Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1907-07-05

/ tion Of some standard Of living and
the duly advertised attainment thereto
Is 1t even the secret, modest effort OF
conformity to a fixed code or rule of
daily living the doing of certain
things in certain ways at certain times?
Is the virtuous life the one that fol-
lows precisely the prescribed rules and
schedules Of conduct?
The last is the notion most generally
entertained. Yet how fallacious 1t Is.
1t Is the secret Of priggishness; the
standard attained, We have the sin OF
self-satisfactiOn. 1t converts the man
into a blind machine; your mechanical
moralist Is no more virtuous than any
other machine. He lacks life and free
dom Of choice. Virtue is, first Of all,
vital; 1t cannot be found with the eyes
shut nor with the will atrophied.
Virtue is strength; 1t is moral and
spiritual health. 1t is not In doing or
leaving undone; 1t Is not in feeling
either good or bad; it is not in senti-
ments or doctrines, either false or true.
1t is that perfect ordering, adjusting,
and out1owing Of the whole inner life
which In Its more material and evil
dent aspects we call health and
strength. The doing, feeling and think
Ing flow from this right inner, deter
minating tone.
The morally healthy man will love
the things that are good and pure; he
will loathe the base and defiling. Only
a depraved appetite turns to the garb-
age can when there Is we'll spread
table waiting. Did we but understand
1t we would despise and fear still more
that vicious inner appetite that turns
the whole life toward things corrupt
and rotten when there awaits on every
hand In this fair world 80 much that is
beautiful and wholesome.
Have you ever thought how largely
health and strength depend on tastes
and appetites? Who can be healthy
with perverted craving to which he
yields7 Such tastes depend on train
ing and cultivation. So it is with vir-
tue; strength Of the soul, health of the
heart lies on the road Of the choice of
things that are best Is acquired by
the deliberate and constant choosing of
things that are right, pure, elevating.
Virtue, then, rests ON faith, not blind
belief In certain dogmatic statements,
but the upward look, the noble aspira-
ion, the hlgh-mindedness that lifts up
the heart. 1t takes this spirit, this
faith, this confidence in things unseen
to enable us to choose the best to cul-
tivate the taste for the true food Of
life. Otherwise the heart that was
meant to feed on the invisible bread
snatches the evident husks of earth
and 1t dies.
There Is no virtue without this faith
In high ideals, in things not seen. A
man may be just, he may be honest
and upright for policy, because it pays,
but he cannot find virtue as matter
Of policy. 1t is not in the market to
be bought. 1t is acquired only as we
set the heart on character, as we learn
to love the good and true for its own
sake.
This healthfulness Of soul comes also
through struggle. Vice is made to
Uirtuo trix =
Using moral muscles, we find and hard
en- them. He who fees temptation,
who shrinks from the soul searching
crises Of life, misses the best that life
has to give. In the gymnasium Of
temptation and trials the full strength
Of character Is won. That does not
mean that one must seek out vice; 1t
means we must meet every foe to his
face.
Count him virtuous whose face Is set
toward the light; who lives on a grade
that leads up; who Is strong to serve
his fellows, to make better world, to
face and fight all things that spoil and
mar; who lives not for meat or money,
but for manhood, for truth and beauty.
For virtue is that habit of the soul,
that health that comes from steadily
seeking things good and true, that
strength that comes from struggle and
service; 1t Is the inner life victorious
over the outer temptation.
Short Meter Sermons.
Kindness Is q seed that never finds