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2 (1008) THE
child; but when 1 became a mau, 1 put away
childish things.'' For a Christian with the big
glorious duties and opportunities of a life
pressing upon him to solemnly debate whether
he will give up a few amusements?toys, is
like a man with claims and responsibilities of
life upon him considering whether he will give
up marbles and spinning tops.
iSo 1 will utter no condemnation of so-called
worldly pleasures, engage in no debate as to
the right or wrong of them; but 1 do protest
against living for this present life with its
business or enjoyments, so that the life beno
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^iid hopes and purposes are tied down to the
present good or joy this world can yield?now,
during the brief time each of us may live in it.
There is a judgement?yes. That implies
a future, which stretches out and beyond that
judgement. This is the climax toward which
every life is tending, when each shall be judged
according to the deeds done in the body. What
a fitting close to a world's history! There is
something sublime in this doctrine of a last
great assize, when the human race shall be
gathered before the august tribunal of God;
where divine holiness will shine out resplendent
and truth will reign supreme and justice
will be impartially administered. Is the
thought of it terrifying to your soul? What
a pitiful thing to live a life that will not stand
a real test! Whatever you do, cultivate some
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something in life that you will not be ashamed
to look squarely in the face one day.
But just now the thought presses in another
direction.
Every moral concept implies a judgment, as
it involves the sense of accountability. The
sum total of the motives and activities of life,
to which the moral idea attaches, necessitates
a final judgment, and the moment we accept
this doctrine, we have an argument for a future
life, which amounts to a demonstration.
For, if all things stop instantly and every one
passes from that judgment to annihilation or
even a second probation, then the judgment is
a farce. For what difference does it make how
I am judged, if there is no future? And what
difference does it make how I live here, if it
makes no difference how I am judged? So
there must be a future, when the full effects
of that judgement shall be realized.
If this be true and this life is linked to it,
what business has any soul living as it there
were no future and this earth with its joys
or its cares were all?all and the end of it?
But if, as we know it does this life counts for
anything, surely we ought to give good heed
as to how we are living!
The danger is not so much that you will be
at fault in one or two particulars, but that in
seeking for the good of life you will insensibly
drift?drift, until this will become the
fixed habit of life, the world with its pleasures
and business becomes the sole aim and end of
all thought and effort; as if there were no
future and no account <to give your Maker
before you enter upon it.
Well, if I have done this, what of it? Why
just this: you have contradicted the fundamental
fact of life: you have declared, This
is all of life?these are my only joys, the only
hopes my soul shall know?this beautiful
world is my only desire and this earth shall
be at last the resting place of my body and
the tomb of my soul.
But someone will exclaim, No one believes
that, no matter how he lives find fnrhid that
any one should live that way, no matter what
he believes! That counts! Young men, will
you live for this world and what it can give
PRESBYTERIAN OF 'J HE SG
as the supreme aud only good? Will you
seek satisfaction now and here without a
thought of God and the future? Surely,
surely it is a kindly voice that warns us against
such a fatal mistake!
3. This is a warning against,
N IRRELIGIOUS LIFE.
"Know thou that . . . God will call
thee into judgement."
God! the word that ought to stand in the
forefront of every life. There is a God. We
cannot look around us without tracing everywhere
the signs of hi? presence and power.
God! Liet the torrents like a shout of nations
Answer! And let the iceplains echo God!
Sing, ye meadow-streams with gladsome voice!
Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds!
And they too have a voice, you piles of snow,
And in their perilous fall shall thunder God!
Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost:
Ye lightenings, the dread arrows of the clouds;
Ye signs and wonders of the elements,
Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise!
Tell ye the silent sky!
And tell the stare and tell the rising sun!
Earth with her thousand voices .praises God!
Only "the fool hath said in his heart, There
is no God." This familiar text may be rendered
literally, "The fool hath said in his
heart, No God." According to the lirst this
means a denial of the divine existence; there
is no God. This is Atheism. According to the
second, it means a refusal to recognize God in
the life or to give him a place in the life, even
though His existence is acknowledged.
Now, 1 do not fear so much that you will
say in your heart, there is no God; Atheism is
and always must be very rare. But there is
reason to fear that the life you will live will
say, no God; that is, that you will refuse to acknowledge
Him as your God and to render
Him the honor and service that is due to Him.
