Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-05-01

ny HENRY wARn aHrcHrR.

Take two boysat the age of twenty-five.
Where did that one come from9 He came
from the loins Of father that was upright
and God.fearing. He had mother that was
q mother indeed. chad loving brothers and
sisters. His entrance into life was almost
one of choral joy. At every step his wants
we're anticipated. His evils were foreseen
and averted He knew nothing about need.
He attained the ago Of twenty-five without
sickness, to know what it was; without tasks
and burdens, to know what they were; with
ont uncertainties, to know what they were.
He has had what we call good things for
twenty five years. And what is he at wen
ty-five? Well, he is q sweet goodish young
man-and good for nothing. There is NO
marrow in his bones. There is no steel in
his muscles. He has had no experience.
He never fenced with the devil and whipped
him. He newer fought until the sun went
down, and at last wrested victory under des-
perate odds. lie has had no training And
It has killed him, and made HIM q worthless
young man. And who is the other young
man, that has come down to twenty-five?
His father died in the poor.honse, and he ran
away from it when he was eight years old.
A good start in life! His clothes were rags.
He had as many windows in them as there
were in the factory where the cloth was
made. He went to ono who employed him
for the purpose of bruising and kicking and
cutting him. He ran away from this man to
fall into other as bad, or worse, hands. 1t is
difficult to trace his cource as he swept down
the edying stream, now whireled into this
channel, and now into that, sometimes on
one side and sometimes on the other. He
grew up feeling that man was his enemy, and
that if he had anything God must give it to
him, not that he must earn it. At fifteen 70
sixteen years of age he began to get hold on
life. He worked hard for very little. That
he husbanded. He studied while other men
slept. And wrought out for himself against
fate and q host of evils-what? Manhood,
the good gift that God ever gave in this world.
With heart to dare, with spirit to endure,
with fortitude to suffer, and with fearlessness
without presumption, at twenty five he look
ed at life and said II can conquer it."
Here are the two men. One has como on
the path Of good things. He is nice young
man! He is the mothers darling and the
fathers pride! His hands are lily white and
beautiful And he is good for nothing -
The other is all scared by the rough usage
he has undergone, and the severe experience
he has passed through. He is twenty five
and there is not line of beauty on him.
Gods pillow has drawn its burrows across his
brow. He is a. hard as an anvil and be has
been pounded as much. He has had evil
upon evil, and troubel upon trouble, and
what is he now? A man! and he will be
the worlds rudder, if God so please; for it is
the men who are wrought out under such
circumstances that steer the things that are
Now, l ask whether it is not true, in the
whole career of man, thit what are called
evil things are great deal better than what
are called good things. As between GOO as q
moral quality, implying virtue, truth, noble
ness, charity; and evil as moral quality,
implying meanness, lusts, appetites - Of
course, as between these there can be no
doubt that evil is always bad and good is
always good. But when we speak Of all:things
working out good, We mean good in the sense
of prosperity. And l declare that in the
whole course of mans life and education
he is served better by things that are not
good than by things that are. 1t takes both
to make fully developed man; it takes
prosperity and adversities; it takes blessings
and mischiefs; it takes soft pats, and hard
blows; it takes things bright and things dark,
it takes day and night it takes summer and
winter. All of these work together; and
when the man is wrought out as the produc
of them all, all things may be said to have
worked together for his good in the long run.