The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-06-13


years have passed away since the
morning stars sang together and
man was placed upon the earth, yet
the study of existence still is fresh
and interesting, and is still develop
ing new facts and principles, OF
presenting old ones, under new
guises. One generation has sue-
ceeded another, fourished for day
as 1t were, and then has passed
away to make room for fresh ar
rivals. Their part played upon the
worldly stage they have gone,
where? the lingering echos of past
fame alone telling us they have
lived and suffered and passed away.
Love and hate, friendship an enmity
have each in turn arrayed their
power to sway poor human nature
love of fame, wild ambition IN
sparing in its selfisbness - noble
emulation, true, strong and self-for-
getful, DESTROYS Of competing in
usefulness with all-each in turn
passes before our mental vision in
chronicle of old, adding to the ever
increasing aggregate OF human ex-
perience and wisdom.
The nobIest triumphs and the
most miserable failures jostle and
crowd each other on the way of
life, constituting a sort of ksIeidis-
copic patchwork of light and shade,
chang e .ble, unreal and uncertain,
readable in meaning only by the
earnest eve of faith-faith in an
omnipotent, omnipresent and love
inspiring God of justice and mercy.
An aim or object is needed in life
to arrest and chain the attention,
and consistency and perseverance
are necessary, if a straightforward
consistent course is followed and
dispatch in the accomplishment of
purpose is desired. If there
is no guiding aim, no object of
pursuit, no purpose 10 carry out, no
defined pathway to follow, we will
be apt to sWerve from our course
one side or the other, as interest or
desire prompt us and as likely to
miss entirely the goal sought as to
win it. The ploWman who desires
to turn a straight furrow, sets his
gaze upon an object on the farther
side Of the field; he ploWs land no
matter what his skill in the absence
of such an object, he is liable to fol-
low crooked course. And in set
ting that aim we should be sure
that it is not a movable one, or we
may fare as did the unfortunate
Irishman, who was told by his mas
ter to take for his object point
grazing horse upon the opposite side
of the field and plow directly
towards. The master being called
away did not watch Pats proceed
ings and when he returned at the
end Of a quarter of an hours alb
Sence, he saw Pat still blowing
| towards the horse which had left
his former position and walked to
the opposite side of the field, and the
furroW Pat had turned, had followed
the sinuous course Of the moving
horse and was about as crooked as a
corkscrew, or a Chinese puzzle. So
it seems is the movable aim of many
people. 1t is not stationary and
changes at different periods Of their
lives, there being no certainty Of the
same views being continuous for
two days together. 1t is not every
one who understands what he does
want, or he allows the ever recur-
ring incidents of daily life to carry
him away from it and the indeffina-
tiveness of his desiresleads him at
times to the extremes Of foolishness
There are very few individuals who
escape altogether departure from
a right path, only frequency and ex>
tent creating difference in degree.
A young man, or young woman
has an object Of pursuit and an aim
of some kind. What is it? Is it to
gain wisdom and knowledge and to
follow worthily in the footsteps of
the virtuous dead or the noble iY-
ing-fOr many noble men and Wo-
men are living now-or is it to graf
| ify some trifing want or fool
ish vanity, that we may
show our superior abilities
and graces? Is it to become a good
man, or a good woman, useful Cit
izen doing our part in the work of
] life, easing the burden Of the sin
laden, weary and suffering poor on
the way of life, cheering the unfor-
tunate. giving encouragement to the
Respondent and cast down! or, is it
to listlessly pass our time in indo-
lence, fostering every selfish feeling
to the exclusion of all useful and
honest labor-in apathy or worse
still, to waste our energies in pur-
fsuing objects of vanity and sin.
No young man should seek to en-
ter upon the arena and undertake
the duties of life, without having an
aim of some kind nor should older
ones perseYere in their labors with
out a deinate purpose. The more
| pure and noble this aim is, the
purer and nobler will be the life
lived. No one can set his aim too
high, assregards purity and useful
ness. We are all children of one
common. parent and in no way can
We better display our regard to
God, than in living useful
and kind to one another.
While EVERY one should think with
the Englishman-that his house is
his castle, yet, like the generous
pioneer Of our western borders, the
latchstring should always hang out.
Innocence should ever be shielded