| Show THIS T70ELD There are as great attractions on this earth for the spiritual man as for the animal man This earth say certain pious people is fulj of comfort and convenience to the sensualist A person per-son who lives for pleasure cannot ask for conditions more to his unsanctified taste But to the good the pure there come constant conflicts and wounds a a obstacles We hear special emphasis em-phasis laid upon the premium which this earth furnishes to wrongdoing The language of many believers is that by and by the good are to be entertained enter-tained up in heaven with something worthy of their affection Can it be that a world for the good to live in must admit of no chance whatever what-ever to be tempted or to sin The very way for Deity to convert this earth into a pande monium is to parcel off society into castes and compel like to lire with like Let all he good be put here and l the indifferent in-different people there and the positively positive-ly bad sent to a warm precinct under errniinriflnd verv snnn nifi onm would oe good for nothing t and the ° indifferent t as bad as the worst Goodness of no use if it be only for God to look at I pit the good people who like children at the table hurry through the substantial course with an eye single to the sweetness and relish of the dessert des-sert That is not the part of the feast of life which is really blessed or greatly to be desired We receive the most excellent ex-cellent morul sustenance which God has to give to us while on this earth Directly here in our natural bodies goodness and mercy follow us We lie down in green pastures of the tender grass We rest beside the quiet watering water-ing places Our cup runs over The greatest privileges the most glorious gifts and supplies everything that even angels could covetbeloiig to our outward state and lot if only we have the pure eye to see them Jesus sitting at meat with publicans and sinners enjoyed more and really crowned his being with tenfold more happiness than could come from sitting on a throne up in heaven and looking down upon a fallen world A good man of any account whatever what-ever is least of all contented to commune com-mune with saints only and participate in a heavenly choir of the just men made perfect The greatest and best of men above all things want the free full use and fruition of their faculties here They covet this world with all its disease wrongs abuses darkness and depravity to contribute to it health goodness justice sympathy light and virtue Father prayed the holy Christ if it be possible let this cup pass from me Keep me in thi world where so much is wrong where the rich hate the noorand the high scorn the lowly where the selfrighteous despite I the sinner and the saved turn aside I from the touch of the lost where sin and disease hover like birds of prey over defenceless head and where assumed truth and presumptuous authority would coerce aIlt inds to think alike If rill the woTd were of one ruin of thought And nil were one alike in mind Mid fnith rh retllrl of reason would be a weak and rot And life would be a dreiry liying deith Oh the divinity that there is in doing good Even in being where to do good js j eVer possible The inexpressiblejoy in heaven over one human oul restored to virture or one sinner that repfn eh Ought not this to make plain to the weakest and shortsighted that humanity human-ity that our reeling sintossed world is in the very centre of the love and dominion of God To be with God to be led within the shade of the great Rock to hear the good voice leading us toduty like brave knightserrant to the undoing of wrong and evil this is heaven He who cannot he spared out of this wicked world on account the gap his absence will make is nearer to God and has more of heaven lying about his heart than any saint whose goodness good-ness is merely negative and who has done nothing while in the world but to keep himself clean The man who wins the confidence and love of the sinful and depraved and draws them toward a better life who gives men faith in virtue and truth and a living righteousness righteous-ness who spends himself that others may have the means of li ing as the heavens drop their vapor vails in rain upon parched plains rejoicing if these are revived and rewarded in their ver tture this is the beloved of the Father Such men need not spend their eyesight in trying to read their title deeds to mansion in the sky for the whole earth is their smiling home and the sky above them is one radiant avenue through which they can see their way to the city of God We neea to believe more in the suitableness suit-ableness of this world to our real condition condi-tion and moral needs and to use it more nnd better as a source of happiness a theatre of noble activity and heroic discipline dis-cipline reflection of the glory and a specimen of the handiwork ofGod and for f heaven a foregleam of t This life is mixed with joy and care With pleasure and with puin And each the mingled cup must share That higher powers ordain But we the noble gift possess Then use it while we may To tip the drops of happiness And throw the dregs away The well taught mind this truth discerns Theres good in all we view And rising in his being learns To seize the goodness to The aim of life ordained for man While loving truth and light Is to do all the good we cm And firmly cling to right Then while we have the power bestowed And scenes to gratify Well pluck the HoVers lifes rough road And thorns and weeds pass by For evils only die or grow As we their life impart So let us seek the gtfed to know And make a happy heart PilosopherS may look with scorn On mm and manners here Divines lament that he was born On uch a sin earned sphere I feelthough sweet the world to come And bettertlnn we know This vorld is quite i peasant home If we but make it so M SALT LAKE CITY December 1884 S p |
