Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-08-06
CHRISTIAN HAPPINESS.

Love suffereth long, and is kind"
|. Cor. xiii, 4.
The roots of love are buried in I'M
seltishness. Nobody can love anybody
or anything until he gets out of him
self. Any other conception of the con-
tents of this immense world is a degra-
dation, and a shaving down, of it's di-
vine meaning. Melodrama in life and
In literature has strung along it rows
of gew-gaws and balls of red fire, and
tinseled 1T with spangles of flashing
little stars that have no legitimate
place in its neighborhood.
The two things from which 1t is re-
hottest at the foundation are often
toolishly poured into it on the surface,
and they are passion and self-interest.
Love is unacquainted with either Of
them. Both of them are conferred in
and draw their nourishment from that
region of our human nature that
knows least and cares least about the
divine altruisms of grace.
Passion is moral sickness When
1t is weak it is the weakness of a
baby. When it is strong 1t is the
strength of the devil. 1t never rises
to any supernatural altitude 1t creeps
and crawls along the lower levels of
our personality and feeds itself on
the hot heaths of the desert. or the
malarial poisons of the swamp.
Passion burns us and greed dries
us because neither of them stretches
its roots down to the depths where
the waters of life are In the attempt
to drive our lives into peace we break
them into pieces. When love comes
there is a new horizon and q new
flush of color, and the light that never
was on sea or land. We die and we
rise again. Old things pass away be-
fore the expulsive power of a new
affection under the blessedly destruct-
i've breath of a new spirit
Then we get hold of the key of life.
Then we are strong. Then we see its
glory glowing around us, and we hear
the choirs of another heaven chant
ing their great TIE Deum over our
souls.
Love is stronger than death, be-
cause 1t Is stronger than life.
Vanity Is sensitive. Il cries before
1t is hurt.
Pride is always ready for clash,
and foams and losses in a cataract of
greed
Envy runs into vice and crime at a
gallop.
What Is 1t that makes man stand
as still as a rock and let storm after
storm of freezing hail pour into his
bosom without bringing a curse to his
lips, and without sending despair into
his soul? What will enable him to
endure uncomplainingly the woes of
isolation, where there is no comrade-
ship for him save the roar of the
storm? What is it that will make him
dumb with the dumbness of a red In |
dian at the stake when calumnies are
piling their fagots about his feet? 1t
Is love, the love that suffers long. that
can live on a crumb of hope, that can
live and grow without hope at all |
that keeps a woman clinging to her
son when she sees him careening down |
toward hell, that ties a child to q ia
Their when that father is beating IT
with blows, and staggering into a
grave, the love that is
nightier than anything that is born
IF man, because it is born of God.
and is clothed, and shielded and ar
nored with the all-prevailing, all-con-
luering power Of God
The victory is given to us through
Christ, and Christ is given to us
through the love OF God, and the love
If God is given to us because God is
ove