In other words, that you will say, I know that
there is a God and then live a life that will
declare most emphatically that God is not in
your thoughts.
The danger that threatens most people is
not that they will do serious wrong or be very
wicked in their work and pleasure for which
they will have to suffer in the Day of Judgement;
but that absorbed in such things, they
will live without reference to God, really ignoring,
not only His goodness and authority?
but HIM, and so become irreligious?Godless.
How easily men do this! God's goodness:
Who crowns our lives with blessings and how
countless they are! Do we thank Him for
them? Rather do we not often allow these
very joys and pleasures to crowd in and fairly
push God out of our lives.
His authority: He is sovereign of our lives.
Do we live so? Rather do we not give more
heed to the customs and opinions of God's footstool
than to the commands, which have come
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may for a while, but "God is not mocked;"
the judgment will reveal who is really sovereign
of this universe.
The point of view now taken is very simple
and elemental. It is not that you shall be religious
in the ordinary modern sense; that is,
go to church, engage in regular forms of worship,
etc. Do not mistake me. The highest development
of a religious life is to be found
only in a genuine Christianity. Christ-likeness
is to be the object of all longing and endeavor.
The essense of a truly religious life consists
in iaith and love to the Son of God. He makes
a fatal mistake who thinks that he can live
acceptably before God and stand the test of
His judgement and yet ignore God's well-beloved
Son.
1
IUTH [September 4, 1912
But 1 do not urge that just now. I am I
speaking as if all such things are unheard of
and the only facts to be considered were B
these?God?Yourself?Life. Oh, turn from the
glosses and falseness of a decadent civilization;
emancipate from decrepit credal tests;
fling thought back upon primal truth?God and
primal man. See whether there is any real
solid foundation to the superstructure of your
religious life. If not, life will build up as does
history?verv imDOsincr doubtless but nnlv to
topple at the first shock of judgment and
leave?rubbish.
God is! A man made in His image. If that
man puts God out of hife ilfe; allows the joys
he gives to so fill His heart that there is no
room for more than a fancy of a God; how,
then, can that man possibly find fault, if that
God puts him out of his life in the day of
judgement. But if we love and serve Him in
Ilis own appointed way, then will He acknowledge
and own and bless us forever.
THE STORY OF NAMES IN MIDDLE
VIRGINIA.
BY REV. W. H. T. SQUIRES.
The English Revolution is duly registered in
Virginia by the formation of King and Queen
County. This unique name, doubtless the only
one of its kind in America, is strictly correct
for King William and Queen Mary occupied
the throne jointly. The King was the son of
the daughter of Charles I, and the Queen the
daughter of his son. The development of the
colony is now again very rapid. All the
southeastern part of the colony had been called
Norfolk, for the flat, tidal shire of the same
name in England. In 1640, Upper Norfolk
along the Nansemond had taken the name of
that river. In 1691, Norfolk is again divided,
and the Lynnhaven or eastern portion is now
named Princess Anne. Princess Anne, the last
of the Stuarts, was the younger sister of Queen
Mary. Parliament had expressly provided that
she was to ascend the throne should both William
and Mary die without children. She was
therefore as the heiress-apparent a person of
great prominence and influence in the land.
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j.ne nouse 01 rmrgesses now at length determined
to desert the marshes of Jamestown
and remove the capital to the Middle Plantation,
so called because the site was midway
between the James and the York. The little
city of Williamsburg is laid off with an eye
more to political sentiment than to public utility,
and so the streets were made as a monogram
of W and M. The college which had been
the dream of four successive generations is at
last set agoing and is given the royal names
of William and Mary.
In the next thirty years only two counties
are formed. King William to the south of the
Mattapony and Prince George to the south of
the James. Prince George was a Dane, the
husband of Queen Anne, holding the same relation
to her that the late Prince Albert held
to good Queen Victoria.
Upon the death of Queen Anne the House of
Hanover came to the throne in the person of
the German Elector, George I. For 116 years
England will now have a King George. Queen
Anne had sent to the Virginians their ablest
and most popular royal governor, a Scotchman,
'Alexander Spottswood.' George I. retained
him for eight years during which time four
new counties were organized. The first was
on the Potomac and was called, as one might
have guessed, King George. A second one on the
Rappahannock was called Spottsylvania. The
third on the Chickahominy was called Hanover.