Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-01-15
The Life Within,

We live in an age in which the value OF
the outward life is unduly emphasized
| On every hand men and women are pur-
suing, with utter self-abandonment and
consuming enthusiasm, the merely tenn
poral things-weaith, fame, pleasure,
worldly place and power, superficial cult
ure, the means of leisure and of self-indul-
| gence. 1t is the thing of the surface and
Of the day that is held in CHEF esteem.
Talent and energy are expended upon get
ting and seeming, rather than upon be-
slowing and being. A selfish, shallow life,
with little of serious purpose, is the life of
the great mass of modern society.
Literature, which is always the accurate
reflection of an age, abundantly proves
that such is the moral tone of today. We
do not wish to sound any needless note of
pessimism, but we cannot help being i'm
pressed by the superticiality of the books
and periodicals that people nowadays are
buying, talking about, and clamoring for.
Every noble form of literature languishes,
while the cheaply sensational, odd, fantas-
tic, riSque and silly, sell like the first fruits
OF summer. 1t is all such a sad comment
upon the snperfciality of the time. The
outward life is everywhere celebrated and
displayed, and the more gaudily the picture
is painted by the literary artist, the more is
it admired and emulated by the modern
"fad-worshpper."
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 reasserted and reinforced, in every pos
slble 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 aspiring di-
rectness than to the acknowledged serv-
ants of Christ? To the church, to Chris
tian men and women, belongs, in specia,
way, the duty of raising the moral tone of
society by restoring the worlds reverence
and esteem 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 demon
allzing trend of popular thought and feel
ing be counteracted. The two kinds of
life, the outward and the inward, have al
ways been, and must always be- set over
against one another. 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 ascendency. Each must be as,
sailed by increasing the other Every fresh
example of noble, serious, Christian living
and thinking is grain in the balance
against the triumph of the base. the flip
pant, and the superficial. We exalt the
age by eXalting ourselves. We honor God
by honoIing the ideals He has set before
us. AS we magnify the life within. the
permanent, the divine, the exalting, we in
eyitably lift ourselves and others above the
plane of the temporal, the superficial. the
demoralizng. Modern life needs an influx
of Observation-Disclosures. Shall we not
render such soul-service as in us liesp-
lions Herald