Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-11-06
SIS Life Worth Iiyins:''

Mr.. Curtis once asked Mr.. Greeley, II
response to a similar question put to hin
by the great editor, How do you know
Mr. Greeley, when you have succeeded
in a public address, Mr.. Greeley, no
averse to the perpetration of a joke a
his own expense, replied: when more
stay in than go out" Mr.. MallOck'S ia
nous question, answered by himself il
a weak way, and repeated by Professor
Mivart. and answered in stronger way
is practically voted on every day, by the
entire human race, and decided in the
affirmative. "More stay in than go out,
| for reasons very much less important
than those considered by Mr.. MallOcb
and Professor Mivart. There are great
multitudes of men who possess neither
the Roman Catholic faith nor rightneSs
of life nor love, who yet live out their
lives in the firm conviction that it pays
them to ive-men who are open to no
high considerations, such as would have
weight with the Mallocks and Mivarts.
There is great pleasure in conscious
being. So universal is this that, when a
man occasionally takes his life, it is con-
sidered by those whom he leaves behind
him as preSumptive proof that he is in
sane. We say of man who designedly
ends his life that he is not in his right
mind. One of the most pathetic things
about death is the bidding goodbye to a
body that has been the nursery and
home of the spirit which it has charmed
through the ministry of SO many senses.
''For who, to dumb forgetfulness prey,
This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind!"
Mep find their pay for living in vari-
GUS ways. Hope may lie to them, but
they always believe her, nevertheless.
The better things to come, of which she
tells all men, become, indeed, the sub
stance of the things desired; that is, ex-
pectation is constant joy and inspira-
tion. The pay for this days trouble and
toll is i'll the reward which is expected
tomorrow. The reward may never
come, but the hope remains; and so long
rs that lives, it pays to live. 1t pays
some men to live, that they may make
money, and command the power that
money brings. To what enormous tolls
and sacrifices the love and pursuit of
money urge a great multitude of men!
The judgement of these men as to
whether life is worth living is not to be
taken at life's close, when they sum up
their possessions and what they have
cost, but while they are living and acting.
A man whose life is exhausted may well
conclude that what he has won is vanity;
but it was not vanity to him while he
was winning it, and i'll the full possess
ion of his powers he believed that life
is worth living.
Life is worth living to all those who
find engaging objects of pursuit, and
to those who win success in
their pursuits. We repeat, therefore,
that, by almost unanimous vote, the
human race practically decides every
day that life is worth living. Mr.. NAL
lock thinks it is worth living provided
a man has faith in great church; and
Professor Mivart--a Catholic himself
thinks life'S highest values are in the
doing of duty and in love. We should be
the last to claim that happiness is the
highest aim of life, and that, unless that
is secured, life is failure, and not
worth living. To do right, to sacrifice
ones self for love-these are better
things than pleasure. To love and to
be loved-these are things that pay. To
be conscious of nobility of character
and unselfshness Of life; to be conscious
that our lives are brought into affection
ate relations with other and harmonious
Iife-what are these but life's highest
values? What are these but the highest |
of conscious being?
If this be true,-that character and
duty and love are better than pleasure
and better than any success without
there is no human being
who needs to say that life is not worth
living. But the people who do not sue
ceed, who are unloved, who live lives of
pain and want and weakness-what is
there for these? A chance for conscious
nobility of characterized life; and if this
De not enough, as it rarely is, a faith,
not in great church, but in a good God,
and an Immortality that will right the
wrongs and heal the evils of the pres
ent life, and round into completeness
and symmetry its imperfsctions and de-
formities. Is it not foolish, after all, to
raise the question of success or failure
IN treating life that is only germinal |
or fractional ?-[J. G. Holland, in Scrib-
ner for November.