The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-06-15

and to settle down to- ain inactivity
and ease that must surely end in
death,-this would seem to be man e
unceasing hope. From that which
after all we admire most and yield
unstinted praise and sincerest wor-
ship, viz, high accomplishment and
noble deed and daring, we shrink.
A noble writer and philosopher Of
human life in its relationship to God
declares: "He keeps us ever on the
march; we pace the green sod. by
the way with many sigh for rest.
tie throws us on rugged universe:
and our first care is to make it
smooth. His resolve is to demand
from us, without ceasing q living
power, a force fresh from the spirit
he has given; ours, to get into such
settled ways, that life may almost
go Of itself, without scarce the trou-
BILE Of winding up" Every way he
urges our reluctant will. He grows
the thistle and the thorn and leaves
lis to raise the olive and the corn.
He besets mans lot with the thicket
of temptations and bids him pass
firmly through, though with torn
and bleeding feet, but with courage,
conscience guide divine. And we
know that God is right, my friends.
In our inmost hearts we are on his
side. 1t is a wretched life that has
no calling to pursue; we could not
to him who refuses to sit still when
labor calls and waste himself in mur-
muring and vain regret, and knows
that duty is not an evil; who lays
a reverent hand on his daily tasks,
who rises with loving heart to meet
them as they come, however thick
and fast, and invites them as his
friendly guests, not his enemies. The
swift, deep current Of your life will
flow unceasing and unruffled, if you
will only seek to stem it's strong
flood tide and cast yourself full
swing into its blessed toll and sing
full-voiced as you shall be swept for
ward and mingle at last in the great
ocean of life, with God and Heaven
overhead and the boundless reaches
of eternity around.
But we must remember there is no
moral evil to be overcome in our
appointed labors. Human life is not
cursed. The curse of God rests upon
violation Of life; the brand is fixed
on resistance to life. The real battle
where we must fight is internal and
invisible. 1t is not thrust upon us
from without; it is not with flesh
and blood but with the viewless spir.
its that cling to us in the dark. "Tc
enslave the gross appetites and bint
them to proper service; to SCOTT
all avarice and greed; to change am
bilious hearts and turn its eye tt
the glory of Christian s holiness; t.
lash fierce passions to the yoke o.
reason and Of right; to whip the slug
gish will to quicker toll; to charm
the dull affections into sweeter moot
and rouse pity from it's sleep-thi
is the field on which the good soldie,
Of Jesus Christ is to slay the gian
as they rise and to win his wa,
through and eat of the tree of lif,
in the Paradise of God.
If there be today any danger t.
our faith, any peril for the recor,
Of Gods will once delivered to th
saints, believe me, it will not aris
from the vain reposing Of those VIII
seek in lordly fashion to prove it
myth and superstition, who sneer a
what we call miraculous and who, i
they persuade us to give up belief il
miracles, WILL tell you, lead us al
so to deny a God, and leave us in tn
deep pit'of Atheism and of death.
We will not call in question tn
motives Of the honest doubter or tn
learned critic, but disaster to tn
spiritual life sets in when any mai
declines the battle with sin and ieer
at the call to combat and says Their
is no foe to defy and to overcome.
We may, if need be, surrende
much Of what we call creed and dog
ma and be none the worse, but tn,
sources Of all moral faith will. 500,
dry up from the roots of him VIII,
wages no warfare with the devil
who self-blinded argues there is n,
devil and is content to let the powe
Of evil drain off all the sap Of hi
moral earnestness.
He is not only q sceptie but q t.rif