The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-05-27
Some time ago went to call at house


God which l am entirely sure it was worth
their while to hear And. having failed
repeatedly to find them in, took mother
into nv confidence and spoke of my. diff.
Guilty. "Yes," she said. "they are so full OF
engagements outside of work hours that
they seem to have no time to think OF any
thing else but pleasure. 1t is continuous
round, and while they are at home they are
so utterly tired out that they resi-.
fit? But what ia the unshot Of it? Why;
this. while life slips rapidly away God and
eternal relations are wholly crowded out.
The young man subsists unon two dlets-a
diet of hard work and diet of hard play.
And the motive in the work i5 to get the
means to play. while the motive in recrea-
tior is often chiefly to get the health with
which to work and earn. But what sci,
fish circle that describes! How narrow and
prizes only his capacity to labor and his ap;;
petite for play! Who So lightly values all
those diviner elements of his being as to be
willing to make no provision for their eul-
tuTe! "Lovers of pleasure rather than loV-
ers of God" 1t is terrible epitaph upon
us. whether living or dead: "They wor-
| SHIPPED and served the creation more than
| the Creator, who is blessed forever. Where.
| fore God gave them up to their own hearts
| lusts." These are words to make US stop
and think. =,
I have often noticed that it is apt to be
| the case that it is precisely those Young
men for whom God has done most who are
autest to break away from Him and live
| the most selfish lives. There are noble ex-
| ceptions to the rule. which shine like bea.
cons, from Moses to Phillips Brooks But
| too often the privileged life Incomes a
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 ard women, we should try to gee
| life in its wholeness. A great many peo.
pie have too little laughter. too little rec.
reation in their lives. They would be
wholesomer minded, freer in snirit. 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
a great deal that God puts within their
reach in His many sided world. But there
are thousands of others who make them:
mere pleasure. They never read. they
never think, they let their minds 20, they
forget that they possess souls. but spend
their seasons in things that give them lit
tie passing physical pleasure-in eating TOR
the sake Of eating, and dress and getting
themselves talked about. in contriving to
have their names in some society organ,
| till these things come to be the absorbing
thirsts of life. What is not sacrificed by
these giddv people on the altar of their
social ambition? Where does not this sci.
ishness. this love of voluptuous pleasure,
this hard determination to force LITE to
yield them bodily comfort. even if Gods
and natures laws must be broken to DO so
| Il ,,otf ,rtt
| And how ready are our leaders OF onin.
ion, sometimes, speaking great swelling
words of vanity and sophistry, to ridicule
whisperings of an ed ucated 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
Measure in it's true place-as the divine
Master did. If you look upon amusement
as the one great satisfaction of life, you
simply invert the intended order, and in
want is the great inner reconciliation::. we
may be diverted, we may for a while es.
caDe 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 tina:
"men called Napoleon the unamusable." ,"
| Talma might play before him but
| 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 to
| each other, "The soul cannot laugh it's
own laugh till God has filled it." In that
relation there are the unfailing wellspringsa
of pleasure. "In Thy presence is fulness Of
10y; at Thy right hand there are pleasures
forever more" "These things have I spo-
ken unto you that My JOY might remain in,
vou 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.
sires of every kind One did not have to
warn Washington against wasting his time,
or Gounod or Beethoven against making
| disrords.
Then we should have a care to retain. as
| far as may be, the freedom, the mobility.
the wholesome interest in the rigbtful
amusements Of others. especially of young
er persons, which will keep us in touch
with them.
If on. diversions and amusements. grow
on the same stem as our religion; If they
are part of one organic unity. there will he
no trouble about their regulation. There
will creep in them no poison of wilful law
breaking. no grimace of an uneasy, con-
science stricken soul trying to escape from
| itself. no waste Of time and faculty, no
hunger for vulgar display. Being in the .se-
cret of God. we shall have entered into the
secret of the child's heart, and live IN SEN
sible relations with every part of Gods
great world.
The lasting pleasures of life are not the
| heeting pleasures of the senses. but those
of the mind. the soul. the snirit, the pleas
ure which comes from cultivated intellect.
| from sound and noble thinking. from re-
fined tastes, from love and sympathy and
service.