The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-04-09

ing up a quiet home, or to give up the
blessings c. home life AMI hang on to the
luxurics and pleasures of their set. Too of
ten; under the spur of social competition,
It is the latter. course that is followed
Home life is deliberately. yes and crimin.
ally. sacrificed for social life, and social life
so chosen, becomes the vestihule through
which many a young husband passes into
the prison house of debt. Unconscousy
often. such man enters I. race with his
fashionable associates, and they, not hiq
own personal comforts. create his standard
of living. He must dress as well as they:
he must entertain as lavishly as they: he
must keen up the same pace as they. And
meanwhile these associates of his are com
netting with another set Just little higher
in the social SCALE until society becomes Y
vulgar. teverish competition. in which
every bid for notoriety is panpered. and
every fine feeling is sacrificed. One has but
to read the so-called society columns of any
daily newspaper to witness the disgusting
spectacle. of this competitive snirit in tho
struggle for social supremacy. What place
under such condt tions. is there for "plain
living and high thinking"
a third cause FOR the elaboration Of tho
material side Of life in our time is the TN.
due craving for pleasure. The emphatic
words arc undue craving. / am not advo
eating = sour puritanism or crabbed asceti
cld.n. Pleasure has. of course. its essen tial
place IN the scheme of right living. and 20
deny that place creates a reaction which
however ruinous. IL inevitable. But in our
time pleasure has become a tyranny. Its
despotism has invaded every day OF tho
week. 1t has no respect for time or sea.
sons. 1t appeals to every passion Of the
soul. and by veiled suggestions it desecra tes
the holest emotions of lie. New Norl; be
comes every evening vast Vanity Fair
where irrational and too often degraded
pleasure lures men and women hv the thou
sand to its. gilded shrine. and before thai
shrine high thinking and plain living arc
nightly inundated.
These are some of the things which stand
in the way of the simple life here in New
York. What are some of the peris which
must inevitably result?
This lie of Injury and evtravsaancc in.
tensifes class distinction. The poor man,
unable to share in these wanton cxtrava.
gances, chafes beneath the restrictions and
hatred OF his pampered beiters bites at the
ropes Of separation. In Europe. where q
certain hereditary distinction between tho
rich and the poor, is recognized, this class
bitterness is not so keen, but in n republic
like ours. where every man feels himself az
good as another, these ostentatious displays
of luxurious extravaganza become hotbed
of discomfort in which anarchy and con-.
munlsh ferment. Some years ago a friend
OF minc, was driving past one of the heauti.
full old homes in rural England. standing in
its stately park. He asked the driver who
lived there. 'Oh." said the man. I'VE used
TO have lots Of aristocratic company there.
They had plenty of money and they spent
it freely. We poor folks were well off
then. But. now the place belongs to
woman. and she is n Methodist, and every.
thing is going to the bad" So spoke the
countryman, and from his little view this
loss of luxury and extravaganza was all
wrong. even for the poor man. But mean.
while there was another side TO the picture.
That estate also included a large tenement
district in one of the worst portions of
London. In wretched novels surrounded
by saloons and low resorts the miserable
people paid their rents. eXorbitant for such
quarters, and these rents supplied the
funds for the luxury and extravaganza of
the former owner. But now what has hap.
pened? The lady who owns the estate to-
day is using her revenues, not for her own
luxury, but in bettering these homes. in
driving out these saloons, and in creating
q new spirit of respect and love between
her and her tenants. a few country yoli.
els get less to spend fer drink. but great
city population has more real Joy of living.
and the better class distinction between
wealth and poverty is at an end.
A second penalty that we must pay for
our extravagant modes of life is that they
create unnatural appetites. The essence OF
an unnatural appetite is that it demands a
constant stimulus. IT needs to he pamp-
cred by new sensations, and in the effort
to satisfy this false and unnatural appetite,
we are inventing forms of amusement so
foolish that even pagan Rome might eX-
claim with wonder, behold how these
Christians amuse themselves" Under such
conditions. who cares for the simple mamma
of the wilderness. even though it come
down from God. if he can fill himself with
thu, fesh'pots OF Egypt; even though he
make himself slave to do so?
Once more, one other penalty must bo
paid, and that is the heaviest OF all. This
mode of life is absolutely at variance with
the spirit of the teaching of Jesus Christ.
1t Is pagan, not Christian: it is barbaric,
not civilized. No man who is honest in
his effort to follow in the footstens of Jesus
Christ can live a life whose only thought
ls to satisfy the merely sensuous desires.
What is the one dominant note in the ey-
ample of Him who when He walked this
earth had not where to lay His head. but
this. that we should live simply. that we
should deny ourselves daily, taking no
thought of what we shall eat or what we
shall drink or wherewithal we shall he
clothed, for our heavenly Father knoweth.
The way of the cross js the way OF simple
life: not the way of self-indulgence and vnl.
gar extravaganza, hut the wav which He
walked with bleeding feet is the path
along which we alone can find the JOY OF
plain living and high thinking.
For some OF us this secret OF the simple
life cannot be learned. We have dwelt too
long in, the cellar of our appetites. and the
reek of the kitchen is in our brains. We
must die as we have lived, in the tyranny
Of those tastes which our surroundings
have stimulated. For such of us. plain liv.
ing and high thinking are both alike impos.
sible. But there are our children. Please
God we need not, unless our imbecilitv
has become epidemic, condemn our off.
spring to this nightmare of extravagance
which has so shriveled our own intelligence.
We can at least ask Gods grace to help US
to train the new generations in
THAT homely beauty Of the good old cause,
in simple innocence
And pure religion, breathing household
laws"
kor them at least we can make the beauty
Of the simple life no poets dream, but
divine evangel for the generation yet to
come.
forgiveness.