The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-05-13

some time ago I went to call at a house
where there were several young men. To
one or two OF them | bore n message from
God which | am entirely sure it was worth
heir while to hear. And, having failed
'epeatedly to find them in. ! took a mother
INTO my confidence and spoke of my d,lii.
,ulty yes" she said. "they are so full OF
engagements outside of work hours that
hey seem to have no time to think of any.
hing. else but pleasure. IL is a continuous
:ound. and while they are at home they arc
10 utterly tired out that they rest"
How many does that simple description
it? But what Is the upshot of it? Why,
ibis, while life slips rapidly away God and
eternal relations are wholly crowded out.
The young man subsists upon two diets "A
tiet OF hard work aud diet OF hard play.
And the motive in the work ia to get tho
means to play. while the motive in recrea
lion is often chiefly to get the health with
which to work and earn. But what a sell
ish circle that describes How narrow and
poor and shallow is the young man who
prizes only his capacity to labor and his ap,
petite for playl Who so lightly values all
those diviner elements of his being as to he
willing to make no provision for their cul
lure! Lovers of pleasure rather than low
ers of God" 1t is a terrible epitaph upon
ds. whether living or dead; They wor'
shipped and served the creation more than
he Creator. who is blessed forever. Where
fore God gave them up to their own hearts
lusts." These are words to make us sto?
and think.
l have often noticed that It is apt to he
the case that il j. precisely those Young
men for whom God has done most who are
aptest to break away from Him and live
the most selfish lives There are noble eN
,eptions to the rule. which shine like bea.
cons, from Moses TO Phillips Brooks. But
too often the privileged life necomcs =
worldly life and does not tell in the king
dom of Righteousness. Generally the love
Of pleasure in some form has in such lives.
likes the weeds in your garden, rooted out
the love and service OF God.
Men and women, we should try to see
life in its wholeness. 4 great many peo.
pie have too little laughter. too little rec,
reation in their lives. They would be
wholesomer minded, freer in spirit. if they
could get oftener out of their dark pas
sages and rigid grooves: There are more of
such people than we think. and they miss
reach in His many sided world. But there
are thousands of others who make them
selves imbccile by the head,ong pursuit OF
mere pleasure. They never read they
never think, they let their minds go, they
forget that they possess souls. hut spend
their seasons in things that give them lit
tie passing physical pleasure--in eating for
the sake OF eating, and dress and getting
themselves talked about, in contriving tc
have their names in some society organ,
till these things come to be the absorbing
thrsts of life What is not sacrificed by
these giddv people on the altar of their
social ambition? Where does not this sci
iishness, this love of voluptuous pleasure,
this hard determination to force life &c
yield them bodily comfort. even if Gods
and natures laws must be broken to do so
where does not this spirit lead?
And how ready are our leaders OF opin.
ion, sometimes, speaking great swelling
words of vanity and sophistry, to ridicule
whisperings OF an educated and reverent
conscience and to revise for the softer age
the statutes of nature and OF God!
Now these are some of the phenomena.
What is the remedy? First, this Put
pleasure in its true place-as the divine
Master did II you look upon amusement
as the one great satisfaction OF life, you
simply invert the intended order, and in
the end are not satisfied. Our deepest
want is the great inner reconciliation. We
may be diverted, we may for a while es'
cape from ourselves, but we shall never be
satisfied until the soul is at one with God.
A brilliant writer, the author of "Our.
selves and the Universe" reminds us that
men called Napoleon the unamusable.''
lama WlRnU play before MIN Dut
the conqueror extracted no gayety from
the performance. That is the nemesis OF
self When, on the contrary, the soul has
found its true life. the simplest things will
serve. a man then learns the hearts
laugh"
To make men happy, my friends, we
must not first feed them with pleasures Of
the senses. The primal condition OF hap.
piness is that they be true to God and tc
oil hn
own laugh till God has filed it, In that
relation there are the unfaling wellsprings
Of pleasure. I'm Thy presence is fulness OF
loy at Thy right hand there are pleasures
forever more" These things have | spo.
ken unto you That Ny JOY might remain in
You and that your JOY. might be full
When we know that satisfaction of dwell.
ing in God and having God dwell in us, we
have security against inordinatc lower de.
sres of every kind. One did not have &c
warn Washington against wasting his time,
or Gounod or Beethoven against making
discords.
Then we should have care to retain. "a
far as may be, the freedom, the mobility
the wholesome interest in the rightful
amusements OF others. especially of Young.
or persons, which will keep us in touch
with them.
Ii ouc diversions and amusements grow
on the same stem as our religion; if they
are part OF one organic unity, there will be
no trouble about their regulation. There
will creep in them no poison of wlfu law
breaking, no grimace of an uneasy, con.
science stricken soul trying to escape from
itself, no waste of time and faculty, nc
hunger for vulgar display. Being in the Sc
cret of God, we shall have entered into the
secret of the child's heart, and live in sen
sibie relations with every part OF Gods
great world.
The lasting pleasures of life are not the
lleeting Pleasures of the senses, but those
Of the mind, the soul, the spirit. the pleas
are which comes from a cultivated intellect
from sound and noble thinkn-, from re
fined tastes, from love and sympathy and
service.
Gross Words.
Not only peasant things, but sad oncs