The Canton times., 1902-05-23


You have heard much of heresy, and
i arr inclined to favor the hereto; but
after all the hereto is wicked per
son. 1 am opposed to heretics. Yet
| I must draw the true line between the
| orthodox and the hereto. The sheep
should be separated from the goats.
And this is the line OF demarcation:
namely: Do yon believe that the visi-
| BILE or the invisible is the realityr
Which do you believe in, brain or mlnd'
soul or body? Do you believe that con-
science is merely "the accrued caution
of foregoing generations" or do you
believe that it is the divine spark from
the altar of God? Listen to the cry
of Carlyle:
HAS the word duty no meaning? Is what
we calrduty no messenger and guide, but
false, earthly fantasm, made up OF desire
and fear or emanations from the galioW
and from DR.. Graham's celestial bed! FOOL
ish word -monger and motive-grnder, tnat
in thy logic-mill hast an earthly mechanism
for the godlike itself, and wouldst fain
grind me out virtue from the husks of pleas
ure-I tell thee Nay! Is the heroic insptra-
tion we call virtue but some bubble OF the
blood bubblng up in the direction others
profit by? What, then. are the terrors OF
conscience to the diseases OF the nver!
Not on mortality, but on cookery, let us
build our stronghold, and there, brandish-
ing our frying pan as censor. let us offer
sweet incense to the devil, and live at ease
upon the good things he has provided for
his elect
Do you believe that love is but re-
finement of feshly desire, or do you
believe that it will live on when all
flesh has perished, that it will live
eternally instinct with Gods own life?
This shall test your orthodoxy. Do
you believe that patriotism, honor,
truth, self-sacrifce and goodness be-
long to the same category as chills
and fever? If you do you are hereto.
Do you believe that woman is beau
tiful beast, or does Wordsworth touch
you when he calls her "a spirit, yet a
woman, too?" To you is the universe
a dense reality, brutally fixed, vulgar
ly undeniable and is God but a theory
by which to explain it; or is God to
you the one truth and all the universe
is expression? BY this I shall know
whether you be heretical or orthodox.
More than this, shall know by this
whether you be living or dead, for the
apostle tells us that they who do mind
the things of the flesh are not alive.
"To be carnally minded is death; but
to be spiritually minded is life and
peace"
She offered him life of idleness and
pleasure, but he answered that he must
die. Then she struck the table with
her clinched fist and let him hear what
she thought of him. $50 you want to
die, that's what You want. That would
not surprise me, if you were alive. Do
you think that you have to lie stiff and
stark with coffin lid nailed down over
you to be dead? Don't you believe
that I stand here and see how dead
you are, Goesta Berling? see that
you have skull for head, and it
seems to me as if the worms were
creeping out of the sockets of your
eyes. Do you not feel that your mouth
is full of dust? Do you not hear how
your bones rattle when you move?
You have drowned yourself in brandy,
Goesta Berling, and you are dead.
Thousand devils!" she said, and
laughed softly to herself. ''It is truer,
what am saying, than myself
thought. Don't you believe, Goesta
Berling, that most of the people in this
world are dead. or half dead?"
The majors wife, of Ekeby, and the |
Apostle Paul spoke the same truth.
There is death in life that is more |
horrid than the death that is simply |
going out from this life. 1t is the |
death where the spirit is stifed by the |
body or by the material things of the
world. Are such dead spirits before |
ME this morning? If there be such,
let me cry out to them in the thunder |
tones of the Son Of God: 81 am the
resurrection and the life. He that be-
lieveth in Me. though he were dead,
yet shall he live again."
The life is more than meat, just az
the body is more than raiment. Do not
forget the invisible realities. Do not |
let the clouds obscure your vision nor
the din of things destroy your hear
ing. Think of the realities. Think Of |
them, parents, as you care for your
children's clothes, and neglect not your
children's lives. You mend their
stockings, but do you repair their
spoiled ideas? You provide food for
their stomachs, but do you provide
food for their craving spirits? You
wish to leave lands and tenements,
things which, ridiculously enough, you
call "real estate" so that they may
be provided for when you die; but do
Won think to leave them honor and |