The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-11-04
ret the very best there is in it. In fact

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turn yourself cut OF the best by so doing
Loyalty to goodness is the way os blessed
ness. There is no Happiness like that
which comes from simple goodness. -,
What does the victor find? lie finds the
unseen reserves from which he may draw
sustenance and power to his own surprise
and that of the world. "To him :La. trer'
cometh will give to eat OF the hidden
mamma" In the winning struggle you lind
the soul sustenance hidden from you be-
fore and still hidden from the world. New
condolences, new assurances, new. faiths
arise in the soul; new visions break upon
it, new voices speak to it and in it; new
communions with unseen covers enrich
its inner soitudes. and the man Gets ty
and by TO understand what Paul meant
when he spoke of being strengthened
with might in the inner man." The truly,
earnest man who persereres in the life OF
the good is constantly surprised at the re:
serve of power upon which he draws. Red
death have been safely crossed, and the
song of triumph rang up to God on the
other side.
Difficulties which seemed insurmountab!e
have been successfully overcome. This is
why the man says: "Hitherto hath the
Lord helped me-" lie cannot understand
himself by himself, and so he builds an
alter to higher power. In life''s victories.
we discover life's forces; in the onward
march we discover the enrichment OF the
way, come to one after another OF the
wells of salvation, hidden from all who do
not march that way. And, remember al.
ways, that the larger our conquest in life,
the more abundant will be life's susten.
ance; it is the conGueror who finds the
mama. In a sense, everything IS hidden
from us, and all growth is discovery. 1t
is so in the intellectual sphere. You dis
cover treasures as you conquer difficulties.
You must conquer the alDhabet and the
spelling book to discover the sentence;
conquer the sentence to discover the para.
graph; conquer every paragraph to know
the treasure of the book. And so all the
way up: Many cannot read book that is
at all difficult. the food there is i; it they
cannot appreciate. Why? because their
conquests are too small; they have not
overcome ignorance and superhcialty suffi.
GENTLY, so the mama there remains hid
den.
The same is true in the moral and spir.
itual sphere. There are people who are
quite incapable of understanding the high.
est kind of affection and the holiest
kind of love because they have not them.
selves overcome the vulgarity and coarse.
ness of human natures To- 'er levels: All
noble souls have meat to eat which the
world knows not Of" they have affec.
tons which the world would always dilute
with, base ingredients, and aspirations
stains of earth. Be sure of it, your discov-
cry of life's best things will depend upon
your conquest of its worst, and with every
victory you shall eat hidden mama and
! be. strengthened for victories yet to be
achieved. The successful struggle con.
stantly discovers supports hidden from
him before, and still hidden from lives
which do not know th, loftier reaches and
the more earnest endeavors. What does
finest of the promises: II will give him tho
morning star" What is this gift of the
morning star? It is the feeling that life ID
sweet and pure, fair and fresh with the
touch of morning. 1t is the feeling that
life is full of promise, that day is coming
on; that the best is yet to be. 1t is the
power to be oneself sweetening, freshen.
ing influence in the world, a living pro.
phecy OF its betterment. Now, friends,
there is nothing like moral purity to keep
the touch OF morning on life; compromise
your morality and it is marvellous how soon
everything is stale. There is an indescrib.
able sweetness in the air of early morning
when the world is as God makes it; when
it is indeed in the process of His remaking
before We light our fires and emit our
smoke and beat up the dust of our noisy,
turbulent life. Something like that sweet
freshness of morning belongs to the soul
that is pure and comes to it always in it's
hour of victory over sin. AS long as your
affections are clean they are fresh; you
never tire of pure feelings or holy loves.
Once they mix with earthliness ther they
grow common-you are in the world as
| -. ba oh lor RI
ems the sky with its own pollution. No
| sight is more sad anywhere than that of
youth setting out in life without moral
determinations to drain the cups of the
worlds pleasures, only to find that one
after another nauseates, everything pals,
the world is fiat and stale, and the very
capacity for pleasure dies out of him. For
such man there is only one way to make
the world young again. Il. e., through the
moral struggle. "The first deep contrition
for sin, the first real daily walk or mid.
night watch with the living God, the first
opening perspective of q life IN death
these things are to many like the emerg:.
ence from dark, chill cave to the food of
warm, Identifying light" o, man. to
whom life is spoiled by moral surrenders,
and all beauty stained by sin, and to whom
all sensation is blunted by indelicaT, il
you turn to face the moral ideal and bend
your energy in moral endeavor, live to
fight sin in the strength Of God, you will
yet find that the dullness, the dead weight,
the insipidity. the staleness, will go off,
and you will find One standing by you IN
the fight. saying. Il will give thee the
morning star" IF iniquity be in thine
hand nut it far away and let not wicked
ness dwell in thy tabernacles. For then
shalt thou lift up thy face without spot,
Thine a;re shall arise above the MONDAY,
thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the
morning" (Job xi:l7). clean, fresh and Tull
of promise once again. And the world
shall come up before you in new aspects:
hope shall take the place of despair and
faith drive out fear, even "the wilderness.
and the solitary place shall be glad and the
desert shall rejoice and blossom as the
rose" The morning star, shall arise on
the soul and on the world. Gods dawn
be steadfast and shalt not fear"
Again, what does the moral victor find!
It is promised that Christ viii write upon
him Gods name and the name of GodI
city, and his own new name. In our Ian
ruage this means that life yields the victor
the consciousness that he really belongi
to God: that he belongs to the new so
ciety: th.t he belongs to Christ. In othel
words, the spiritual universe owns him,
! and he knows himself as vital part of it,
even as a ni)ar in the temple of God, an
unho,der Of the sacred things Of life: one
of those VINO have real permanent life in
the sanctuary. among the sanctities OF
Cod--yea. who share the spiritual sover::
eicnty of life with God with Christ and
with all the good: "He shall sit with Me
on My throne" etc.
Lay nold on the thought Of God as You,
Helper. and believe that if You work with
Him al will he well. I invite you to no
superficial ootimisn, that has never sornd.
cd the depths of lfe's woe. nor seen into