Newspaper Page Text
VOL. LXXXV1I. RICH*
Christ, the &
Ps. 17 :15: " I shall be satisfied when I awake 1
in thy likeness."
These are the words of a King. He had been
culled in youth to the throne of a chosen nation. .
lie was surrounded by all the luxuries of life
and was crowned with all its honors. Yet, notwithstanding
God's peculiar favors to him he (
was not satisfied. He looked forward to the
time when he should awake to everlasting joy.
The experience of this King is but the testimony
of every man since the tragedy of Eden.
We are not satisfied with this life. There is 1
unrest everywhere and in every department of
life. The journey of life begins and ends with 1
tears. Its whole course is a search for some
tliiug that can take away grief?something
that can call forth fountains of gladness and
consolation in the waste places of the soul.
Men are running to and fro in the earth as if
seeking for a lost treasure, and truly they are
seeking for a treasure that is lost. It is that
perfect happiness which was lost more than
six thousand years ago in Eden. That is the
only thing the world craves. Every department
of life has been laid under tribute to produce
this one thing.
Some have conceived the idpn that tin? i?ot
_ >V.WM VMUV biic lUfll
treasure has been hidden away all these ages in
the Temple of Fame, and so they bend every
energy and strain every nerve to enter that
temple only to gather disappointment. Look
at Napoleon, who had conquered, as it were,
all Europe, defeated at the Battle of Waterloo.
See him later as he bids a long farewell to his
home, his native laud and his cherished greatness.
See him standing alone on the lonely
isle of Saint Helena, gazing with outstretched
neck across the waste of waters and read in
his sad face the bitter disappointment of life.
Popular applause is a torch lighted by an ex
cited people only to be extinguished by the
first breath of public censure.
Others have heard it said that the desired
treasure lies buried in the gold mines or diamond
fields of earth. They spend youth and
manhood digging in the dirt of earth, hoping
to find the treasure before the evening shadows
begin to lengthen. But darkness comes on and
in despair they lie down for the last long sleep.
Some years ago the "Diamond King" of Africa
threw himself down on a couch and exclaimed:
it is wretched to be a millionaire. I am
hnnted from morning till night. I wish I was
just a boy again back at the old home with the
hoys of childhood days." A few days after
this he took passage aboard an ocean steamer
and before the * vessel reached the desired ha- j
ven he had committed suicide by leaping over- 1
board. That ocean grave, over which sweeps '
forever the unebbincr sea. bears t.estimrmw 1
the disappointment of a man who during life
worshipped at the shrine of mammon.
Some have adopted as the true philosophy, 'i
?f life the theory of the Epicurean, which says, j
5Sv7rBKrWfr\ The South
The Sou
40ND, NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA.
ioul's Eternal
/ 'n.
The Sermon at the Opening of the Southern
assembly, by Rev. T. S. Clyce, D. D.,
Moderator of 1912 Assembly.
"hat, drink. and be merry, lor tomorrow we
die." They give themselves over to the pleasures,
frivolities and uissipations oi Hie, minting
they will thus get most out of life. They
toilow pleasure anu are led along a howery
ivutli A *hn oAimd "'* ^ 1
^/uvu nv vuv ovuuu ux aiuoiu auu UlC bicp Ui. lllx
dunce, but the end is puin and sorrow. They
Loilow seihshuess, wuicli promises every indulgence
at lirst, but at last it poisons every fountain,
blasts every nower and withers every joy
of life.
Happiness! Kest unto the soul What does
it mean and where shall it be loundt Thousands
are today seeking that which will give
peace of mind and rest of soul. Wide are the
I'hxnntfll! ftf diannnAintnianf W...W 1
. XW V> \A*wu^viuvmvui? X-A * Ci J I IICI lis
like the troubled ocean whose waters cast up
mire and dirt. Uow like the restless ocean i?
the human race. The ocean never at rest, the
tides ever coming and going. Always a storm
raging somewhere on its bosom. So it is with
the people of this world. The body may be at
rest, but not the soul. There is not a man in
all this wide world today perfectly satisfied.
