduced-the break
ing up of palace or great mansion, as a
picture of the breaking up of the human
body at the close of the goddess man 3 career.
The view that tempest is meant is far
fetched. inapt and opposed to the view of the
vast crowd OF ancient and modern commen-
tators. First comes the darkness Of sorrow,
pain--light being indicative OF
joy. happiness. pleasure See the opposite
Of this darkness in II Sam. xiii, 4, s. The
clouds returning after the rain show one
afaiction following the other, misfortune
treading ON the heels Of misfortune "The
old age Of the sensualist has no spiritual
sun. The clouds seem ever coming
back 1t is all dark, or the intervals
Of sunshine seem brief and evanes-
cent" (Tayler Lewis). How cheerlessi (b)
Frail, too, Is this state. Mans body Is
= palace or great mansion. The keepers,
or guards, are the arms; the strong men
ara the lower linn ba. the Orindare or mill