The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1860-05-26

be a truth like natural iAs, believed asad
acted upon unconscionsly. Our very hap
piness requires this--at any rate our high
est happiness. Unconsciously, almost. our
minds rebel against the necessary law Of our
happiness. Weare constantly coming short
lof our duty either because ue do not under
stand, or will not obey, this law. Out OF
their nature, all things are worthless but for
mischief.
AS means to an end. all lhings are good
As ends only, they are good for nothing.-
And this is the reason why read to You
that singular chapter from Ecelesiastes,
which made many of yon stare so. where
Solomon told what be did He did graf
many things that hope wiz never be done
again. He went through aNide ciFeuit Of
folly which many Solomonunculi have I'M
dertaken TO go through since. He got him
| pleasure, he got him. servants. he got him
silver and gold, and he said to these things.
''Now, then, make me happy u If Solo
mon had been half as wise as it is pretend
ed he was. he would have known better
than to have started on such a FOOLS err
rand as that. But he found out that he was
a fool; and it requires great deal of wis.,
dom to find out that much. Many men
live fools, and die fools at last. This man
Solomon took the life-blood of an age. and
put it in his cup, and drank it, that it might
make him happy; and he was not happy af-
ter all. He vainly sought the things of this
world as ends of life.
This is the history of Byron, who tiled
to make himself happy by an intense con-
centration of his life on single objects OF
enjoyment or pleasure, and failed. 1t is
. ha htIo IF kr11
Faust" It is the history of great and
noble nature that takes fight through all
possible experiences of genius, to find at
every step that it is WEAKNESS, vanity, and
vexation of heart, simply because he ex-
pected to find resting place, an end. in
stead of means to something beyond and
higher.
Pleasure. as simply means to an end,
and so sought, is harmless and beneficial;
but pleasure sought for itself-pleasure
sought for pleasures disorganizing in the
beginning. wearying in the middle, and
corruptng in the end.
Wealth is excellentiy good, and seeking
wealth is good, if it be rigidly held simply
as means to greater end. But wealth.
sought for wealth, and kept for wealth, is
not good. I would rather have 8 red drag
on around my neck, than be tied to red
gold, if that was my dragon master. Men
that have wealth and do not know what to
do with it, are the most miserable men out
of hell-and they ought to be There is a
fable told of man whose gold was poured
molten down his throat. The same thing is
done every day in the year among US; and
we hear the victims squeal perpetually, in
their wretchedness and misery.
Power is good, influence is good, where
it is merely a means to a higher end but
the moment man stops on it. and thinks
of it as an end, it ceases to be good. Art,
genius, literature, learning, skill, labor, and
all other things in this world, when regard
ed as means, are good; but the moment
they cease to be stepping stones to goal in
the future, the moment they cease TO be
mile stones on the way toward immortality,
they become accursed. When held for pur
poses of good, they are angel ministers, but
the moment they are held for what they are
| in and of themselves, they become instru-
ments of destruction. Mercy. justice. duty,
attainment, and the like, are righteously
good, but the moment you cease to use
them for deciphering the eternal world, the
moment you say. LET US have three tab
ernacles on this mount of vision" that
moment you become bewildered, amazed,
insane.
This, then, is the secret of life-to seek
all you van lay your hand on, but to seek it
only as round of ladder which is good
for nothing for man to sit and roost on,
but is good to enable him TO take another
step. that step being only preliminary to the
next. We are living on flight of stairs in
this world, and we shall not touch the
chamber floor till we touch the vestibule of
heaven