Year: 1861




are invited to dinner. IfbOstile interest,
are to be harmonized, and clashing measure:
compromised, rand divergent forces brought
into paralelsm, all must be effected by
means OF dinner. A good dinner produ
ces good mood,--at least, it produces an
impressibe mood. The will relaxcs won.
derfully under the influence of iced cham.
pane, and canvas.backs are remarkable soft.
ncr5 of perindice. The daughter of Herod-
las took Herod at great disadvantage
when she came in and danced before him
and his friends at his birth day supper. and
secured the head of John the Baptist. No
one, presume, believes that if she had un.
dertaken to dance before him when he
was hungery she would have had the offer
OF gut equal to the half of his kingdom
IL Is more than likely that, under any 9th.
er circumstances, she would have been told
10 S't down and show less 1t is by means
OF iood aud drink, and various entertain.
ments of the senses, that moods are monn.
factured, and used as media of approach TO
the wills which it is desirable to bend or
direct.


hold moods to be very poor tests eff
character, Having cut through the crust of
most forbidding mood, produced by bod
NY derangmeut or constant and pressing la.
Dor of the brain, l have often found heart
full of all the sweetest and richest fruits of
humanity. | have found, too, some natures
know the door that leads through tho moods
of other natures. There are men who never
present their moody side 10 ME. My neigh.
Dor enters their presence and finds them Sc.
we're in aspect, hard in feeling, and ahrupt
in speech l go in Immediately after, and
open the door right through that mood into
the genial good heart that sits behind it, and
the door always flies open when come.
know men whose mood is usually exceed
ingIy pleasant. There is a glow of health
upon their faces. Their words are musical
to women and children. They are cheerful
and clipper aud sunshiny, and not easily
moved to anger and yet know them to
be liars and full of selfSeness Under their
sweet mood, which sound health and a not
over'sensative conscience aud the satlsfac.
tons OF sense engender they conceal hearts
mat are as false and foul as any that illus.
trate the reign of sin in human nature. Ma
ny christian has times of feeling that God
is ID special manner smiling upon him,
and communing with him, and filing him
with peace and JOY that only flow from
heavenly fountains, when the truth is that
he is only in good mood He is well and
all the machinery of his mind aud body is
playing harmoniously, and of course he feels
well, and that is all there is about it. He
is not better christian than he was when
he slipped into the mood, and no better than
he will be when he slips out OF it, If lie
really be good Christian, his moods oper-
ate like clouds and blue sky. The sun
shines at all times, and the cloudy moods
only hide it they do not extinguiSh it.


There are many sad cases of insanity of a
religious character which originate in moods.
A man, through period of health, has o
bright and cheerful religious experience.
The world looks pleasant to him, the heav
ems, smile kindly upon him, and the Divine
Spirit witnesses with his own that he is at
peace aud iu harmony with God. Joy
thrills him as he greets the morning light,
and peace nestles upon his heart as he lies
down to his nightly rest He feels in his
soul the influx of spiritual life from the
Great Source of all life, as he opens it in
worship and in prayer. But at length
there comes change. A strange sadness
creeps into the heart. The sky that was
once so bright has become dark. The
prayer that once rose as easily as incense
upon the still morning cir, straight toward
heaven, will not rise at all, but settle like
smoke upon him, and fill his eyes with tears.
Something seems TO have come between
him and his God. Strange, accusing vol
ces are heard within him. However deep
the agony that moves him, he cannot rend
the cloud that imposes between him and bis
Maker. This now, is simply mood pro-
duced by illhealth aud hope that every
body who reads this will remember it.
Remember that God never charges, that
mans moods are constantly changing. and
that when man earnestly seeks for spirit
uaI peace aud cannot find it, and thinks
that he has committed the unpardonable
sin without knowing it, he is bilious, and
needs medical treatment. Alas what mul-
titudes of sad souls have walked ont of this
! hopeless mood into a lifelong insanity
when all they needed in the first place per.
haps was IA dose of blue pills, or half
dozen strings of tenpins, or sea voyage
sufficiently rough for practical purposes


This subject | 6nd TO be abundantly pro-
life. and see that have been able to do
hardly more than to hint at its more promi.
nent aspects. 1t seems TO me that moods
only need be studied more, and TO be bet.
ter understood, to bring them very much
under the dominion of our wills. A great
deal is learned when we know what mood
| is, and know that we are subject to varying
frames of mind, resulting from causes which
affect our health. If / know that | am i'm.
patient and cross because lam hungry, then
know how to get rid of my mood, and
how to manage it until do get rid of it.
! If feel unable to labor, not because am
feeble, but because l am not in the mood
then / have the mood in my hand to be
dealt with intelligently. II my reason tell
me that it is only mood that hides from
me the face of my Maker, my reason will
also tell me that my first business is to get
rid of my mood, and that my will must ap
proach the work, directly or indirectly
We are always and necessarily in some
mood of miud-in some condition of passion
or feeling, 1t is the intensifcation and the
dominant influence Of moods that are TO be
guarded against or destroyed Moods are
dangerous only when they obscure reason,