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called to undergo are the means by which they are educated. But they take their education hard. They do not understand it. They are ignorant of the opportunities which are offered them for development and training in the school of God. What they need is that their experiences should be struck through with the light of Christian faith and joy.

I like to hear persons sing. I think I would pay several dollars extra a month to a servant girl who would sing as she worked. A captain on shipboard is sometimes willing to pay for a man that fiddles that he may go along and entertain the crew with music. But what if they could all fiddle? How much more they would enjoy it! It is a good thing to have a person in the house who knows how to sing; but why should not everybody in the house sing?

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Why are you snubbed by care-you who are the emblem of power in the universe; you who represent nerve-power, brain-power, soul-power, God-power? Why is it that you are carried away by little attritions? Why is it that you knuckle down to things that worry you, and talk about your burdens and responsibilities? It is a shame. It is a denial of religion. It is bearing false witness against Christ. ery true Christian should live in the midst of necessary cares and troubles with a joyful spirit, so that those who look shall wonder, and ask, "Where did you get the power to do it?" A man goes into a shop, and does not drink, nor swear, nor ride on Sunday, nor squander his money. He is a sober, steady man. He is a Christian. And his fellow workmen, observing his life, say, "That may suit him, but it would not agree with my temperament.

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On the other hand, let a man become a Christian, and go into a shop, and not only avoid evil and folk good, in a general way, but be cheerful under all circumstances: let him be genial though he is balked of his wages; let him be kind to those who attempt to wrong him; let him do good to those who persecute him, and everybody will like him better than they did before he became a Christian. A man is sweet-tempered when everybody else is soured in temper when everybody else is tired, and gloomy, and depressed, he is full of song and cheerfulness and elasticity;

and men say to him, "You seem to enjoy life all the time," "Yes," he says, "enjoying life is what I mean by being a Christian." "Well," they say, "If I could get into his state of mind, I would like to be a Christian. I always supposed that if I became a Christian I should have to go to church. and quit tobacco, and knock off swearing." No, not a bit of it; for if after becoming a Christian, you want to swear, you can. I say to every man who has that idea of what it is to be a Christian, "When you love the Lord with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, then you may swear you want to.

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I go to Nootka Sound, and take a blubber-eating boy, and propose to bring him home and civilize him. He says, I don't want to be civilized. If I go with you, you won't let me eat rotten blubber." I say, "Certainly I will; go to New York and live with me four or five years, and learn to eat such food as civilized people do; and if at the end of that time you want to eat rotten blubber you may." No man wants to eat rotten blubber after he is civilized, and no man wants to swear after he has become a Christian.

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Suppose I should say to John Zundel," "You may have discords if you want them." That would be safe, for he never wants them, his ear having been trained to harmony. And I would say to men, "Right is inherently sweeter and better than wrong;" and when a man once comes into such a condition of life that wrong hurts him, and when he comes to have such a sense of right that he prefers it, there can be no law to him. He is a law to himself. He has that in him

which is his guide.

Now, if we had fewer of the mechanical processes of religion, fewer of its technical doctrines, and more of the love and sweetness and light and joy and undying inspiration which belongs to Christianity, what a proclamation we should be to everybody! One true Christian in a house is like an organ in that house. It takes only one Ponce de Leon rose to fill a room with fragrance. If there is one in the parlor, the instant I come in I know that it is there, though I do not see it. And what if I had a whole garden full of them?

It is a shame that Christianity has so little power among

men.

It is a shame that the influence of Christian men in the world is so feeble. The reflected light of Christianity in a man who is a Christian ought to be so beautiful to the imagination, to the reason, to all the higher faculties, as to lift men out of vulgarisms and animalisms into spirituality. A man who is a Christian ought to stand in such contrast with men who are not Christians that every one who beholds him shall not only wish to be like him, but shall glorify God on his account. And what a criticism this is on popular Christianity! It gives light also on the subject of living high or low Christian lives. The older I grow, the less I am disposed to put men under yokes and burdens, the less important do I regard it that men should become nominal and technical Christian people, and the more essential do I feel it to be that they should become inwardly Christians. And in receiving into the church so large a number as we have on the present occasion, I have felt moved to celebrate this day of their public espousal of their connection with God by presenting Christianity in its aspects of hope and liberty and elasticity and sweetness and gladness. I do not want any more poor, maimed Christians. Well, I will take them in if they were poor and maimed before, in order that their condition may be made better-in order that the halt may leap, and that the leper may be cleansed; but I am not willing that they should come into this church to see less than they saw before; to be more restricted than they were before. I am not willing that they should come in feeling, "I must do such and such things so that I may have my reward in the life to come." I am not willing that they should come in saying, "I wonder how much freedom I can have; I wonder how far I can go in the enjoyments of worldly things; I wonder whether I can go to the opera, whether I can dance, and whether I can play cards at home. Of course, I do not want to violate Christian rules; but I would like to know how far I can safely go in these directions. I am going to take just as much secular enjoyment as I can and not lose my soul." I do not want any such Christians.

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"Hence

All things are yours, if you only are Christ's. forth I call you not servants," saith the master to his

disciples, but friends; for the servant knoweth not what the master doeth." The servant is not admitted to intimacy and to counsel; but you, if you are Christ's and are lifted above the lower environments of this world into the realm of love and purity and holiness, become judges, severally, of what is right and wrong in your sphere. I long to see men brought into the church more noble, more manly, larger, carrying themselves in trouble and in trials with a heroism and courage which shall give others to know that they are converted. I long to see men come into the church in order that they may blossom outside of the church. I would have men come into the church that they may become more fragrant, freer and more joyful. In Christian life, under such circumstances, there is increase of joy. Joy that becomes peace is the highest joy in the world. Turbulent joys are the lowest forms of joy, always. Ecstacy is not as good as peacefulness. As men grow riper and richer in their spiritual nature they tend more and more to come into "that peace which passeth all understanding "-the peace of God which is an equalization of joy.

If you lift up a peak on a plain, it stands noticeable in its solitariness; but if you lift up another by the side of it, and another by the side of that, and a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, then the surface of these various peaks itself becomes a plain. A dozen hills put together make a level surface. And one joy, when it lifts itself up alone, stands solitary; but if you put a second, a third, a fourth, and a fifth along with it, by-and-by you have a level plain of peace. Men say that it lacks excitement; but I say that it is the highest form of excitement. Enjoyment in its most blessed form is that perfect tranquility which is deep as the ocean, peaceful as the ocean in a calm, and grand as the ocean in a storm. Christian life should be sweet and peaceful, founded in love and in righteousness, and flying by hope and faith all around in the atmosphere of joy.

"Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice."

After the blessing is pronounced we shall sit together and partake of the emblems of the broken body of Christ,

and of his blood shed. To me this is a very joyful service; because, although here is defeat, we also have the rebound of victory. I invite every one in this congregation who has spiritual fitness to join with us. I do not limit the invitation of the Lord's table by any ecclesiastical or theological lines. I put it on the ground of human need. Whoever needs the Lord Jesus Christ to comfort him, to inspire him, and is willing to accept him in his inward thought, and feeling— him I invite to participate in these emblems of Christ's sacrifice for us.

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