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TALKS FOR THE TIMES.
could be more false than this, that " life is a burden
imposed upon us by God." God imposes burdens upon
nobody. God is love. God intended us to be free
in the broadest possible sense of the term, in order
that we might render to Him cheerful service. Free¬
dom is, indeed, the first condition requisite to volun¬
tary heart service; for no man living or laboring un¬
der a sense of drudgery, under a sense of burden, could
possibly exclaim with the Psalmist: "I delight to do
thy will, O God." Nor yet with Paul: "For me to
live is Christ, and to die is gain." So far from
imposing life upon us as a burden, God evidently
intended life to be a constant delight. The whole
visible creation is proof of this. Says a distinguished
author:*
"Every sort of beauty has been lavished on our
allotted home; beauties to enrapture every sense,
beauties to satisfy every taste; forms the noblest and
the loveliest, colors the most gorgeous and the most
delicate, odours the sweetest and subtlest, harmonies
the most soothing aud the most stirring : the sunnv
glories of the day; the pale Elysian grace of moon¬
light; the lake, the mountain, the primeval forest
-Greg, The Enigmas of Life, Quoted by Lubback.
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