The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-03
the Soul be Master

peace.-hOulanS, VII, y.
Let me state two very curious facts
which have a close relation to our per-
sonal comfort and happiness.
First, we bestow so much attention on
purely material things and are so alb
sorbed in the desire to possess them that
we have no time left in which to get
ready for another life.
In reality the future will do more for
us than the present either has done or
can do, and yet we dread it. We do
not begin to truly live until this preliml-
nary state of existence has been done
away with, but we cling to it as though
it were all there was of life.
/ have heard of man to whom an
odd accident happened. He fell in pitch
darkness over the edge of what SCENE
to be a fathomless abyss. Fortuna
he broke his fall by clutching bea
to which he chung with terror and ten
acity. He looked up, but no stars Were
visible. He cried for help, but no one
was near. He looked down, and shud-
dered at the apparent depths below. He
was in utter despair, for his strength
was giving way, and nothing could avert
the disaster that was about to befall
him. AT last his hands slipped slowly
| but surely, and in another moment all
was over. He fell, but the solid ground
which he had mistaken for an abyss was
only two feet below him, and his sur
prise and gratitude were only equalled
by his former horror.
| Ii is the same with death. We regard
it as a precipice over which relentless
disease pushes us. Its contemplation
| fills us with misery. We clutch at any
relief which offers, as though to loosen
our hold were unutterable destruction.
But when we finally let go we discover
! that we drop two feet and then reach
| heaven. Death is our frightful halluci-
nation, the worst thing that can happen,
whereas in very truth it is the best-a
comfort, joy, a sudden transportation
to a friendlier cline.
| This grave error about death is caus-
cd by too firmly fixing our affections
on this poor little section of eternity in
which our earthly life is passed, and be-
coming so interested in the baubles of
social and business ambitions and in the
search for merely physical pleasures that
| heaven is truly shut out from view as
though there were no heaven at all.
] Second, we allow ourselves to remain
in almost absolute ignorance of the fact
| that the soul is worth more than the
body and that it's wants should be more
carefully attended to. A man may make
a measurable success of this life without
recognizing the fact that he has a soul.
| The success will be of poor kind, as,
! for example, he may excite the envy of
his fellows by converting himself into a
millionaire, but when the time comes
to take his millions away and he enters
a world in which dollars have no pur-
| chasing power, and in which business
capacity without business integrity is n
| misfortune rather than an advantage,
his success will be transformed into fail
| ure.
There is absolutely nothing OF worth,
either in this world or in the world to
come, except character. and to that con-
clusion must every one come at last. You
must be introduced to your own soul
before you can have companion whose
acquaintance is an honor to you, and you
| must go to that soul as to wise coun-
t'seilorin every emergency before you can
| find and enjoy the best things in Gods
| providence.
| Worldly pleasures and gains are well
enough in their way. They have a place
1
the respect that is due, but when they
stretch beyond their proper limits and oc-
cupy the entire space of the soul they are
not like just sovereign, but usurp-
ing tyrant. While it would be wrong
for a man to think so continuously OF
the other life that he is untitled for the
duties and struggles of this life, it is
| manifestly an evidence of weakness foI
him to think so much of this life that he
will be unfit for the other life when be
| comes to enter il.
There is this to be said, that you have
two natures, one of which strives to be
master while the other ought to r.. Re,
ligion consists in putting the right one in
the place of authority and making the
other a well trained servant. In such
case, You live life SO sweet and joyful
so kindly and charitable, so generous ant
helpful that both men and angels re
joice. You are true son of God and 6
, true friend to mankind.
If you could compress Christianity into
a single fact, that would be the fact
1t should be your creed, and all the
creed you have. You will need nothing
more, for to live on that plane is t.
dwell so close to God that heaven viii
come to you long before you go t.
heaven.
But il You put the servant on the
throne and the rightful master in the
place of the servitude, if your lower sell
has its foot on the neck of your higher
self, you can neither live well nor die
happily. A mans soul serving man.
body is like a prince doing drurgery il
a peasants howell.
i Appraise yourself at your proper val
ne. What you can carry with you into
the eternities is worth more than what
you must leave behind. Do your best
for what is the best part of you. What
ever may be your lot to-day see to il
that good fortune shall come with the
morrow. God has arranged things
wisely, and If you build on his plan yol
also will be wise.
. GEORGE III. HEPWORTH.