The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-03-11

boon!"
Aversive to solitude, and over-enamored
OF society, hard driven b.. materialistic
gain and greed, tearing ahead for prize
that our nervous clutch may crush so soon
as it is once in the hand, we outrun our re-
ligious duty, the claims Of our inner nature
are left away behind, and we go dashing
madly ahead, like q runaway engine, into
spiritual, If not moral, ruin. This, Young
men, is the feversh race you are soon to
enter. Whatever your Discrimination there.
to, you are bound to run it. The one su.
preme question is, will you run it with pa.
thence or, as the great majority are seek
ing to do. impetuousy, wildly. without self
control, and therefore unsuccessfully!
'What is the secret of such patience!"
you ask of me, eagerly, earnestly, in your
upturneG faces? let our author answer,
Looking unto Jesus" is the sole remedy
he suggests. LET us lay aside every
weight and the sin that doth so easily be-
set us, and let us run with patience the
race that is set before lis, looking unto
Jesus, the author and fnisher of our faith,
who, for the JOY that was set before Him,
endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God"
Looking unto Jesus" may mean at least
three things: Looking unto Him as the
final goal; looking unto Him as the one
as a perfect model or pattern. l believe
the author Of this epistle means all this
here
/. Jesus the supreme goal of our lives
our highest purpose, our commanding as
piration out to whom all our energies run
and upon whom all our ambitions and ac'
tivities terminate.
Lord, let me not lie too content,
With life in trfing service spent,
Make M aspire.
When days with petty cares are filled,
Let me with holy thoughts be TIN Tiled,
OF something higher
This must be our constant prayer, ii we
are to run the hurried and hurrying race Of
modern life and preserve our equipoise
through it all; and that something high
er" to which we must aspire is the service
of Christ. Let man Legin to live his life
in devotion to Him. for His sake and unto
His honor, turning all the intensity ana en-
terprise of his strenuous existence toward
that as his goal, and his life will speedily
lose it's feverish heat and grow calm and
steadfast and serene. He Iced not slacken
continue to run and on to it's close he will
remain patient despite his enviroLing con-
ditions. He may make haste to get rich,
to acquire leadership, to attain success, to
exalt Jesus Christ instead of self, if the UNI
seen be his chief aim and aspiration, and
the material but a means thereunto, he
will go through life patient-proof and the
tumuIt and fever of the Agc will never get
into his soul.
For this is peace-te lose the lonely note
Of self in loves celestial-ordered strain;
And this is joy-to find ones self again
In Him whose harmonies forever float
Through all the spheres of song, below,
above,
For God is music. even as Cod is love-"
=. ,LoL or1-
ness men need, this is what our nervous,
self-centered society women need, this Is
the great need of our ambitious and eager
youth, to make Jesus Christ, His glory and
service the SOLDERING absorbing, controlling
ambition of their lives. Is this not the
first great look our author commends to lis
looking unto Jesus, as our supreme pur-
pose? And what is the second!
Second-Looking unto Jesus for power IN
our lives, as our great emanclpator from
the bondage of this materlallstlc age.
"Have you ever thought, my friend,
AS you daily toll and pod
In the noisy paths of men,
How still are the ways Of God?
"1ave you ever paused in the din
OF traffics insistent cry,
To thin. of the calm in the cloud,
Of the peace in your glimpse OF the sky!
eco out in the quiet fields,
That quietly yield You meat
And let them rebulIe your noise,
Whose patience is still and sweet"
Jesus Christ alone can bring the quiet
ness of the fields and the calmness OF the
cloud info our being. 70 Him we turn, as
t, its first great source, would we have the
same atmosphere blowing through our
souls. You know Nine. Guyon's, definition
of prayer: "The silence of a soul absorbed
in God" And Tennyson's, if possible, was
even better prayer is like opening
sluice between the great ocean and our lit
tie channels, when the great sea gathers it.
self together and flows in at full time" Ii
you and | would run with palence, we,
too, must let this tide flow into our lives,
and that can never be until we live in ciose
touch with Jesus Christ, seek His help at
every turn, draw upon Him for our
strength and depend upon His grace for
and Transforming power. Henry
Drummond once said: Five minutes in
the morning alone with Christ will change
for us the whole day" What then would
all the minutes of all the days in union
with Him do for us?
Have you and ! to-day
Stood silent as with Christ, apart from JOY,
or fray
Of life, to see His face;
To look, if but a moment, in its grace,
And grow, by brief companionship, more
true,
More nerved to lead, to dare, to do
For Him at any cost? Have we to-day
Found time, in thought, our hand to lay
In His, and thus compare
His will with ours, and wear
The impress of His wish? Be sure
Such contact will endure
the day; will help us walk !
erect
Through storm and flood; detect
Within the hidden life sins dross, its
stain;
Revive a thought of love for Him again;
Steady the steps which waver; help IT'S see
The footpath meant for you, and me"
Forever true it is that those who run