Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1903-04-09
NO.. 2.

willow"
But nevertheless the fact remains that IN
this foolish craving for things which are
both costly and superfuous lies one fertile
cause of the low-toned intellectual life OF
our time. Our passion for luxury is
mighty barrier in the way of "plain living
and high thinking"
A second cause of this elaboration of life
in our time is the spirit OF social compete
ton. Glass vies with class for social su.
premacy. There is vulgar ambition every
where to Ego one better" in the matter OF
functions and entertainments Take, for
instance, the case Of a young married
couple in good society, who have certain
limited income. One or two courses; is open
travagance and devote themselves to build.
ing up quiet home. or to give up the
blessings C home life AMI hang on to the
luxuries and pleasures of their set. Too Of
ten. under the spur Of social composition,
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 vestibule through
which many a young husband passes into
the prison house of debt. Unconsciously
often, such a man enters IL race with his
fashionable associates, and they, not his
own personal comforts, create his standard
of living. He must dress as well as they;
he must entertain as lavishly as they; he
must keep uD 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
vulgar. feverish competition, In which
every bid for notorietv is Dampered, and
every fine feeling is sacrificed. One has but
to read the so-called society columns OF any
daily newspaper to witness the disgusting
apoot,o1o Of This rpmpntitIVp spIrIt tho
struggle for social supremacy. What place,
under such conditions, i there for plain
living and high thinking
A third cause for the elaboration of the
material side OF life in our time is the un'
due craving for pleasure. The emphatic
words are undue craving I am not advo.
eating a sour puritanism or grabbed asceti..
i'm. Pleasure has. of course. its cssentiW
place in the scheme of right living. and TO
deny that place creates reaction which,
however runous. j. inevitable. But in our
time pleasure has become tyranny. It's
desnotism has invaded every day of thu
week. 1t has no respect for time or sea-
sons. II appeals to every passion of the
soul. and by veiled suggestions it dPsecrateS
the holiest emotions OF life. New York he'
comes every evening vast Vanity Fair,
where irrational and too often degraded
pie, sure lures men and Women by the thou
sand to its gilded shrnr. and before that
shrine "high thinking and plain living" ara
nightly immolated.
These are some on the things which stand
in the wav OF the simple life here in New
York. What are some of the pcri.s which
must inevitably result?
This life of luxury and extravaganza in
tensiies class distinction. The poor man,
unable to share in these wanton eXtrava.
gances chafes beneath the restrictions. and
hatred of his pampered betters bites at the
ropes of separation. in Eurone, where a
certain hereditary distinction between the
rich and the poor is recognized, this class
bitterness is not so keen, but IN a republic
like ours where every man feels himself as
good as another, these 0stentatlous displays
of luxurious eXtravagauce become hotbed
of discomfort in which anarchy and com.
munish 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." sad the man, eve used
TO have lots Of aristocratic company there.
They had plenty of money and they spent
it freely. We poor folks were well of
then. But now the place belongs to n
woman and she is Methodist, and every
thing is going to the bad" So spoke Tho
countrvman, and from his little view thi,
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 large tenement
district in one of the worst portions oi
London. In wretched novels surrounded
by saloons and low resorts the miserable
people paid their rents, eXorbtant 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 lettering these homes. in
driving out these saloons, and in creating
a new spirit of respect and love between
her ard her tenants. A few country yol
els get less to snend for drink; but a great
city population has more real Joy of living,
and the hetter class distinction between
wealth and poverty is at an end.
A second penalty that we. must, pay ,fot
our extravagant modes of life is that they
create unnatural apDetites. The essence OF
an unnatural appetite is that it demands
constant stimulus Vt needs TO be pamp,
cred hy new sensations. and in the effort
to satisfy this false and unnatural appetite,
we are inventing forms of amusement 50
foolish that even pagan Rome might ex'
claim with wonder, "Beho'd how these
Christians amusq themselves Under such
conditions. who cares for the simple mama
OF inc WliuernesS. even llough H. co.na
down from God if he can gil himself with
the hesh.pots of Egypt, even though ho
make himself Save to do so?
Once more, one other penalty must he
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 Jesu9
Christ can live life whose only thought
is to satisfy the merely sensuous desires
anne 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 ba
clothed, for our heavenly Father knoweth.
The way Of the cross is the way of simple
life; not the way Of self-indulgence and vml
gar extravagance, but the wav which He
along which we alone can find the JOY oil
plain living and high thinking.
\, For some of us this secret of the simple
life cannot be learned. We have dwclt toe
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 liT'
ing and high thinking are both alike impos
sibe. But there are our children. Please
God we need not, unless our imbecility
has become epidemic, condemn our off
spring to this nightmare Of extravaganza
which has so shrveed ouc own intelligence,
We can at least ask Gods grace to help IN
to train the new generations in
"That hoihely beauty of the good old cause,
n in simple innocence
And pure religion, breathing household
laws"
FOR them at least we can make the beauty
of the simple life no poets dream, but q
divine evangel for the generation yet to
come.