The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-04

Ia a writer toiling over refractory SEN
fences? Then there Is to be a book which
shall encourage and soothe mems hearts.
/ believe * was Gods intention that man
should be a great being. See what powers
He has given him. An intellect that charms
the secrets from the stars, which can ex-
plain a planets revolution in mathemat-
zeal formulas; lips to sing and finger tips
of infinite delicacy, eyes that are hungry
for beauty, a heart to feel the sublime. All,
the human soul is a harp made to Dc swept
by divine harmonics. Man ought to dream
the visions of archangels. Man ought to
be noble in every aspect. because he was
made in the image of God. And so he
would be still If he had remained as God
made him. But ever since sin entered into
the world man has been his own worst en-
emy-constantly doing himself harm. The
present is not the first. the only ERA of
self-harm"-the same has been true of ey-
cry era since the fall.
Why, self-harm is the story of mans
life. Sin is the mildew on the human
field. Is there personality back of sin?
Some doubt it: but / think that | know
a knocking fiend of darkness who laughs
when a good man falls. Who is it that
makes bleared and bloodshot the clear
eyes, inflames the brain to madness, lifts
the savage arm to deeds of cruelty?
There is a sin which wrecks a kingdom,
and a sin which to earn a wage robs a
child of it's years of play and chains it
to a factory bench.
do myself no HARM There is not a
faculty or power of our natures which may
not be used to harm US. Ambition, which
nerves to action and incites to heroic
deeds. has written the history of it's harm
- - 81 49, 3I1iox T,~,an Joxva
which creates the home and makes the
hearthstones sacred, has it's unparalleled
tragedies.
We talk of the power of heat and gravi-
tation; but look at the power of sin! 1t
can take the fine brain of genius and foul
it with the mud of sensuality. 1t can take
the purest boy who ever knelt at a snowy
bed and in a few years drag him in the
filth. fill lis mouth with oaths and bias
phemy, give his eyes the req CLEAN of hell,
harden his chin, and cover him at last
with the earth of the potter's field.
Gibbon wrote The Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire" Who shall write the
decline and fall of a human soul? A young
man goes away from home to live for a
time in q great city. His boyish rawness
leaves him. He acquires ease and polish.
How he has improved" we say. But we
often have Il vague, indefinite feeling that
there has been a moral anstringing going
on in his heart. There is a wrinkle around
his eyes, a sarcastic look, a word let fall
which tells of the ~ungearing of the soul
the deshabille of the moral nature. We
feel the man has been harming himself.
He has been committing moral suicide,
breaking. entering and stealing in the do
main of his own personality.
Don't ask for explicit disclosure; don't
ask him where he goes at n~ight-what
street has attractions for him. There are
of such men; they are in ''the
far country" That is all the Bible says
about the country where the p~rodigal went.
It is a far country, but / think 1 know
where it Is. 1t has pleasant paths which
end in swamps; on the other side of the
swamps is a cliff; at the bottom of the
cliff are the bones of the dead. That is |
where men harm themselves.
Young fellows of my own age, are you
going there? Is hat the road you are TAX
ing to the far country? Then you will
curse the day you were born. Some night
you will be restless and the bed will seem
and the pillow hot; you will toss and
tumble YEARLY.
g y y = In the night. in the night.
When thou Hest alone,
All, the ghosts that make moan
From the years that are fled from your
sight;
The old days, the old deeds.
The old wound that still bleeds,
And the face of the dead, in the night"
And you'll remember the words of Gods
Book: THE soul that sinneth, it shall
"The wages of sin is DEATH
Had you best wait till you are well with
n the boundaries of that country of self
larm before thinking OF these?
Copyright, 1896, by the Newspaper Sermon
Association