The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-01-23


We have more dreams awake than
when we sleep. a large part Of every
ones life is lrassad amid the stuff that
dreams are made of. At times we hardly
know whether we have been asleep or
not, a vision Of pss. and future appears
snd then vanishes away.
1t was in one OF there moods between
waking and sleeping, before Ring on the
morning OF the first day of the year, that
this vision passed before me, with all
the vividness Of the sun, and LETT its i'm
press So that can tell you what l saw
aud heard.
was walking On the bank of deep,
broad, silent river, flowing onward to-
ward the ses. The stream was covered
with vessels of various names and rig !;
ali going with the current making pro-
gress, some more, some less, but all get
ting on. Some of these ships were so
near that could see the men on board,
and with a little care I could discover
what each was set TO do, from the mas
ter to the cabin boy. There was
enough for all, and each vessel kept on
Is course, when every man did his work
faithfully and well. There was some
bad steering and slovenly handling of
the sails, and here and there a captain
was tipsy and things were out OF sorts,
and one ship would run into another or
get aground; and | saw that the neglect
Of any one TO DO his duty, made mischief
that brought trouble to all on board.
Before me in the path stood man
whose white hair and wrinkles told me
of his great age, and, even if he hsd not
carried scythe over his shoulder, l
would easily have known him as Father
Tine. He said to me in firm and manly
zones:
Whittier goest thou ?"
"With the current" replied; cal
things seem tending TO the sea; some go
by water, some by land, and l suppose
we are all going the same way"
"Turn," he said, "snd go back with
me on the path thou hast travelled"
We reversed our steps, and he spoke
to me of the path OF human life; it is
often called journey, a pilgrimage;
but it should rather be spoken of as
place, house, a field, a battle, service;
he said it is wrong to think of life as
sort of space or distance between two
goals, race to be run and then over;
voyage to be made and then the port to
be enjoyed; and, as we walked side by
side, he discoursed to me of tie duties Of
life, of the works that each man has to
do, and, negiecting which, he makes
failure. We came, in our walk, upon
wrecks of vessels stranded ard rotten on
the shore; by the side of the pathway,
and now and then in the very road itself,
were the remnants of broken engines,
and the scattered members of beautiful
machinery and the bones of human beings
lying in the grass By the wayside.
Puzzled with the sight of these things,
not one of which had noticed when
pursuing my journey alone and with
the current of the stream, looked up
with wonder to my patriarchial guide
and ass ed:
"What are these wrecks that stew
the road %
Lost opportunities ~ were the only
wordssthat fell from his lips; but they
fell as from out Of the sky, so far off and
80 solemn did they sound in my ear. l
was silent, swe-struck and anxious, for g
faint suspicion came to my mind that
this was in part my work, and these ruins
we're memorials Of my neglect, if nothing
worse. And l repeated his words in q
tone Of respectful inquiry:
Lost opportunities? Whose and
what, tell me, my counselor and friend"
He paused in his walk, and removing
rom his shoulder tne scythe, he rested
on it, and tcgau:
owe have gone back far enough to
learn the lesson of the day. The distance
we have walked IS in time one year. The
wrecks and ruins we have passed, and
those now in sight, are tse resolutions
made, the purposes formed, the works
begun, the chances enjoyed, the means
neglected, tie mischief done, deeds left
unfinished, friendships lost, Sabbsths
spoiled, months run to waste, weeks
fruitless, days died away, hours spent in
vain; each one OF these lost opportuni-
ties is a wreck and skeleton on the path
way of tiny existence. Hads't thou
done thy whole duty in this one year
over which we have walked, this shat
tered frame, now helplessly ruined,
would ha re been in beautiful operation,
working out q noble mission for the
good of man. Hads't thou stretched
out hand to save this struggling fellow
man, or let him lean on thy shoulder,
when he was weak and thou strong for
the struggle of life. he would now be by
thy side, or if left behind, would be
praying for thee, as he pressed on toward