The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1869-08-21
What do we Live For?

uOHI, DIS uO JULIUS ONOI HIS DOOh1
stops and asks himself, "what do
1 live for? Shall [ live merely to |
feed my mind with knowledge? |
Is this the chief end of lifew His |
eye wanders forth over the world; |
he sees his fellow men fastening
| hither and thither, toiling and
| earning their bread by the
sweat of their brows; and again
he asks, "Do we live to eat and
| drink!-for tomorrow we die"
He turns to the philosophers of
| Greece and Rome, and asks them
what we live for. Happiness,
they tell him, is our beings end
and aim. The Stoics bid him
drink at the fountains of knowl-
edge, to look for happiness in the
mind; for
The mind is its own palace, and in itself
Can make heaven OF hell ahell of heaven
| The Epicurean tells him to join
hands with
Love, Hope and JOY fair Pleasures smill
| ing
He Joins the votaries Of pleasure
and visits the banquet hall. He
sees the wine cup passed around,
hears "the loud laugh that speaks
the vacant mind" He looks upon
the gay and idle company, and
asks, as this true life? Is this
the end for which we live? When
old age comes upon them what
will life be then? The hand will
trembble as it lifts the wine cup
to the lips; no more can they join
, in the giddy whirl; no more can
they follow fair Pleasures train
; Life will then be a burden, for
, the heart is joyless, the mind is
] dark and gloomy; there is no hap
; piness in living, and nothing but
terror in death and the grave"
He turns away from the glitter
ing throng. There is nothing no.
) BILE or worthy of life there. Where
4 shall we seek for an answer? In
/, the silent stiffness of the night he
/ opens the Bible, and asks, "What
do we live forgn And he is told,
1 ''No man liveth to himself" Then
h he recalls the noble words of the
f great poet
I "Let all the ends thou aimst at be thy
eountrys Thy Gods, and truths
/. Yes, we should live for some
thing-live for some high moral
purpose. Thousands live in this
world who but for the bread they
l. eat, the clothes they wear, and
: the space they occupy, would not
o be missed if they were dead. How
+ many persons permit themselves
J. to be borne along the current OF
a life without an effort to raise
themselves above the common
: level. And how many pass of
" the stage of life unknown. They
have lived, moved above upon
a the earth, and died uncared for
k Whyg They never did any good
y in the world. No one could say
l. of this one, Gle was the instru
k ment of my redemption; he first
. taught me my duties to my fellow
men, and what / owed to Cod
No one could say of this one, ''He
q lived for and honored his country.
p Or of that one, "He titled the
S, ground" They did nothing, and
II consequently persisted unlament
Ie ed. They lived as mere animals
= they ate, they drank, they died
Why will men who a1e made il
the image of God live the life of
&c brute?
o. Thomas Dick, the christian phi
n lospher, says-"That beings fur
r. ished with powers capable of de
v termining the arrangement, til,
motions and magnitudes Of dis
, tant words-of weighing the mass
~ es of the planets-that being,
! capable OF forming q sublime in
terc0urse with the Creator himself
" and of endless progression O
IN knowledge and felicity, SHOULD
II have their minds almost who'll,
S. absorbed in eating and drinking
V. in childish sports and diversions
seems at first view tacit reflec
tion on the wisdom of the Creator
a. in bestowing on our race sucl
it noble powers"
or Reader, will you who have these
u, noble powers, this immortal mind
D. live thus? We should have som,
If high and noble object in view
lie We should choose what we vii
Is be and do, and prepare ourselves
well for the chosen place; max,
everything bend to it; for we can
Re not be good in but one thing. A
he boy once swore at the altar tina
he would be the eternal enemy O
1 l.