The Scouring of the White Horse; Or, The Long Vacation Ramble of a London ClerkHughes, Thomas
General
The Scouring of the White Horse; Or, The Long Vacation Ramble of a London Clerk
Hughes, Thomas
White Horse, Vale of (England)
I beseech you all to think of what I have said, and endeavour, each
in your own way, to retain, or to bring back, if necessary, God’s
feasts into your own parishes. You, old and grown-up men and women, by
living soberly and righteously; never making mischief, or quarrelling;
treating your children with forbearance and love, doing your own work,
and helping others to do theirs. To you young men, I say, as Solomon
said, rejoice in your youth; rejoice in your strength of body, and
elasticity of spirits, and the courage which follows from these; but
remember that for these gifts you will be judged--not condemned, mind,
but judged. You will have to show before a Judge who knoweth your
inmost hearts, that you have used these his great gifts well; that you
have been pure, and manly, and true.
And to you, young women, I can but say the same. Beauty, and purity,
and youth, and merry light hearts, and all the numberless attractions
which have been poured upon you, are tremendous influences for good
or evil,--gifts for which you will have to give an account. Rejoice
in them; use them freely; but avoid, as you would death itself, all
rivalry with one another, all attempts to exercise power over men you
do not care for, every light thought, and word, and look. For the light
word or look is but a step from the impure, and the experience of the
whole world is telling you
“How mirth can into folly glide,
And folly into sin.”
But now to conclude. You may ask, how are we all to keep these things
in mind? how, when we are all met together to enjoy ourselves, can we
be ever on the watch for this evil, which you say is so near us? You
cannot, my brethren; but One is with you, is in you, who can and will,
if you will let him.
Men found this out in the old time, and have felt it and known it
ever since. Three thousand years ago this truth dawned upon the old
Psalmist, and struck him with awe. He struggled with it; he tried to
escape from it, but in vain. “Whither shall I go then,” he says, “from
thy spirit? or whither shall I flee then from thy presence? If I go up
to heaven, Thou art there: if I go down to hell, Thou art there also.
If I take the wings of the morning, and reside in the uttermost parts
of the sea; even there also shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand
shall hold me.”
Is any of us stronger or wiser than the Psalmist? Is there any place
for us to flee to, which was not open to him? My brethren, had we not
better make up our minds to accept and acknowledge the truth, to which
our own consciences bear witness; that, not only in heaven, and in
hell, and in the uttermost parts of sea and earth, He is present, but
that in the inmost recesses of our own hearts there is no escape from
his Spirit--that He is there also, sustaining us, pleading with us,
punishing us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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