The Yale expositor., 1895-02-01

men falsify their bank accounts, those
two wrong doors are blazoned before
tie world, while nothing is said in
praise of the hundreds of bank clerks
who have stood at their desks year in
and year out until their health is well
nigh gone, taking not pins worth of
that which belongs to others for them
selves, though with skillful stroke Of
pen they might have enriched them
selves, and built their country seats on
the banks of the Hudson, or the Rhine.
1t is a mean thing in human nature
that men and women are not praised
for doing well, but only excoriated
when they do wrong. by divine ar
raugement the most of the families Of
the earth are at peace, and the most of
those united in marriage have for each
other affinity and affection. They may
have occasional differences, and here
and there a season of pout, but the
vast majority of those in the conjugal
relation, chose the most appropriate
companionship, and are happy in that
relation. You hear nothing of the
quietude and happiness of such homes,
though nothing but death will them
part. But one sound of marital discord
makes the ears of a continent, and per-
haps of n hemisphere, alert. The one
| letter that ought never to have been
written, printed in a newspaper, makes
more talk than the millions of letters
that crowd the postoflices, and weigh
down the mail carriers, with express
sions of honest love. Tolstoi, the great
Russian author, is wrong when he
prints book for the depreciation of
marriage. II your observation has
! put you in an attitude of deportation
for the marriage state one or two
things is true in regard to you; you
have either been unfortunate in your
acquaintanceship, or you yourself are
morally rotten. The world, not as
rapid as we would like, but still with
long strides,is on the way to the scenes
of beatitude and felicity which the
Bible depicts. The man who can
! not see this is wrong, either in his
heart, or liver, or spleen. Look at the
great Bible picture gallery, where
Isaiah has set up the pictures of abor-
escence, girdling the world with cedar,
and fir, and pine, and lockwood, and
the lion led by a child; and st. Johns
pictures of waters and trees, and white
horse cavalry, and tears wiped away,
and trumpets blown, and harps struck,
and nations redeemed. While there
are ten thousand things I do not like,
have not seen any encouragement for
the cause of God for twenty-five years
The Kingdom is coming. The earth is
preparing to put on bridal array. We
need to be getting our anthems and
grand marches ready. In our hymn
ology we shall have more use for An
tioch than for Windham; for Ariel
than for Naomi. Let "Harll! from
the Tombs a DolefHl Cry" be sub
merged with "Joy to the World, the
Lord is Comet" Really, if thought
the human race were as determined to
be bad, and getting worse, as the
pessimists represent, | would think
it was hardly worth saving. If
after hundreds of years of gos-
pelization no improvement has
been made, let us give it up and
go at something else besides praying
and preaching. Ny opinion is that if
we had enough faith in quick results,
and could go forth rightly equipped
with the gospel call, the battle for
| God and righteousness would end
! with this nineteenth century, and the
twentieth century, only five or six
years off. would begin the millennium,
and Christ would reign, either in per-
son on some throne set up between
tho Alleghanies and the Rockies, or
in the institutions of mercy and gran
deur set up by his ransomed people.
Discouraged work will meet with de-
feat. Expectant and buoyant work
will gain the victory. Start out with
the idea that all men are liars and
scoundrels, and that everybody is as
bad as he can be, and that society,
and the church, and the world are on
the way to demolition, and the only
use you will ever be to the world will
be to increase the value of lots in a
cemetery. We need more cheerful
front in all our religious work.
People have enough trouble al
Teduy, anu OO HOb WduL W snip uu-
other cargo of trouble in the shape of
religiosity. If religion has been to
you a peace, defense, an inspiration
and a Joy, say so. Say it by word of
mouth, by pen in your right hand, by
! face illuminated with divine satisfac-
ton. If this world is ever to be taken
for God it will not be by groans, but
by hallelujahs. Ii we could present
the Christian religion as it really is, in
its true attractiveness, all the people
would accept it and accept it righU
away. The cities, the nations would
cry out: 'Give us that! Give it to us
in all its holy magnetism and gracious
power! Put that salve on our woundsl
Throw back the shutters for that
morning light Knock off these chains
with that silver hammerl Give us
Christ-his pardon, his peace, his COM
fort, his heavenl Give us Christ in
song, Christ In sermon, Christ in book,
Christ in living examplel"
AS system of didactics, religion has
never gained one inch of progress As
technicality, it befogs more than it
irradiates. As a dogmatism, it is an
awful failure. But as fact, as a rein