It is not only the unhealthy, bereaved, for
saken or ruined that consider life not worth
the living—who do not look with distinct eye
upon the real meaning of their life. There
are young men, their pulses beating steadily,
but who suffer from sadness. The estimate
of the many ordinary pleasures, of ordinary
existence, the neglect to place a real value
upon these, is the true cause of their melan
choly. How feebly we often estimate the
pleasures of respiration, that of muscular ac
tion, that of volition. Yet these are all pleas
ures. Were they more frequently valued
higher, fewer would be the graves filled with
suicides (for they virtually killed themselves)
taken in their early days when life should
seem brightest and pleasure should seem most
joyful.
Life then means happiness. He has true
happiness who most lives, who thinks most,
feels the noblest, acts the best.
And he whose heart beats quickest lives
the longest. Lives in one hour more than in
years do some whose fat blood sleeps as it
slips along their veins.
“ A day to childhood seems n year
And yenrs like passing ages.”
View with me that late catastrophe, which
swept ten thousand souls into eternity. What
countless heroic deeds have been recorded.
What other land or age can boast of men,
women and children so noble, so self-sacrific
ing, so heroic. Death given for another’s
safety, life for a life more dearer. What hap
piness those beings must possess and ever will
possess who endanger their lives to save an
other’s. So great is a human life valued that the
qualification of saving a life alone fully compen
sates the risking of alife. Yethowmuch nobler
to save a soul from eternal death ! How much
grander the deed to be the means of instilling
into ignorant minds incentives to a life of
goodness and purity.
Truth must therefore be the one object of
our pursuit and through the truth happiness,
THE FREE LANCE.
The chemist surrounded with his retorts and
fires, works patiently to discover some new
element or compound, fully satisfied if his re
searches benefit or enlighten his fellow-man.
Selfishness is not his'aim. Truth, truth em
blazoned on his banner, points out his path
and on he marches steadily, patiently. The
mechanic whistles merrily over his task, know
ing that his fellow-man will bless and' thank
him for his generous character and unselfish
workmanship. Why is it that our artisans,
our business men all toil together so cheer
fully ? Is it for the simple hard cash they are
earning ? No, no, there is, I believe, im
planted in every rational mind, a consciousness
that tells one to aid his fellow-man—aid him
gloriously and heroically. Why do we wring
our hands and cry out in anguish as we view
a drowning man. It is sympathy, unselfish,
noble. All we have would we give to bring
back that person to life.
If we have found that the present age offers
its peculiar intellectual trials, and if we feel
ourselves set in the midst of so many and
great dangers, let us not be paralyzed by the
consciousness of them, so as to deem the
search for truth unimportant, or anticipate
that it will be unsuccessful. Let us realize
the solemnity of our position as responsible
and immortal beings. We are creatures of a
day, soon to pass into eternity, placed here to
prepare ourselves for that unknown world into
which we shall carry the moral character that
has been stamped upon us here, and capable
whilst we are here of doing untold good by a
godly example, or of contributing to the ruin of
the souls of our fellow-man. How important,
both for ourselves and for others that we
should learn and appreciate that truth which
is to be the means of our salvation, how im
portant for ourselves, lest we be castaways !
how important for others, lest we help them
build a structure of hay and stubble which
shall be consumed and destroyed at the last
day.