The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-04-18
AS AN EXHILARATION.
DR.. TaImage Says Christianity is Uplift-
ing and DispeIs MeIanchoIia.
The Fate Of Young Men Who Go In for
Sinful Amusements.



Migration, and urges oil people. to try its
uplifting power; text, Proverbs iii, II,
Her ways are ways Of pleasantness."
You have all heard Of Gods only bcgot-
ten Son. Have you heard of Gods daugh-
ter? She was born in heaven. She came
down over the hills Of our world. She had
queenly step. On her brow was celestial
radiance. Her voice was music Her name
10 religion. My text introduces her. Her
ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her
paths are peace" But what is religion!
The fact is that theological study has had
sometimes produced. Every year l tear
out another leaf from my theology until
have only three or four leaves left--in
ether words. very brief and plain state
ment Of Christian belief.
An aged Christian minister said: When
j was young man, | knew everything;
when / got to be thirty-hve years of age,
in my creed | had only a hundred doe
trines of religion; when / got to be forty
years of age had only fifty doctrines Of
religion; when | got to be sixty years OF
age l had only ten doctrines of religion,
and now l am dying at seyenty-hve years
of age, and there is only thing L know,
and that is that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners" And so have
noticed in the study of Gods word, and IN
my contemplation of the character OF God
and Of the eternal world, that it is neces.
SdTV IOr me 10 crop LulS pdTJ VI my bthNh
and that part of my belief as being non
essential, while / cling to the one great
doctrine that man is a sinner, and Christ
Is his Almighty, and divine Saviour.
Now, | take these three or four leaves
of my theology, and l find that, in the
first place and dominant above all others,
is the sunshine of religion. When l go
into a room | have a passion for throwing
open all the shutters. That is what L
want to do this morning. We are apt to
throw so much of the sepulchral into our
religion and to close the shutters and to
pull down the blinds that is is only
through here and there a crevice that the
light streams. The religion of the Lord
Jesus Christ is religion Of joy indescrib-
able and unutterable. Wherever L can
find bell mean to ring it.
If there are any in this house this morn
ing who are disposed to hold on to their
melancholy and gloom, let them now de.
part this service before the fairest and
brightest and the most radiant being OF
all the universe comes in. Gods Son has
left our world. but Gods daughter is here.
Give her room! Hail, Princess Of Heavenl
Hail, daughter of the Lord God Almighty!
Come in and make this house thy throne
rooml
In setting forth this idea. the dominant
theory of religion is one of sunshine, L
hardly know where TO begin, for there are
80 many thoughts that rush upon my soul.
A mother saw her little child seated on
the floor in the sunshine and with spoon
are you doing there?" "Oh," replied Che
child, 81 am getting o spoonful OF this
sunshine" Would God that to-day
might present you with cleaning cha,
lice of this glorious, everlasting gospel
sunshine!
shine in Christian society. | do not
know of anything more doleful than the
companionship of the mere funmakers of
the world--the Thomas Hoods, the Charles
Lambs, the Charles Mathewses of the
world-the men whose entire business 1t
is to make sport.
They make others laugh, but il you
will examine their autobiography or, bl-
ography you will find that down in their
soul there was a terrific disquietude.
Laughter is no sign of happiness. The
maniac laughs The hyena laughs. IN The
drunkard, dashing his decanter against
the wall, laughs. .,
There is a terrible reaction from all
sinful amusement and sinful merriment
Such men are cross the next day. They
snap at you on exchange or they pass you,
mere worldly society for the reason it
was so dull, so inane and so stupid. My
nature is voracious of JOY L must have
it.
l always walk on the sunny side of the
street, and for that reason l have crossed
over into Christian society. | like their
mode of repartee better l like their
style of amusement better. They live
longer. Christian people, sometimes no
tice, live on when by all natural law they
ought to have died. L have known per-
sons who have continued in their eX-
istence when the doctor said they ought
to have been dead ten years. Every day
of their existence was defiance OF the
laws of anatomy and physiology, but they
had this supernatural vivacity of the Igos
pei in their soul, and that kept them alive.
Put ten or twelve Christian people in
a room for Christian conversation, and
you will from eight to ten O'Clock, hear
more resounding glee, see more bright
strokes of wit and find more thought and
profound satisfaction than in any merely
worldly party. Now. when | say worldly
party" / mean tnat to which you are in
vited because under all the circum-
stances of the case it is better that you
go, and, leaving the shawls on the second
floor, you go to the parlor to give formal
salutation to the host and the hostess
and then move around. spending, the
whole evening in the discussion of the
weather and in apology for treading on
long trains and in effort to keep the
corners of the mouth up to the sign of
pleasure and going around with an idiotic
he-he about nothing until the collation. is
served anu tnen, diIer Ine collatiou III
served, going back again into the parlor
to resume the weather and then at the
close going at very late hour to the host
| and hostess and assuring them that you
have had a most delightful evening and
then passing down off the front steps, the
slam of the door the only satisfaction of
the evening.
o young man come from the country to,
! spend your days in city life, where aDS
you going to spend your evenings? Let
me tell you, while there are many places
of innocent worldly amusement, it is most
| wise for you to throw your body, mind
and soul into Christian society. Come to
me at the close of five years and tell me
what has been the result of this advice.
Bring with you the young man who re-
fused to take the advice, and who went
into sinful amusement He will come dis
sipated, shabby in apparel, indisposed to
look any one in the eyes, moral character
eighty-five per cent. off. You will come
with principle settled, countenance frank,
habits good, soul saved, and all the in
habitants of heaven, from the lowest
angel up to the archangel and clear past
him to the Lord God Almighty, your CO.
/, adjutors.
This is not the advice of misanthrope
There is no man in the house to whom
| the world is brighter than il is to me- It