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March 10, 1909. THE PRESBYTER]
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for
that which satisfieth not."
The pleasure-seeker is vividly portrayed in the Prodigal
Son. who found his eagerly sought for pleasures
failed, and then would fain have filled himself with the
husks that the swine do eat. There is a craving that
the husks of pleasure can never satisfy. There is a life
of the soul they can never sustain. And when the at
tempt is made the spiritual life droops and dies. The
man or woman sinks to the level of the brute, with no
aspiration above what to eat or drink, or wherewithal
to he clothed, or how fancy may be pleased,?spiritually
dead?the whole realm of spiritual life is closed and
dark.
5. The li.ver in pleasure is dead while living because
he has forfeited his eternal life for the bauble of an
hour.
Failing to accept Christ as Savior and Lord, he is
under the abiding displeasure of God?his wrath?
which is death. But the failure to accept Christ leaves
him in a condition of death, for "in Him is life, and the
life was the Light of men." I am?the life. "I am come
that they might have life, and that they might have
it more abundantly." "And ye will not come unto me
that ye might have life."
And on the record book of the King Eternal against
the name of the liver in pleasure is placed the mark of
Dead?"Dead in trespasses and sins"?walking according
to the course of this world; according to the prince
of the power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience.
The following linnes are from the saintly Mac Chevne
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world:
"She has chosen the world and its paltry crowd?*
She has chosen the world and an endless shroud!
She has chosen the world with its misnamed pleasures,
She has chosen the world before heaven's own treasures,
She hath launched 'her boat on life's giddy sea,
And all is afloat for eternity:
But Bethlehem's star is not in her view.
And her aim is far from the harbor true,
When the storm descends from an angry sky,
Ah! where from the winds shall the vessel fly,
When stars are concealed and rudder gone,
And heaven is sealed to the wandering one?
The whirlpool opes for the gallant prize
And with all her hopes to the deep she hies;
But who may tell of the place of woe
Where the wicked dwell?where the worldlings go?
For the human heart can never conceive
What joys are the part of them who believe;
Nor can justly think of the cup of death
Which all must drink who despise the faith.
Away, then?oh, fly from the joys of earth!
IT.
ncr smile is a lie?there's a sting in her mirth ;
Come, leave the dreams of this transient night
And bask in the beams of an endless light."
We emancipate ourselves, not by what we tear ourselves
loose from, but in what we tie ourselves up to.?
Dr. Parkhurst.
*
* i
AN OF THE SOUTH. 9
THE LIGHT AT EVENING TIME.
By Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.
I once ascended Mount Washington with a party of
friends on horseback, and we were overtaken by a
violent storm, followed by a thick, blinding mist. After
a rough scramble over slippery rocks, it was a wofuf
disappointment to find, on our arrival at the "Tiptop
Mouse," that we could not see any object two rods
from the door. But late in the afternoon the clouds
began to roll away, and one mountain after another
revealed itself to our view. At length the sun burst
forth and overarched the valley of the Saco with a
gorgeous rainbow ; we came out and gazed on the magnificent
panorama with wondering delight, and as the
rays of the setting sun kindled every mountain peak
with gold, we all exclaimed. "At evening time it shall
be light!"
My experience on that mountain top is a striking
illustration of the experiences of God's people in all
ages. Faith has had its steep hills of difficulty to climb,
and often through blinding mists and hustling storms.
Unbelief says, "Halt!" and despair cries, "Go back!"
But hope keeps up in steady, cheery song. "It will be
better further on." The poor old patriarch Jacob wails
out that all things are against him, and that he will
go down to his grave mourning. Wait a little. Yonder
comes the caravan from Egypt, laden with sacks of
corn, and bringing the good tidings that Joseph is the
prime minister of Pharaoh's government! To the astonished
old man at evening it is light!
The office of faith is to cling to the fact that behind
all clouds, however thick, and all storms, however fierce,
God is on the throne. It is the office of hope to look
for the clearing of the clouds in God's good time. If
we had no storms we would never appreciate the blue
skies; the trials of the tempest are the preparations for
the afterglow of the sunshine. We ought never to
think it strange that difficulties confront us. or trials
assail us; for this is but a part of our discipline, and in
the end all things work for good to them that God
loveth and who trust him. It is according to God's
will and economy that we should he exposed to temptations
or to trials which threaten to drive us to despair.
God wants to teach us our dependence upon him. No
climb is so difficult, or so steep, or so hard, but God
is standing by to confute the notion that work for Him
is ever entirely in vain. I will go farther, and affirm
that no honest prayer was ever yet uttered in the right
spirit and failed to get somci answer; if not the thing
asked for, yet some other good thing has been granted.
And, oh, how often God surprises us after a long day
of struggles and discouragements by a glorious outburst
of light in the evening time!
There is hardly one passage in our Bible that is more
full of encouragement to faithful ministers, and teachr\
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enterprises, than this very text that suggests this article.
Things easily done are generally of small value;
it is the costly undertaking that counts. From the
clays of Bethlehem, Gethsemane, and Calvary the history
of the Christian Church has been?conflict before
victory, labor before reward, shadow before sunlight.