Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-01-30
THREE QUESTIONS.

THREE QUESTIONS
Yea, think it meet as long as am in this
tabernacle, to stir you up BY putting you IN re-
membrance.-u. Peter l. ID
There are some things of which we
need to be constantly reminded, for,
like footprint on the seashore, the
waves of care and business are apt to
wash them out of our memories.
A few simple truths which are &C
knowledged by everybody to be self
evident, and which therefore need not
be discussed, lie at the foundation of
every noble character. A man is not
called upon to believe much, but what
he does belive must reach down to the
lower depths of his nature and exercise
a controlling influence over motives
and actions. The mystery of religion
is thus abolished, and Gods require
ments are admitted to be perfectly
plan, as well as entirely reasonable and
just. If you can possibly have any
doubt as to what the Lord wishes you
to do, you may be sure that you have
in some way substituted set of &C.
clesiastical dogmas for Christs law of
love, and the sooner you lay the dog
mas aside and take this law of love in
their stead the better it will be for the
peace of your soul. You will then see
that common sense and the Almighty's
demands run parallel to each other.
The first important truth knocks at
your door when you have answered the
question, whence came your Are
you curiously and cunningly consti
tuted lump of matter. or is there blaz
ing fire within which is not akin to mat
ter? When the matter tumbles into
ruins will the fire go out, or is there
6iffnronaa hot txun fh
the fire will still blaze when the chin
ney has been destroyed? Are you all
dirt-beautiful dirt, wondrously refined
dirt, to be sure, but still dirt-Or are
you dirt plus a spark of the eternal life
of God?
The man whose convictions are limit
ed to the dirgelike phrase, From the
dust; to the DUST can have no aspira
tions which will equal those which
come from the loftier phrase, Prom
the dust; to the stars To think up
ward is to lift ones self above the
earth. Thoughts are either like pair
of bellows, which fans the slumbering
embers into flame, or like bucket of
water, which extinguishes the last faint
glow on the hearth. If you believe
that you came from the Throne, it will
help you to so live that death will lead
you back to the Throne when your
days work is done If you are only
perambulating hillock; if there is no
more in you than can be found in a
load of cut grass, there is no incentive
to be Godlike or heroic, for it is what
man must come to in the long run
that makes him large or small before
he gets there. If you are to come to
nothing in the end, you will be moth
ing now; if you are to inherit immor
tally, you will borrow some of the
glories of Immortality to live in to day,
and tomorrow, and the day after.
When, therefore, you have settled this
first problem, Whence came you ~
you are like the soldier who puts on his
armor and goes forth to battle.
The next question before which the
thoughtful man stands with bowed
head. is why are we here ~ Not even
the roar of the mighty cataract is more
impressive than the answer which the
honest heart must give. One trembles
in it's presence, for a long line of duties
and hardships and struggles and sor-
rows become visible. These are the
crucibles in which our baser selves are
to be melted that the scum and dross
may be skinned off, while only pure
metal is left. These are the tripham-
mer, which, with merciless fidelity to
spiritual law, is to pound the rough bar
of iron into the required shape.
We are here for development and ed
ucation. The peace and the misery
which alternately fill our hearts are
simply the indicators that reveal our
degree of success or our partial failure. |
The lessons must be learned, and if we
waste our time here we handicap our
selves hereafter. God never pays the
lazy or Indifferent the wages which in |
dustry receives. Every mile of the road
must be travelled, and no miracle eth |
er before death or after it will shorten |
the journey. You conceive very weak |
ly of the Lord if you think you can
take the coin of an ignoble life and |
purchase with it eternal bliss. You
cannot fill your soul with greed or
selfishness or sensual indulgence and |
then drop through the grave into heav-
en-. Foreetfulness is not SO easy, and |
if you wiIfuily get into debt TO spiritual
law you must pay the debt like an hon
est man, and there is no way OF escape. |
Right living makes easy dying. When |
you leave the churchyard, if you have
graduated with honor you will be re-
ceived with honor, and if you have not |
done so you will have to go to school |
again somewhere. These are hard |
facts, but they cannot be graded.
The third question has been partial |
ly answered Observation-Disclosures shall !
we go?" We shall go to a piece, a /
locality, and we shall be our entire
selves when we get there, not diminish |
ed by the loss of a single passion or APP |
petite or angelic quality of character
To speak of heaven as condition of
mind is to use rhetorical phrase sig |
nifying nothing. Heaven is either |
somewhere or nowhere.
For our present purpose, however, it !
is not necessary to determine it's local |
1ty on the celestial map or to discuss
the environment of the soul the day af- |
ter death. We accept the statement /
that our destination is not reached /
when the physician declares that the /
heart has ceased to beat. We accept I
that statement as sufficient answer
to the question, whittier shall we |
go?' 1t might be delightful to inquire
further, but progress in that direction |
is barred. /
What we wish to insist upon is that
wherever the next life may be spent,
and whatever it's surroundings may be-
the simple faith that there is another ,
life is uplifting and ennobling. The
skeptic, the athesist, the agnostic may
reach very lofty eminence of charac