Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1870-12-21
For the Waterman.
Random Reflections.

For tho Waterman.
Random Reflections.
BY a YOUNG MAN.
Life is battle which the brave must win
struggle in which truth and worth are sure Of
ultimate triumph although the multtudes
have, from time immemoral lived and acted as
if this statement was the widest fanaticisn.
1t n glorious thing to live to live rightly.
1t is still more glorious to die to die with the
consciousness of our duty well aud faithfully per-
formed in that station of life in which it has
pleased God to place us. 1t is the inverse Of tins
that enables the unthinking and iaultfnding to
call this beautiful world place Of perpetual hor-
rJr, misery darkness and despair These unhap-
py ones seem to forget that in their querulous-
ness, they have nfracted the law that they have
diverged from that deectable path in which is
found nothing but peace, a peace that embodics
the highest phase Of happiness that man can
grasp in this primary state Of being. They for
get that they have " done those things that they
ought not to have done, and left uudoue those
things that they ought to have done " They forget
that an All-wise Father has made laws for our
goyernance thatare unmstakable; that to diver ge
from them is disease, and to still further refract
is death
There is no difference of opinion amongst us as
regards happir IS being the grand desideiatum
but there % great difference when VIC come to de-
fine in what happiness consists, the direction in
which it lies, and the path to be pursued to reach
it. This chaosity of conception is seen and ex-
emplied in every day life we have only to Look
around us to become convinced of this great div
ersity of opinion in the myriad paths trod daily
BY poor humanity. We think that such and such
things will enhance our happiness and often only
discover the falsty Of the conception, when the
red-hot iron Of experience sears the flesh, and
perchance leaves its scar on body and mind for
life.
There is, perhaps, no conceivable way, no mat
ter how bad and vicious, that some erring and
misguided child Of Adam has not trod, and is
still treading, in search Of happiness. How
many Of us, with proyerbial impetuosity, rush
along the path that points to alth, and in our
mad and reckless haste to acquire the yellow ore.
have impoverished our minds, jeopardized our
souls, and trampled under foot the lowly and the
weak as they stumbled by the waysde, only 10
find at last that we have mistaken the path
that unalloyed happiness is not there How
many of us have trod the path where the Goddess
OF Chance holds sway in her giIded halls, and
staked all, even life itself, upon the turn of a
card, OF the throw Of die? And, alas, how
many Of us have iniracted, and are still infract-
ing, those immutable laws on whose observance
depends the development and cultivation of our
physical, our mental and our spiritual being?
1t would seem that too many Of US are willing
to do anything and everything except the one
thing needful-our duty in the position that
Providence has placed us. 1t seems to avail but
little that the many who have Travelled these paths
before us, tell us that happiness is not there
True, we see that skeletons dot these paths on
either side, but how little have we CLEANED from
their bleached bones? True we see that misery
and ci me, as well as degradation and obloquy,
have Joined hands here yet in our egotism we
press on, thinking that what has ruined and des-
troyed millions will not touch usj thinking that
with IMMUNITY, without paying the terrible price,
we can tread those paths and violate those laws,
while the lessons of ages and the voice of our
Creator thunder in our ears to the contrary.
Yet it is glorious thing to live, and this world
of ours is bright and beautiful world, wherein
nothing is left undone that could subserye our
welfare 1t is only the trasgressor that can call
this charming world deluaion, and life failure.
II we live noble, christian lives, we shall have
no occasion to repeat the anathema.
we cannot commit an act, speak a word, or
even conceive thought, at which our good angel
does not weep or smile and how essential il is
that all our acts, words and thoughts should be
compatible with the tenets and precepts of our
Creator, that we may be proclaimed at the iudp-
nent day, purer than snow, and receive the
blessed assurance that we have been staunch and
rue soldiers in the army of our Lord.
10 him who lives true to his higher nature, life
nay be struggle but what noble struggle
Z Is an egregious mistake to suppose that the
'oor woman, who struggles so brayey in her
soiated garret to raise up the poor little " heart
lowers" that have been entrusted to Ter care
o Iced them, to clothe them, to provide them
win that moral pabulum and example 80 neces-
AIRY 10 their being in short to raise them up
MO noble men and women, is n stranger to han
illness. Hunger, priyation and suffering she NAV
AVE known, but thank Providence such a npble
woman has known what no mortal soul can know
Until they have fought the same glorious fight
he consciousness that she has done her duty. and
aiely launched on LIES stormy pillows, sound
n body and in mind, and biased 10 the rivbt
hose human atoms entrusted to her care.
IL ia Qofnafhine, nj.