The Penn's Grove record., 1903-05-15

Some time ago | went to call at a house
where there were several young men. To
one or two of them l bore a message from
God which I am entirely sure it was worth
repeatedly to find them in, ] took a mother
into my confidence and spoke of my diff
Guilty. Eyes" she said, "they are so full Of
engagements outside of work hours that
they seem to have no time to hin of any
thing else but pleasure. 1t is a continuous
round, and while they are at home they are
so utterly tired out that they rest"
How many does that simple description
fit? But what is the upshot of it? Why.
this, while life slips rapidly away God and
eternal relations are wholly crowded out.
The young man subsists upon two diets-a
diet of hard work and a diet of hard play.
And the motive in the work is to get the
means to play. while the motive in recrea-
ton is often chiefly to get the health with
which to work and earn. But what a sell
fish circle that describesi How narrow and
poor and shallow is the young man who
prizes only his capacity to labor and his APP
petite for play! Who so lightly values all
those diviner elements of his being as to be
willing to make no provision for their cul-
ture! Lovers of pleasure rather than low
ers of God" 1t is a 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.
/ have often noticed that it is apt to be
the case that it is precisely those young
men for whom God has lone most who are
aptest 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 becomes 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 and women, we should try to see
life in its Wilderness. A 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.
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
selves imbecile by the headlong pursuit Of
mere pleasure. They never read, they
never think, they let their minds go, they
forget that they possess souls, but spend
their seasons in things that give them a lit
tie passing physical pleasure-in eating for
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 giddy people on the altar Of their
| social ambition? Where does not this sell
| fshness, this love of voluptuous pleasure,
this hard determination to force life to
yield them bodily comfort. even if Gods
and natures laws must be broken to do 50
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 plaee-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
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 "0ur-
selves and the Universe" reminds us that
falma might play before MN hlS"
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 viii
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 its
W laugh till God has filed it." In that
relation there are the unfailing wellsprings
of pleasure. "In Thy presence is fulness OF
Joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures
forever more" 'These things have l spo.
ken unto va 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 a security against inordinate lower de-
sires Of every kind. One did not have to
warn Washington against wasting his time,
or Gounod or Beethoven against making
discords.
Then we should have a care to retain. as
far as may be, the freedom, the mobility.
the wholesome interest IN the rightful
amusements of others. especially OF young
er persons, which will keep US In touch
with them.
If our diversions and a~musements grow
on the same stem as our religion; II they
are part of one organic unity. there will be
no trouble about their regulation. There
will creep in them no poison of wilful law
breaking, no griihdce U! an uneasy 80 80
science stricken soul trying to escape from
itself, no waste of time and faculty, no
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
sible relations with every part OF Gods
great world.
The lasting pleasures of life are not the
|, fleeing pleasures of the senses, but those
J of the mind, the soul, the spirit, the pleas
. ure which comes from a cultivated intellect,
from sound and noble thinking, from re.
fined tastes, from love and sympathy and
service.