The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-02

-- wy Nt fNAA sAAfAN9 hAA0 9IAaAAAsg RNAHAAn to God, because He Is eternal, without Variableness either shadow of turning; and therefore each minute of each successive hour is passed by the soul beneath Gods eye and in Gods hand. Thus the faithful soul, for the very reason that 1t Is faithful, sets God al- ways before Itself the ever-present judge and guide and father, realizing, as the Psalmist says, that Gods judg- ments are already in this world" i. e., that the materials and conditions of ebrlety are here in time, and that 1t Is only by devoting Itself rightly to pres ent talents and tasks and pleasures that we can at all prepare for the future. The man who shiIlSs tiol now because this earthly scene of his toll is to be obliterated, is the very man who is not preparing for that approach ing catastrophe. For the one thing that any man can take away from here is his character, and the only way to acquire character Is to act naturally and vigorously now. Char acter, achieved in present time, is possession for eternity. Therefore let the man whose od-given talent is for business throw himself into his busl- ness; let the artist go on with his art; let the statesman prosecute his statesmanship, though he knows that every earthly nation Is marching to its doom; for out of these fieeting forms and fashions of the hour; these pie lures that fade upon our walls; these fortunes that we keep up not knowing who shall gather them; these laws and institutions and governments that pass as mankind passes--out of all the things that perish in the using these human hearts and minds and wills of ours, our imperishable personalities, are making ready for enternity-the creature Is in touch with the Creator.
 In that awful chapter of St. Mat thew's gospel where the Saviour of the world is telling of the end of the world, He speaks expressly of the apparent sameness of occupation of those over taken by that end There shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left" There you have in parable the whole history of human soul-life on this earth. Iden- tity of outward occupation, similarity of manners, along with complete un- | likeness of spiritual view and motive. The men and women who not only know but believe that this earth is passing scene are doing the same things as those who do not believe 1t. But l God judgeth their hearts, and the in- terval between them is the whole wide interval between heaven and hell.
 Ordinary history is full of this differ ence in the ideas actuating the lives of men that to outward views seemed sinlilar-of the trivial sound and the common task transfigured by the higher soul-life which they yelled to every eye but Gods. Doubtless the real power of such ideas varies with their quality An idea 10 be powerful for long must have truth in 1t; and to be fruitful it must be accepted with l tenacity. It must stand at the door of the soul ever ready to claim an audi enee, and the soul must be ever ready | to open to it when not otherwise en- gagged. But history Is full of the ac- 1 tuality of such ideas, of their strange compelling power. Von Stein, the great North German patriot, was 8 man of one idea; how to retrieve the humilia- l ton inflicted on his country by the first Napoleon, and to make her once more strong against the French aggression. For years and years Won Stein lived outwardly like the other Germans of his | time. Yet underneath that semblance of similarity there was an entire diff ference of motive. His acts, his words, I his letters betTay in his biography how | thoroughly that one idea mastered him; 1 and how at last other men caught contagion of his enthusiasm and per ceived the truth of his idea, until the endeavor after German unity became national endeavor, taken up by Won ! Stein's successors and achieved after he had died
 | And the power of the inner motive and idea has been equally great in re- l ligion. It is to this that the author of | the Epistle to the Hebrews refers in his striking chapter on faith: It was this | that differentiated Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Moses and David and all the other Hebrew wor- thies. For they that do such things declare plainly that they seek a bet ter country, i. e., a heavenly" "They endured as seeing Him who is fnvisi- ble." And even so with ourselves to- day, my brothers.
 "There are in this loud stunning tide
 Of human care and crime,
 With whom the melodies abide
 Of the everlasting chime"
 In society and business and politics, in science and literature, they meet and rningle with the rest-wearing like garments, speaking the same language, doing identical tasks. Nay, these are
 the most devotedly practical and busy of all These shirk no difficulties, dream no idle dreams, make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. Only their consciousness of this worlds tran sitoriness, of it's steady hastening to the end. imparts to their demanor cer7 tain independence and aloofness. Their
 toiling and their loving is just as in-
 tense as other mems, but God sees
 that 1t is other-worldly. They use this
 world'as not abusing it
 |
 VEST HAVEN.
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