River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-04-23


are not Kepared. They refuse life,
and then demand that they shall en-
JOY life. They refuse holiness, and
demand that they shall receive the
reward of holiness. They refuse to
let heaven come into them. and de-
mand that God shall take them into
heaven. Their demand resily is that
God shall make no difference between
light and darkness, disease and health,
death and life, anarchy 2nd law, the
cemetery AID the homs the garbaG~
heap and the garden.
The Good Ought to Be Separated
!. from the Bad.
Every home is bu;;t on that idea,
sacred place of putty and peace, sep
aTated from the YIce and turmoil OF
the outside world. 1t is holy-of-
holes, with a veil between it and the
gaze of outsiders. 1t is a fountain
of pure water protected from contain
ination by the laws of every civilized
land. The English adage, "a man S
home is his CASTLE" which he has a
right to defend against all intruders,
is based on equity. To open the home
to the inflow of evil is to destroy it.
Jesus calls heaven "my Fathers
house." Now, will our Father de-
stroy this home by opening it to the
evil of the universe?
FaithfuIness Ought to Be Rewarded
It is not right to reward gifts, but
the Improvement of gifts; not ca
pacity. but the use and development
OF capacity. The parable of the tai
ents teaches that there is no reward
for having talents, but only for in
creasing them. The man with two tai
ents received the same reward as the
man with five, because the improve
ment was the same; and the man with
one talent would have received as
great reward as the man with two if
he had made the same Improvement.
Salvation is altogether Of grace, while
reward is altogether of works. God
gives us life through Christ, but we
must gain the crown of life through
faithfulness.
There Ought to Be Degrees of Reward.
There are no degrees of salvation.
Every man is saved completely or not
saved at ALL Life makes the differ
ence between a corpse and a man,
though in men there are degrees of
life. We go to heaven on the merit
of Jesus Christ, but the measure of
happiness in heaven will depend upon
the faithfulness here which develops
our capacity for joy. Every cup will
be full, but not of the same size" In
| the description of heaven, which we
have in the book of Revelation, the
martyrs who were faithful unto death
have the highest place. Suffering for
| Christ digs in the soul deep chan
nels of capacity through which the
waters of joy forever flow. Enter
! into the joy of thy Lord" is the well
come of Jesus to every one who has
welcomed the Lord of Joy into his
soul and received capacity for the en-
| joyment and employment of heaven.
Ethical Values.
The Biblical doctrine of heaven and
hell has great ethical value. The fact
that sin brings punishment is deter
rent to coarse and selfish natures. 1t
is better for a man criminally inclined
to be kept from crime by fear of the
prison than for him to go on IN
crime.
The hope of heaven makes men bet
ter. Paul said: 81 reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory
that shall be revealed in u.s. If
these sufferings, borne patiently,
make character that will shine
through eternity, / can afford to bear
them, that the glory may be the great
err The patriotic soldier endures the
march, the bivouac, the hunger, the
cold, the wound and the sickness,
cheered by the hope that all this will
end in victory. Even Christ "for the
joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame" Only
ignoble minds have contempt for the
rewards of righteous endurance. One
should do right because it is right.
and refuse to do wrong because it is
wrong; but even so noble motive as
that will be inspired to enthusiasm in
doing right by the consciousness that
right-doing is rewarded by the ap-
prevail of God and lives beyond the
act in the character it makes. There
is heaven in the hope of heaven.
! A traveller in Amsterdam, when he
heard the sweet chimes from the
tower filling the air with melody, said
to himself: 1 would like to see how
that music is made. The next day
at the hour for the chime ringing he
was admitted into the room, where a
musician played upon the chimes, but
in this room he could hear no music,
only the bang, thump and clatter of
the rough keys. The music foated
out upon the city from the tower, but
the thump and bang Of the keys was
necessary to make it. The musician
himself could not hear it. So we
down here may hear only the thump
and bang of the keys. But God and
the angels hear the music in heaven,
and if we are faithful in time, the
harmonies will ring out in eternity.
This gives us good cheer There
may be darkness in the present, but
there is light ahead. We can see
through the tunnel, and therefore do
not fear to enter. Our faces are
toward the east, and we are expecting
the sunrise. However deep the shad.