The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-16

day"
 Here is the fact of this mask, wha
 is the meaning of this riddle, the sou
 O fthis changing phantasmagoria?
 To what can we attach ourselves te
 escape from that horrible rust that de stroys the most brilliant metal?
 That is what we cannot be told
 either by vulgar livers, who empty tho
 contents of life as one empties a bot
 tie, nor by the herd of creatures of rou'
 tine, who hurry onward toward tho
 grave, mechanically. slowly despoileo
 of all that they have received. Thal
 Is what we cannot even be told by
 clever men who venerate In every mar
 an intangible and more and more lu-
 minous nucleus; eor. oh the pity oi
 it. in many amongst us, the inward
 man perishes, even while the outward
 man continues to exist. All these peo-
 pie. after all. see nothing more in life
 than just life itself, whether high or
 low, earthly or sublim-. And their
 only object is to retain that life. They
 are preservers of themselves, Of their
 goods, of their gifts, of what they pos
 sess, and of what they have received
 Their efforts are in vain, in fact Of that universal necessity of leaving all be- hind us. There is no exception to that law: everything is required of us back
 
 to keep anything. And. according to the great and profound words Of Christ, which resume the sorrowful enigma of life. "Whosoever wishes to save his life shall lose it." We, there- fore, must ask counsel elsewhere than of those who wish to retain every thing whose riches consist of posses sions amassed and owned by them, however spiritual may be those posses sions. The partisans of life for life's sake have only stort-lived sagacity. that is quickly denied by facts. Let us go to the masters of higher life. They can teach us g far-seein. heroic wisdom They will have pity on our wretchedness, and will reveal to us the law that delivers us. instead of that which reduces us to slavery.
 And this is what they say to us: the fundamental error, the capital heresy that troubles humanity to its last foun- dations, is to believe that life is pos session to be retained. and that we must attach ourselves to 1t and love 1t for itself The object lesson that our outward man gives us by perishing shows that life exists for a superior aim than itself. It is a means to an end. not an end in Itself. As long as man looks upon life as a treasure to be guarded as such he VIII remain the tributary of the outward man that perishes and of this world that passes away. He must transposc what per ishes into what endures, not by the jealous presentation of himself, but by tn egift of himself. To wish to pre- serve is to condemn ourselves, to wish to prevent the brook from running, the hour from passing. the flowers from falling To offer ourselves up, to give ourselves, to use and to devote our selves, is to save our life by accom- plishing it's aim. The inward man IS the centre that binds us to God: 1t Is our place marked out in the eternal plan and the supreme will. The in- ward man Is renewed by all actions and circumstances wherein we carry out the Divine intentions toward us.
 Like all births, its advent Is attend ed by pain It is demonstrated by and a tearing apart. If you do not become a new creature, you re- main in the outward man that perish eth. Your hope is in what you possess and what you must fnfallibly lose. IT yo ugive yourselves up and renounce the falacious hope fprsserving your selves, and If you take the great decl- sion of offering yourselves up, you cross the abyss. To all of us, captives of the short-lived science that consists
  science that St. Paul endeavors to re- veal to us. This science is symbolized in the cross. The cross proclaims the law of higher life. It is painful law, but a law of freedom, In words or infinite variety all those who have learnt that law endeavor to explain 1t to us. Their efforts are necessary. Who tries to learn what they teach? Their efforts are also, for the most part, EhAV, must already have gone through what they are trying to lead us to. So our experience IS ready to oppose theirs. IS reality to utopia. and wisdom to ,olly. And we consider ourselves in he light, with our bankruptcy In the lace of their prosperity.
 Nevertheless, the old human wretch ,dness still cries out in every one of IS, And some who are rendered des- pairing by all that nothingness. and who are saturated by that vanity, hirst for that which endures. These .re the disciples who are required by I he masters of the higher life, on the | condition that their thirst should not | ,nly be caused by desire, but also by | Iecision. To carry to our lips the wa CT that assuages our thirst for all | ime we must be ready to pay its price, | md to no longer believe in broken 1 ,essels Irresolute hearts and weak | wills never apply a heroic remedy that | hey consider worse than the disease 1 tself Let us listen to these words: | We have the spirit of faith. We look | lot at things visible. but at things | invisible We are pressed upon all | ides, but not reduced; perplexed. but | rot despairing; cast down, but not lost. | We carry always in our body the death | f Jesus, so that the life of Jesus | hould also show itself in us" It ap- | ,ears clearly in these words that the | nner man is not to be confounded with |
 highly cultured mind. with the life | if a soul in full flower. such as we | nay meet, sometimes. even amongst the | uins of our material happiness and | # physical health. St. Paul and all | hose who have gone through the ex- | ,erience of true life know that it de- | ,ends upon no condition. not even up- | m what We usually call the health of | he soul. The believer who sang the | i'd psalm that I love to repeat, in Lu- | hers translation, cried: Whom have |
 in Heaven but Thee? And there is lone other upon earth that l desire | ,eside Thee. My flesh and my heart | aileth, but God is the strength of my | leart and my portion forever" This 1 g an essential point, otherwise we are l ost in those cases where we witness | he moral decay. the intellectual eclipse | f men formerly in possession of fine, | iyIng souls. The resources of faith | must grow in proportion to human | according to the beauti- | ul words, When I am weak. then am |
 strong" and these, also, We have 1