The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-12-13
AN ELOQUENT ADDRESS
Delivered by Rev. John Hosking
at the M. z. Church.
THE ENJOYMENT OF LIFE
Sour-Faced Christians Misrepresent the
Cause Christianity Means Rejoicing.
A Dangerous Religion That
Has No Safety Valve.

| 1fdce NJ. II. chufcn on the SUBJECT,
How to Enjoy Life He took his text
from Ecclesiastics XII, 2: Rejoice, o
young man in thy youth; and let thy
heart cheer thee in the days of thy
/ youth, and walk in the ways of thine
heart. and in the sight o. thine eyes.
/ but know. thou, that for all these
] things God will bring thee into judg
| ment." and said:
| Some have questioned the realness of
/ these words. They have looked upon
| them with some degree of suspicion, for
! fear of a mixture of satire and irony.
/ But, after due consideration, we are
willing to accept the candid truth of the
/ text and believe it means what it says.
! We will therefore test this text by the
! Divine Word, which is our standard.
| For a lawyer to present a case to the
court, on his opinion. would be an in
| suit; but he would cite the law on the
| point in question. The Bible is the
| preachers law book and his statements
/ should be prefiXed by the Divine Word.
1t is the lamp into his feet and light
| on his path
| First, then, we must ascertain what
is meant by this word heart, mem
| toned twice in the text. We turn to
| the Divine Word and read, Thou shalt
| love the Lord, thy God with all thine
heart which means thine affections.
Again, we read, If thine heart con-
/ denim thee not, then art thou right be-
| fore God which means the conscience
once more we read 'Ephriam also is like
a silly dove without heart which means
without understanding. From these and
others that might be quoted we learn
that the word heart in our text means
the faculties of the soul. and hence we
learn that the heart is to be the indi-
Gator and regulator of mans life. The
scriptures saith. Keep thy heart with
all diligence. for out of it are the issues
lf r.,
joyment is to have our heart put right
before God. Man is born in sin, and
| hence loves his own way and often
| fancies he can go best alone and thus
keeps God out of his thoughts.
The next thought in the text, after
| the suppostion that the heart is right
is the injunction. Rejoice, q young
man. The word saith, The young men
and maidens, the old men and children,
yea, let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord All nature echoes Re
joice. The birds the flowers, yea, The
trees of the field shall clap their hands,
We cannot conceive of any period in our
life when we ought not to rejoice, espe-
cially Christians The man whose heart
is right before God should rejoice all
the time Oh. but we have sorrow and
disappointment and Affections; yes, We
should rejoice in that ye are permitted
to suffer with Christ. Listen to Christs
own words. Who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross Yes.
Christianity means rejoicing. if it means
anything. These long faced, doleful,
sour so-caled Christians are misrepre-
septing the cause of Christ, and are a
dishonor to God and a disgrace to the
Christian cause, and they virtually say
there is no joy in it. They should get
out of the church or get their heart
right before God, 50 that the clouds that
now hang on their brow might be re-
in
De not mistake rejoicing for animal ex-
citement. There is much of this latter
in the world which people call joy, but
when tested is found to be only the
cracking of thorns under a pot First,
real joy comes from doing something.
let me ask did you ever know a real
selfish person to be happy and rejoice?
There might have been the pretense,
with a little animal life thrown in, not
the real. Some people go through the
world Whistling all the way. and others
seemed never to know how To quicker
their mouth for song. oh, poor soul
without music. song or rejoicing! Jesus
said. / came not To be ministered unto,
but TO minister, and give my life. a
ransom for many. This was the great
joy of his lifa-'doing something not
only when we feel like it or when every
thing is favorable. but doing some ar
duous duty. until it becomes pleasure
to spend and be spent for others.
But preacher, YOU know | am one
Of those timid Christians. I never
make any noise. | am SO poor and
weak and can do SO little | never ex-
pect much joy in this life. The Lord
have mercy on you and deliver you
from that dangerous kind of religion
that has no safety valve, air tight
steam tight. water tight. and should il
explode. where would YOU he? Give us
that kind that will keep music in the
soul all the time. and will effervesca
often enough to let the world know
there Is joy there. Again. real lasting
JOY comes by perpetual doing. Spas
modic work is Of little use. Some peo-
PIE are always dreaming of what they
Will do. And at Christmas they send
SO pounds of flour to some poor family.
and at Thanksgiving give a dollar to
the Lords cause, and then dream they
are in line to have an abundance of joy
in this world and a grand reward here
after Away with your puny ill-begot-
ten notion. and learn that real, lasting
joy comes by perpetual giving, until it
becomes sacrifice, and working until !
IL becomes your everyday delight Let |
not some selfish motive steal away your
joy. Remember the Divine Word And |
though ! bestew all my goods to feed |
the poor and though | give my body
to be burned. and have not charity. it |
profiteth me nothing. In closing let me |
turn ON the searchlight and soc where |
are we. But remember for all these |
things God will bring thee into iudg- |
ment. Are you afraid to come to the |
light: is your purpose false2 Is your
heart ont of harmony with Code Are
you nervous and fretting because some |
one has more joy than Huu9 Get down t
on your knees and ask Gods mercy and /
then ask God tn loan YOU the Bible /
crutches until YOU can stand upon the /
promises. Oh. dear friends. / appeal to +
you in the name Of Him who has filled /