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THE CHRISTWARD LOOK.
Not fit to live, not fit to die,
What doth life hold for me?
Naught but the load of sin is mine,
nom wmcn in neer De iree:
I've wandered off so far from God,
And lived in sin so long,
That his kind face is turned from me?
His love and mercy gone!
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There was a time when I believed
In Christ?the living "Way;
But oh! that time will ne'er return,
And change my night to day.
My faith was weak, my hope nigh gone,
11 f a n a wAf^Kloeo oooma/1
?> UCU Hit OW *?U1 tuitwo OVtllltU |
Deep in my heart the fear arose
That I was not redeemed.
Then came a voice?a heav'nly one:
"Why look so much within?
Look out from self, look up to Christ,
Who cleanseth from all sin."
I looked to Christ in simple faith,
And found forgiveness free;
His love I'll now to others tell?
Dove boundless as the sea.
?Hugh H. Hudson.
GordonBville, Va.
PLEASURES MAY KILL MY JOY.
BY DK. A. C. DIXON, PASTOR OP THE METROPOLITAN
TABERNACLE, LONDON.
"And I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will
prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure;
and, behold this also is vanity."?Ecclesiastes,
ii, 1.
'' The things which aiuuse us do much toward
moulding or characters for good or evil, eventually.
It is, therefore, needful that the
young Christian should be as careful about his
amusement as his duties. There are certain
principles by which he may be guided."
II A A. 1 I - A ? i-1 1 1 1
Amusements mat injure me uouy, weaken
the ruind, or corrupt the morals ought to be
avoided. So with amusements that vitiate our
joys. The German proverb says, 'The good is
enemy of the better and the best.' Amusements,
fun and pleasure may be good; but joy
is better. Amusement is the dash of the spray,
the sparkle on the surface; joy is the flow of
the deep current in the soul. We should not
sacrifice the current for the spray or the
sparkle. Whenever, therefore, we find that
amusement is entrenching upon our joy, we
should sacrifice amusement, that joy may be
saved.
Amusements should always be avoided
when they are associated with any great evil institution.
The people of Israel played before
the golden calf. Their play was associated with
the evil institution of idolatry. Paul said that
he could eat meat offered to idols, for he regarded
an idol as nothing, and it would not,
therefore, injure him. He had a right to eat,
but he had a higher right, which was the right
to give up his personal right for the good of
the weaker brother. He therefore determined
to surrender this right and exercise the higher
right of self-denial for the benefit of others.
"Two men were in the boat above Niagara
Falls. When they saw that the current was tak
ing them down, by a bold stroke they reached
the bank, and there on a tree was the placard.
'No trespassing on these grounds.' A farmer
appeared with a fierce bulldog at his side, and
one of the men was cruelly torn. The magistrate
at Niagara used these words, which are
worthy of a place on the fly leaf of your Bible:
'You bad a right, sir, to placard your land, but
in this case there was involved the higher right
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
headings
to surrender your right for the good of humanity,
and because you failed to do so, 1 send
you to jail for thirty days.' We may contend
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iui fcuc v^uxisLiaii pnviiegu ui liiuuiging 1x1 certain
things, while we forget the higher privilege
of self-delnial that we may have a larger influence
for good.
"A safe rule for the young convert is never
to indulge in any amusement that links him
with a great evil institution. Try the card
table, the dance and the theater by this test.
The card table is a world-wide evil institution
which you find in all countries, Christian and
pagan. It is the gambler's instrument. It has
been blackened by dishonesty, stained by
murder and disgraced by innumerable wrecks
of character.
"A pack of cards is suggestive, not of an
innocent game, but of a great foul institution
which has been a curse to mankind. Shall I indulge,
and thus link myself with this institution
? Or shall I deny myself, that I may not be
x: r M A
suggestive 01 eviu
"The square dance may be considered by
some as an innocent pastime, if indulged in
moderately, but in general it may be said that
dancing has become a worldwide institution of
evil. The dance house cannot be described in
polite society. Dancing is not only worldly,
but in many of its forms it is desperately
wicked, its associations are malodorous. There
may be pleasure in the physical response to
music, shall I yield to it and thus associate
myself with a bad institution?
"The theater as an institution is also bad.
There are some moral plays, as well as some
moral actors and actresses, but, so far as I can
find, there is not a moral theater in the world.
Edwin Booth determined to establish a moral
theater, before whose footlights there should not
be a display of spectacular obscenity. The r-i
suit was that Booth's theater failed and paid
6 cents on the dollar.