Once upon a time an old philosopher offered
his palace to anyone who was satisfied with his
lot in life. To his surprise numbers came
claiming his palace. To each he replied, "II
you are satisfied with your lot, why do you
want my palace."
wu_ ? ? - -" - ?
??uy ?rc wc iioi sausneu in tins world!
Surely it is a world possessing every natural
beauty which the God of Nature could fashion
and it yields everything necessary for human
comfort. It is a glorious world diversified with
landscapes, waiving with forests shaded with
mountains, musical with waterfalls, girded
with oceans and garlanded with flowers. And
vpt. ami/1 nil tlioso lioon?i/.~ ?"^ 1?? J ?
j ? ...vuv uvuuuto turn iiicse wULluerful
provisions for man's happiness there is unrest
and unhappiness everywhere. Why is
this?
1. Because happiness docs not consist in
rensual enjoyment. The lower orders of the
animal kingdom are satisfied with sensual
gratification, but not so with man. Man is of
nobler blood. Something makes him feel akin
to God. Although he may be in the swine field,
his thoughts are toward the father's home from
which he came. The bread which he craves
is not in the swine field, but in the Father's
house. Six thousand years testify to the incompetency
of everything earthlv to mote
man happy. The present pleasing of our
senses and gratification of our animal parts is
not happiness. Every age renews the inquiry
after earthly felicity. The effort is made from
age to age with as great confidence and vigor
as if none had been baffled or defeated in it be
I*?AW
westernpfpesb ytep/am
?al presbyter/an <
trern Presbyterian
JUNE 4, 1913. NO. 72-^ 3
?
fore. It has not been the folly of the first age,
but of every age since the world began. The
wearied wits and wasted estates afford but a
faint representation of the case. What chemist
can extract heaven from a clod of clayT
The fountain of eternal youth in some far
away Florida is a myth. The Eden once lost
will be earned in all it_? fiillneao whon wo aViall
O "?
have crossed over the river and joined that
vast throng which no man can number, of all
' nations and kindreds and people and tongues,
which came out of great tribulation and washed
their robes and made them white in the
"blood of the Lamb.
2. Again, we arc not satisfied because of the
vtril nature of tkp soul and (fa ??< -
foundings.
The soul is like the eagle confined to a cage.
This caged bird of the heavens continues to
beat against the bars of his limitations. Ue
was made for the skies. His eye is ever towards
the clouds. It is his nature crying out
against his limitations, if he can only break
the bars he will, with a scream of delight, mount
the heavens and soar far out into his native air.
; The soul was made for God! How can the
1 world till it t The verv cnnHcinnunoeo nf ii?
? ?j ?immortality
cries out for God. Only that conception
of life which takes into consideration
i the unending years beyond the grave, is wor.
thy an immortal being. Death is not the end.
' The setting sun of today must be the rising
[ sun of tomorrow. The soul possesses possibilities
for growth and happiness that cannot
f be conceived in this world. The dignity of the
[ soul of man is not to be estimated by its prest
ent state while encumbered by flesh and grovelt
ling in the dust of earth. As we emerge from
L immaturity there arises within us a sense of
i the unsatisfactoriness of existence, a feeling
[ that makes the heart ache and aggravates the
[ discontent of the soul. One day a poor, blind,
deaf mute spelled out to her teacher in her
own mute way the question, "What is the
i soul?" He answered in the same mute language,
"The soul is that which thinks and
feels and hopes." She spelled back, with a
i look of rare intelligence upon her face, "And
[ aches so." Yes, the soul is that which "aches
' so," and will forever ache if it does not find
; God. There is a reaching out for something
larger than human love can provide and for
something which human love, when tested to
i the full, leaves unsupplied. Like a thirst slaked
today, revives on the morrow. There is a
cry in the soul to which the world make* no
i response. This cry of the soul is, "Lead me
. to the Rock that is higher than I."
I Til P ffmot AnflofiAna **" J 1
B.^uv i|Ubi>tiviia ui canu tin a neavcn are
ever crowding in imon the mind and demanding
attention. They tax every power of the
1 intellect. We think upon these problems until
the brain grows weary. We stand face to