The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1897-05-08
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS.
Deep and Abiding JOY I'm the Life
Christ Commends TO Us.

Deep and Abiding JOY In the Life
Christ Commends 10 Us.
The Christian life seems TO many a
very dreary and uncomfortable sort of
life. They see nothing attractive in it.
IL IS all summed up in one irrational,
inyariable rule TO reject everything that
is agreeable and acceI,. everything that
Is disagreeable. 1t seems to them a
perversion. Why should not pleasure
be the ruler Why should duty, cold,
hard, bare duty be continually kept in
the foreground? Roses are beautiful;
rugged rocks are not. Who would not
choose roses?
But roses are not brought TO perfec-
ton except by high culture. In their
natural, neglected state they are little
more than struggling brinrs, with flow-
ers which barely suggest the wonderful
possibilities of development. Culture
makes them strong and luxuriant with
great masses Of beautiful blooms. The
processes by which this miraculous re-
suit is accomplished may seem hard and
disngreeable; but surely the means are
justified by the end.
If we agree that beauty OF character
is the highest style OF beauty known to
the world, we ought 10 be able TO agree
that il is worth while TO be at the pains
Of producing 1t. 1t is not, like the rose,
a thing Of beauty to-day and of ashes
tomorrow; IL does not quickly fade,
but its charm is perpetual. II increases
in power of attractiveness and sheds
its fragrance over wider and wider
areas. IT is a beauty, too, which does
not captivate one or two of the senses,
but enthrals the whole being. 1t is
beauty which blesses, ennobles, en-
courages and inspires oil within the
circle of it's influence.
There is no grandeur like moral
grandeur, no beauty like beauty Of soul.
The character OF Christ has power
over men which has never been equaled.
lie may have been in person without
form or comeliness, like a root out of a
dry ground; there may have been no
physical beauty in Iin-opinion diff
fers on this point; but the sublime
beauty of His crystal character no one
denies.
He trod the path OF duty, and was
made perfect through his sufferings.
Was there, then, no joy in His life?
We're the processes TO which He sub
mitted all hard and grievous, without
any compensation? He did not think
so. 1t was, He said, His meat and drink
to do His Fathers will; and He spoke
of Joy in tribulation, happiness in per-
secution, and told His disciples to re-
joice when trials come upon them. In
His life we see the surpassing beauty of
holiness. He was in all points tempted
rs we are, yet withoutsin. His thought
was not of Himself, but of others. He
suffered for us that He might teach us
TO suffer for one another. There is
nothing which mars character like
selfshness. Self is the center whence
all that is unlovely emanates. IL IL
seems hard and disagreeable 20 reject
the counsels Of this seductive spirit IL Is
more in the seeming than in the reality;
for 1T is the way we keep clear of the
entanglements OF sin, which is no true
pleasure, but only delusion.
There is a deep and abiding JOY in the
life which Christ commends 10 us. Can
anyone say as much for sin? Compar
ing hardness with harshness there Is
no way so hard as that OF the trans
gressor. And there Is no beauty in an
unrestrained or unframed life, no Mt |
Effectiveness, no belpfulness, no sweet
influence, no compensation; only re-
pulsiveness. Whatsoever things are |
true, whatsoever things are honest, |
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are |
lovely, whatsoever things are Of good /
report; il there be any virtue and il
there be any praise, think on these
things.-N. Y. Independents