The herald., 1893-02-06

OF all actions, implanting new spring
OF desires and infusing new spiritual
| lie. The contamination is a new crea-
ture in Christ Jesus The product OF
the new life is what is known as Chris
tisn character. 1t is acertain moral and
spiritual structure, the result OF COM
bination Of ruling motives, trend of
thought, bend of will, peculiar tempers-
ment, acquired taste, definite judgment,
tone OF feeling, line of movement, cut
tivated desire, all making for righteous
ness and likewise making Christian
manliness.
The core of all character lies in in
diviuuality. A person ia himself be-
cause he possesses something his own,
which differentiates him from all
others. Whatever else he shares he
shares not his personality. Form, face
and features not cut him off so strongly
from others as character. Its actions
spring from itself. 1t makes them hap
pen of its own volition. Its way of doing
is its own. Its own decisions make the
man.
This growth under whatever stress of
circumstances is declared to be endur-
ing, just as the lack of it is declared in
another way to be permanent. Not an
arbitrary decree of the Almighty, but
eternal principles of growth and fruition,
the fat goes forth that whatever deter
mines the bent or the trend, the flow of
life, comes at last to condition of
fxedness. Death does not alter the
law. Rather it helps to set the seal
upon it. Certainty of character in ano-
ther world ia assured. In moral type,
we shall be exactly what we are, judg-
sv,ox s,,k kba Ls.,1 Af foahsave NTH
likes and dislikes remaining, holding the
same standards of approval and disap-
proval, retaining the same sentiments,
the life running on the same tendencies,
the same movements of feel
ings, the same peculiarities, the same
characteristics and same manneriHms.
The retention of character is based
on the unity between life here and life
hereafter. What do we carry with us
in the great beyond? Is it not con-
sciousness, personality, character? For
without these there could not be ac-
countability, responsibility of judg-
ment. Character is what we are. That
must stand, though all else in this
world fail. Whatever we lose in the
passage from one life to another, as we
are to be ourselves and not another,
character survives. That the true, the
lovely and the beautiful shall remain is
an instinct of humanity. The desire
is for their immortality. What Is this
but the supreme judgment of our kind
for continuation of character?
The permanenca of character is seen
every day in the fxedness of habits.
More distinct and more solid as the days
60 by, our friends come to know us in
our social, business and domestic lives.
Their knowledge of us, whether true or
false, is founded on those actions which
reveal what we are, what Is our
life and what is our character.
aside from sudden cenyersions,
there is the classification continually
made between the upright and the
fallen, the faithful and the loose, the
steadfast and the abandoned. Under
the criticism and estimates of men lives
diverge, one toward the pure, another to
the debased; a soul won to the king
dom, the other lost to the outer dark
ness. Dominant and indelible, charac-
ter is seen at its maturity to be perma-
nent.
In character God lays the foundation
of the eternal kingdom. The inhab-
itants of Heaven are being formed and
fasb6aped now, in their time of this
is laws trus4 %mo and s'f hoiiness assp.s and
righteousness will find their places in
the heavenly circle. Those who are
resting on the world, its motives, it's
concerns, its future, have no definite
hope of entrance into those blessed
realms. The characters, adorned with
all the graces and virtues OF the gospel
of Christ, were not fashioned for
breath nor to blossom for day.
To pass away in utter extinction, is ab-
horrent to human sentiment and antag-
onistic to divine revelation. The ele-
ments of the kingdom are in these
Christian lives. Heaven is forming the
ranks of its goodly company of believers
right here, upon this earth. Gods like
ness in man-the beauty of Christ's life
reproduced in man-the graces of the
Holy Spirit shining through human
lives-these cannot die. Perpetual
youth is theirs. They are immortal.
Where shall these find their everlasting
home, when earth is no longer their
field OF action, but in the fields of Gods
Paradise above, where he, the lily of the
valley and the rose of Sharon, blooms
and flourishes with fragrant and undy.
ing charms2