"Henrv Irvine determined that fVio I
theater should be moral, but the management
had to change its quality to keep from bankruptcy.
Mary Anderson left the stage, and
declared that on moral grounds she did not
wish her children to attend the theater. McCready
would not allow his children to go to
the theater. Edwin Forrest, after hearing Dr.
Brantly in Augusta, Ga., preach a sermon denouncing
the theater for its immorality, lingered
after the service long enough to take the
preacher by the hand and say to him, 'Sir, what
you have said to-night is true, only you have
not painted the picture as dark as it is.'
"There is a difference between pleasure in the
midst of business, and making a business of
pleasure. The pleasure-seeking spirit is a living
death, for 'she that liveth in pleasure is
dead while she liveth.' If you will turn to Job
xxi. 12, you will find some of the results of this
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and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment
go down to the grave. Therefore, they
say unto God, 'Depart from us; for we desire
not the knowledge of thv wavs. What, is th*
Almighty that we should serve him? and what
profit shall we have if we pray unto him?'
"When the pleasure-seeking spirit fills a
man s me ne ceases to desire Uod. He says to
him, 'Depart from us.' He sees no profit in
prayer or in the service of the Almighty.
Pleasure is his god, and he becomes vain and
empty like the god he worships.
U T H [November 15, 1911
"The picture of a pleasure-seeking life which
is given us in the second chapter of Ecclesiastes
is enough to startle one who desires to be something
or do something in the world. Solomon
was rich enough to have everything that he
desired, and he set himself to seeking pleasure.
The result was that he hated life and declared
that' All is vanity and striving after wind.'
"Some one has described the palace of
pleasure as a building 'which has a gorgeous
street entrance adorned with statuary and brilliant
with variegated lights, and the passerby
is lured in by strains of music. The exit is a
dark, narrow, concealed rearway, which leads
into the fields where swine are kent.'
"As a gentleman entered the theater several
years ago the usher beckoned to him with the
words, 'This is the way to the pit.' The word
'pit' was so suggestive that the man turned and
left the theater in haste. However beautiful the
entrance to the pleasure-seeking life, and however
entrancing the music, the exit is into the
swine field, and near the swine field is the
precipice over which sooner or later we fall into
the pit.
"The danger is that the nleasure-seekinur
spirit may displace the serious work of life. In
the parable of the sower, the seed was 'choked
by the pleasure of this life,' and when one
makes up his mind that the end of life is simply
to have a good time, duty is neglected, sacred
obligations are ignored, business lags, the prospects
of life wither and the end is despair. Here
is a good place to hold the red flag of danger.
"When the Duke of Orleans was in this
country he happened to be in a small village
when a circus was there. He could not obtain
dinner or any sort of service. The people of the
hotel informed him that no one would work
that day, for everybody was going to the show.
Such a holiday once in a while might produce
little harm, but suppose that village should decide
to quit work and attend the show every
day; the result would be stagnation and death.
"Just so with the life of a man who allows
pleasure to displace business, who lets fun and
frolic swallow up the serious duties of life. The
Romans became so greedy for amusement that
they demanded great outlay in purchasing wild
animals and gladiators for their enjoyment in
the arena. This pleasure-seeking spirit so enervated
the people of Rome that they became an
easy prey to the serious northmen who came
down upon them.
"As with the nation, so with the individual.
Pleasure-seeking weakens character and makes
it easy for us to be captured and destroyed by
evil habits. I have read of some cavalrymen,
who during five or six years of rest taught their
horses to dance to the music of the band. It
was great sport, but when thev
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battle and the band began to play, hoping to inspire
the soldiers, the horses stopped the charge
and began to dance. The result was the enemy
swept down upon them and conquered them.
"Many a man has lost the battle of life for
the same reason. He is so possessed by the
pleasure-seeking spirit that when he ought to be
serious and dutiful he is dancing or gambling or
in some other way frittering away his time.
"After Napoleon Bonaparte had killed the
jL^uivt: xj jcjugmen tne indignation of the French
people was so intense that there was danger
of a revolution. The wiley Emperor quieted
their consciences by producing for them the
most magnificent ballet that Paris had ever
seen. They rushed to the theater and forgot
their grievances. It is hard for conscience to
assert itself when the pleasure-seeking spirit is
master.
"Everything that any one ought to enjoy the
Christian may enjoy. What is sinful or hurtful