The Penn's Grove record., 1903-10-23

II 05oAAA III III 1--WE VI Z NEk 4DAl DLCa6-
ure, satisfy your desire in illicit ways, in
defiance or in neglect of the divine order
OF life, 1t simply means paradise lost. You
turn yourself out of the best by so doing.
Loyalty to goodness is the way OF blessed
ness. There is no happiness ike 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 .has OVER
cometh L will give to eat of the hidden
mamma" In the winning struggle you find
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
c-ommunions with unseen covers enrich
its inner solitudes, and the man gets by.
and by to understand what Paul meant
when he spoke of being strengthened
with might in the inner man" The truly
earnest man who perseyeres in the life of
the good is constantly surprised at the re-
serve OF power upon which he draws. Red
seas which looked as if they meant certain
death haze been safely crossed, and the
song OF triumph rang up to God on the
other side.
Difficulties which seemed insurmountable
have been successfully overcome This is
why. the man says: Hitherto hath the
L|O40 AS1RCQ luC. 4lE Cd4RlOL UNNECESSARILY
himself by himself, and so he builds an
alter to a higher power. In ife's victories
we discover Hfe'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 viii be life's susten-
ance; it is the conqueror who finds the'
mamma. In a sense, everything is hidden
from US, and all growth is a discovery. IT.
is SO IN the intellectual sphere. You dis
cover treasures as you conquer difficulties.
You must conquer the alphabet and thei
spelling book to discover the sentenee;l
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 a book that isl
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 superfcialty sufi-
GENTLY, so the mama there remains hid
den.
The same is true in the moral and spir-
ltual sphere. There are people who are
quite incapable of understanding the high
est kind of affection and the hottest
kind of love because they have not them
selves overcome the vulgarity and coarse
ness of human natures 10 7er levels. All
noble souls have "meat to eat which the
world knows not Of" they nave affec-
tions which the world would always dilute
with base ingredients, and aspirations
winch 1T would always tarnish with the
stains of earth. Be sure of it., your discov-
cry of LIES best things will depend upon
your conquest of its worst, and with every
victory you shall cat 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 the loftier reaches and
the more earnest ~endeayors. What does
life yield to the victor? Here is one Of the
finest of the promises: 81 will give him the
morning star" What is this gift of the
morning star? 1t is the feeling that life is
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. It is the
power to be oneself a 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 its
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 earthiiness then they
grow common-you are in the world as
man makes it; the world which even dark
ems the sky with its own pollution. No
| sight is more sad anywhere than that of a
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 fat and stale, and the very
capacity for pleasure dies out of him. For
such a man there is only one way to make
the world young again. /. 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 a lire in death
these things are to many like the emery
ence from a 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 indelieacy, IL
you turn to face the moral ideal and pend
your energy in moral endeavor, live to
fight sin in the strength OF God, you will
yet find that the dizziness, the dead weight,
the ~insipidity. the staleness, will go of,
and you will find One standing by you IN
the fight, saying. 81 viii give thee the
morning star" IF iniquity be in thine
hand put it far away and let not wicked
ness dwell in thy tabernaeles. For then
shalt thou lift up thy face without spot.
Thine age shall arise above the MONDAY,
thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the
morning" Dob kid. clean, fresh and full
L of nraunIsp 0nan AGAIN And the wnrtd
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
shall announce Gods day and thou shalt
be steadfast and shalt not fear
Again, what does the moral victor hnd2
1t is promised that Christ will write upon
him Gods name and the name of Gods
city. and his cwn new name. In our Ian
guage this means that life yields the victor
the consciousness that he really belongs
to God: that he belongs to the new So
ciety: that he belongs to Christ. In other
words, the spiritual universe owns him,
and he knows himself as a vital part of it.
even as a pillar in the temple of God, an
upholder of the sacred things of life: one
of those who have a real permanent life in
the sanctuary, among the sanctitles OF
God-yea, who share the spiritual sover-
eighty of life with God, with Christ and
with all the good: "He shall sit with Me
on Ny throne" etc.
Lay hold on the thought OF God as your
Helper. and believe that if you work with
Him all will be well. / invite you to no
superficial ootimism that has never sound
ed the depths of life's woe. nor seen into
the hearts of its tragedy. There is no pow
or and no healing in that. 1 heard it once
given out from a Christian platform. It
denounced ~gloominess of every kind: it
slashed the pessimists in every direction;
it declared that all things were going on
exceedingly well; even the slums were not
so bad as some made out, and the war in
South Africa-well, it would come to an
end some time.
So much Of this was dealt out that / felt
that such optimism was the shallowest of
lies. and that to ventilate it in the name
Of Christianity was to forget the tragedy
Of Gethsemane and to blot out the MEM
orv of the cross. No, no; if you are to be
a serious man, in earnest for the highest
ends ynf life, for yourself and for so
eiety, You have a battle to fight; a hard,
stern battle; a hundred things are wrong
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