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Temperance
To Provide Interesting Holidays
—We have tried earnestly to
make the holidays as interesting as possible to the youth and chil-
dren.... Our object has been to keep them away from scenes of
amusement among unbelievers....
I have thought that while we restrain our children from worldly
pleasures, that have a tendency to corrupt and mislead, we ought
to provide them innocent recreation, to lead them in pleasant paths
where there is no danger. No child of God need have a sad or
mournful experience. Divine commands, divine promises, show that
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this is so. Wisdom’s ways “are ways of pleasantness, and all her
paths are peace.” Worldly pleasures are infatuating; and for their
momentary enjoyment, many sacrifice the friendship of Heaven,
with the peace, love and joy that it affords. But these chosen objects
of delight soon become disgusting, unsatisfying.
The Attractions of the Christian Life
—We want to do all in
our power to win souls by presenting the attractions of the Christian
life. Our God is a lover of the beautiful. He might have clothed
the earth with brown and gray, and the trees with vestments of
mourning instead of their foliage of living green; but He would have
His children happy. Every leaf, every opening bud and blooming
flower, is a token of His tender love; and we should aim to represent
to others this wonderful love expressed in His created works.
God would have every household and every church exert a win-
ning power to draw the children away from the seducing pleasures
of the world, and from association with those whose influence would
have a corrupting tendency. Study to win the youth to Jesus. Impress
their minds with the mercy and goodness of God in permitting them,
sinful though they are, to enjoy the advantages, the glory and honor,
of being sons and daughters of the Most High. What a stupendous
thought, what unheard-of condescension, what amazing love, that
finite men may be allied to the Omnipotent! “To them gave He
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His
name.” “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” Can any worldly
honor equal this?
Let us represent the Christian life as it really is; let us make the
way cheerful, inviting, interesting. We can do this if we will. We may
fill our own minds with vivid pictures of spiritual and eternal things,
and in so doing help to make them a reality to other minds. Faith