Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1872-10-17
The True Way to Rest.

OF all the miserieS which can assail
man Of action and affairs the greatest,
perhaps, is the custody Of his own facul.
ties when suddenly banisEed from, or
lifted ont Of, the arena of duty and service.
Many soldier to whom every day
brought tedious marches, short ratinns
and mortal perils, and who had longed
for years for the security and plenty of
his own village home, has lived to prove
that white winged peace which bore him
to a mothers arms TO be condemnation
20 slnggi>hness aud monotony OF life
for which he would gladly resume the
picket and the camp fire, the heavy mus
ket and the daily exposure to wounds and
sickness and death,
Hundreds Of business men, full Of
cares and solicitndes, have ianCied that
these burdens and anXieties where their
prison house, and have strained forward
to the day of jubilee when they should
escape the bondage of daily business,
and for the first time become frcemcn
When that day of jubilee came, and
worn and weary merchant tinancler or
tradesman has quilted his calling and re
tired upon his envied fortune, he has too
often found that the wings that bore him
away from business turned out TO he
ravens pinions, ominous and baleful, and
the bird a pelican, picking ut his own
bleeding breast, not to feed its brood, but
to satisfy its own craving for excitement
that would not come, Better, in nine
cases out of ten, for the man of business
10 bear all his cares than flee from the
providcntial sphere of his Importance,
his intercourse with his peers, his COLI
sion with the rivals of his hopes and aspira.
tons. Far better lose his fortune than
his haelth and his sanity, and both are
risked by abandoning customary cares
and duties and scenes. For one man
driven mad by oNcrwork, ten are craZed
and made melancholy TO desperation for
want Of employment for mind and time.
Until we can get away from our own
nature, away from our own mental and
moral constitution, away from the laws
of the Creator written in our hearts, we
cannot gain rest by merely ilying from
our circumstances, our proyidential lot
and our appointed burdens and cares.
We may change the place hut we shall
keep the pain. It, instead, We could
change our policy; that is, make amend.
monts in our habits, characters and inter.
nal carriage, then, indeed, the whole
prospect would be improved The idlcr
can change hisennui, not by changing the
scene Of his idlencss, but by ceasing to
be an idler The man OF business, in
yolved in vast responsibilities, must mod
crate his ambition and his Cupidity, not
merely change his hours and his habits,
if he would sleep at night or eat his din
ner without producing the nightmare and
the horrors Let him not vainly think he
can find relief by abandoning his calling
and rereating from his sphere That
will only be topping over from one OK
IRENE to another, and he will be just as
immoderate in his feelings as before, only
they viii be of different kind II he
was lately driven by the demon OF speCR.
latiou and excessive enterprise, he will
now be ridden by the demon of avaricc,
and will live with the poorhousc in his
dreams, and perhaps will eventually de-
stroy himself in disgust of life. -Lj5oral
Christian