Year: 1877

Valu0. setting ASIDE these 1ounltobIuAi
joys and sorrows, We find proposed to our
choice eternal bliss, eternal woe. The
option given is q wonderful one, but the
choice which men make 10 miraculous. This
! 10 true from the point Of view of God and
the apgele, therefore true in point of fact {:
that "the su6erings Of this lJe are NOT
so0rthy to be compared toith the joys that are
are not worth one passing thought II they
are to be succeeded by endless suffering.
The strangeness of the option and the
madness of the choice would be extreme,
upon the hypothesis that 1t is heaven's i'm
mutable decree that those who suffer here
shall rejoice hereafter, and that those who
rejoice here ehall suffer hereafter but
this hypothesis is far removed from the
truth. The truth is, that those who con-
sent to suffer hoIe shall rejeice hereafter,
that those who try hard to rejoice here
shall lament hereafter. Whether men are
| resigned to suffering, or are actively en-
gagged in the pursuit of pleasure, all alike,
the Valley of Tears.


So far from truth Is the hypothesis that
"happipess here precedes the woe here
AFTER" that it is even true to say that the
course established by Providence is that
misery here leads to misery hereafter,
and that happiness here leads to happiness
hereafter.


If we read on a tom bstone of F." forty
years of uninterrupted prosperity" we
may shudder to think that Dives has had
his reward, the emily reward he will ever
have, bnt we may be sure at the same time
that his reward was not worth having, and
that his "prosperity" was full of suffering,


if the deep heart within could have been
laid bare to those who wrote the epitaph.
Some poor starving creature may watch
with envious gaze the owner of great
estate as he rolls past in his sumptuous
equipage but it is only the outside which
is so heavenly. Let that poor mans gaze
heart within, and lie may find that it is
sadder and heavier than his own.


Heavy hearts, be it said again, are no
part of the Divine intention of suffering.
Human folly or infirmity is responsible If
suffering entails "heaviness of heart" or in
Christian mourning is very different thing
from melancholy, and the merriment of
worldly minded men is very different
thing from happiness.


Man was created to be happy in eternity
in the assured possession of Supreme Good.
The happiness of eternity is the happiness
of consu minated career. The happiness
to transition state. Most men. do not
understand this great truth. They spend
their lives in seeking for the "philosopher's
stone," which is to turn all earthly things
to gold and make their day dreams into
heaven before the time. In the next life
everything is real, and the joy and woes
admit of no mistake, eDgrosslng the whole
being of man and leaving him no escape
from his own thoughts, which are forever
fixed upon his own transcendent happiness
in God or misery supreme in the loes OF
God. In this life good and bad are pre-
sented to our choice, and there is abun
dant room for self deception. "IEey said.
~ |
There is a false happiness which glimmers |
in the dark to lure poor wanderers to their |
ruin.


False happir ess not only leads to ruin,
but it leads to ruin along the path of real |
unhappness. Men often try to persuade |
themselves that they are happy, but in the
very height Of their imaginary happiness |
their hearts are heavy 1t is false happiness
which comes from seeking the possession of
some creature for it's own sake. God, who |
made the hearts of men, made them restless |
till they rest in Himself. The possession of |
that which is not good cannot satisfy the |
human soul, and the search after possession |
has still lees power to satisfy. If men |
could close their eyes to the fact that they |
are pursuing perishable object, the means |
for the end, they might go with light hearts
on their way, and only find out their error
at the end OF the journey when they wake |
from their dreams with their hands empty; |
Oub buSy Cauuob ClOoo tutlE eJ Sb I'd Guo les
sons of daily life, and they cannot altogether
stihe the voice of conscience. Feverish |
excitement is accompanied by the know
ledge that it is in itself unreal and soon to
pass, and to know that joy will not last is
to have weight dragging at the heart.
Men cannot forget that life is going by.
They see others dying at their side, they
feel themselves changing from day to day.
They are growing old. "Bitter is the mem
Org os death to a man that has peacs in his
richeS.' 1t is sad to see the objects upon
which his heart is fixed, upon which his
happiness depends, slippin from his grasp,
and to know that it is only a question of
time, that soon, too soon, go they must, and
go they will from him forever; that the days
of life are numbered, that in the future
there is day and an hour and moment
fixed:


Somewhere in the dark


The Shadow ats and waits for me.


TO that moment of that day all things
are hastening, and not all the gold Of CT
Pango or of England can make Old Time
stand still in his passage for one poor half
hour. This is the thought that makes
"heavy hearts Men will not live for God,
and God has His revenge when they try