American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-06-19
MISS, SATURDAY,

you are thirty-six-no weary marcel
toward the oasis year after year, but
fruition at once and forever, which will
leave no room for anticipation and nc
neednlI would beg of Heaven to save
me from such fate as that and give me
still the old, blessed, buoyant hope thai
is not seen. And so l say to you, young
men and women who have still to fight
your way and wonder many a time what
will come of the fight, know no more
than you do how to answer that question
for myself; but this know: that if you
can hold on to a real, pure hope and fol
low its leading, that is treasure the fru-
ition can never equal between this and
the foot of the great white throne.
But 1t is clear to me that this blessed
belonging of life must rest again on
these sure foundations: First, a true faith
in God, and second, true endeavor in
ourselves. For, as the farmer would be
fool indeed if he began to plant his
corn and expect his blossoms in Novem.
Der, or If, in these early summer days, he
sat on the stoop and said: Here is sum-
mer again; Nature is stirring; she knows
what to do; need not care; things will
come all right without my trying; shall
have all want and hope for;" and as he
is only wise when he seizes on the right
instant and, with that on his side which
means to the farmer that Heaven is on
his side, bestirs himself and puts his
whole manhood to the task of making
his hope come true, SO in our whole life
this truth holds good and can never be
neglected, or our hope will be false and
vain. There are hosts of men and wom-
en- who indulge in the most winsome
dreams of fair and good future, and
begin at last TO try for it when there is
no more sense in their trying, for this
world at least, than there would be in
planting corn the last of July and trying
for crop. Hope thou in God" the
psalmist cries; but a hope in God that is
not true to the revelation He has made
of His law is lie.
" hope to win the love of a good
woman and keep it to make home and
raise family that Will be the joy of my
old age" the young man says us he drifts
on to middle age, while the blessed
spring-time closes behind him and every
year the first person singular is written
with bigger letter, and self-indulgence
eats him up close to the margin. That
man has no right to hope for these blessed
gifts of Heaven; he is all out of true
with himself aud with God. I'VE hope
the world" the father and mother say
as the little flock comes about them, and
then he goes about his business and she
crowds her life into her card-casc. They
hope the children will come out all right !;
they have no business to hope for any
such thing; they are no more justified
in such q surmise than the shepherd
would be in hoping the lambs would be
safe on the plain while the wolves were
in the distance as he turned over
and went to sleep.
man again while l am eating
things and doing things that must make
me sick, If there is such q thing as right
and wrong touching these organic
laws; or to be q sober man if my will
does not forever mount guard over my
appetite; or q true man and a trusty
while dare, ever so deity, as a minis
ter, merchant, or in any other calling,
to sell the truth to serve the hour, and
palter with Eternal God for power"
These great and holy powers of a proper
than the harvests do, and the grand
Murillos and Turner'S in the galleries, or
than safety comes to a ship at sea when
you drive her through fog, as they
drove the hapless Schiller, and take no
Those officers, no doubt,
hoped she was going along all right; they
had no right to hope SO, and, wherever
they are to-day, the blood of those hap
less passengers is on their souls.
But am quite sure again that, when
we are true to this double truth of
Heavens opportunity and our own man.
full endeavOr, what is lost in failing to
cherish great, pure hope cannot be re-
covered in the grace and the joy of life;
and allowing, as we must, for that differ
ence in the human nature by which one
mans hope is as five talents, and an
others two, and another's one-allOwing
for this difference, we are to blame for
our forebodings, and not Heaven.
We can cherish sure hope about our
future, and the future of those that be-
long to us, a sunny, eager unlocking
toward the fulfillment of all of the
promises God has written on our nature.
If the special form in which our blessings
will come; we never can be wrong about
he blessing. 1t may be like the mirage
'hifting from horizon to horizon as we
,lod YEARLY along, but the soul is bound
20 find at last the resting place and the
'pring. There is many a father in the
world to-day trying hard to get his head
lbove water who will sink, but his boys
will swim and reach the firm land, and
,hink of him with infinite tenderness,
while he, perhaps, is watching them from
above, and their success may be one of
The elements of his joy in heaven. When
read that pathetic story the other day
about our good friend, Mr.. Alcott, and
now he used to try and make his way as
! teacher and friend of the children, and
lailed in a manner, and then sat down
sunny and bright as ever, waiting in
nope, and then how, by and by, his
laughter did it-got the greatest school
md the most lovers among children of
my woman in America said: "That
IS the way, old friend; you had to wait
ike Simeon for the child that would do
what you only hoped for, and no doubt
{ is a dearer blessing to see her do it
han if you had done it yourself" So
our love may be cut off in it's prime, and
,ne may say: IL shall go mourning all
ny days" Not if you will let hope
whisper: These are not all your days
here is another life of which this is but
he poor, thin shadow, good and strong
IS it seems, at its best" and hope will
,ear you on out of this into that, and
hen you shall see that God never makes
! promise He does not keep, and that
holy, unfulflled longing which makes
1olr heart ache so intoierably is Gods
promise to you that you will be satisfied
when you wake in His likeness.
We cannot hide that some have strivcD,
Achieving calm, to whom was given
Joy that mixes man with heaven;
Who, rowing hard against the stream,
saw distant gates of Eden CLEAN,
And did not dream it was dream.
There are those always and everywhere
who, with sure faith in God, in that
Christ opened to us so per-
fectly, find their faith forever blooming
into hope that is not seen, and because
hey hope for that they see not they
with patience wait for it,