The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-08-26
RELIGIOUS READING.
THE LIFE WITHIN,

We live in m age in which the value ofthe
outward life is unduly emphasized. On
every hand mel and women are pursuing,
with utter self-abandonment and consuming
enthusiasm, the merely temporal things
wealth. fame. pleasure. worldly place and
power. superficial culture, the meaEs OF
leisure and self indulgence. 1t is the thing
Of the surface and Of the day that is held in
chief esteem. Talent and energy are ex-
pended upon getting and seeming, rather
:han upon bestowing and being. A selfish,
shallow life. with little OF serious purpose,
s the life of the great mass Of modern So
:iety.
Literature. which is always the accurate
reflection Of an age. abundantly proves
hat such is the moral tone OF today. We
10 not wish to sound any needless note Of
pessimism, but we cannot help being im-
pressed by the supernciality of the books
and periodicals that people nowadays are
ouying. talking about. and c!amoring for.
Every noble form OF literature laEgCishes,
while the cheaply sensational, odd. faEtas-
tic, risoue and silly. sell like the first fruits
If summer. 1t is all such sad comment
lpon the superficiality OF tie time. The
outward life is everywhere celebrated ard
displayed, and the more gaudily the picture
Is painted by the literary artist. the more
is 1t admired and emulated by the modern
;'fad-worshiper.'
Is it not high time to plead for revival Of
the serious purpose in life? Should not the
value and importance Of the life within be
re-asserted and REINFORCED. in every pos
sible way, by those who still cling to the
nobler Inspirations. the loftier ideals and
the more permanent realities of this earth
ly existence of ours? And unto whom does
the summons to renew the spiritual ideal of
life come with more inspiring directness
than to the acknowledged servants OF
Christ? To the church, to Christian men
and women, belongs, in most special way,
the duty of raising the moral tone Of society
by restoring the worlds reverence and es-
TEEN and desire for the deeper life Of the
spirit, for the religious attitude Of mind and
heart, for purity and rectitude Of thought:
for devotion. worship and trust in God.
In no other way can the present demoral-
izing trend of popular thought and feeling
be counteracted. The two kinds of life, the
outward and the inward, have always been,
and must always set over against one en-
other. The ascension OF the one always
means the declension of the other, like the
weights in opposite sides Of the scales.
One or the other must always be in the as
tendency. Each must be assaied by in
creasing the other. Every fresh exam
pie Of noble, serious, Christian living and
thinking is grain in the balance against
the triumph Of the base, the fippant, and
the superficial. We eXalt the age by exait-
ing ourselves. We honor God by honorinS
the ideals He has set before US. AS we
magnify the life within, the permanent, the
divine, the exalting. we inevitably lift our
selves and others above the plane OF the
temporal. the superficial. the demoralizing.
Modern life needs an influx of spiritual
mindedness. Shall we not render such soul
service as in US lies?