The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-02-16
The Lesson of a Lifo.

son, and has but recently been received by
the family:
The Lesson OF a Lifo.
When moralists wish TO incite the sluggish
souls of men to nobler degrees of activity,
they are wont TO urge upon those whom they
would thus fire, the emulation of the for
tunate, the successful, and the renowned.
The remoteness of such lives from the
every day experience of mediocrity, often
cancels the lesson. Wiser it were to preach
the sermons from more familiar texts. from
the lives that touch our own in the ordinary
transactions of common life
The death of Mr.. +. A. Thompson has
called brief halt III the march of his friends
and neighbors. which may well be devoted
to reflection. The tribute recently paid him
in the 'NoRTHEsNEE by an old friend, sketches
the external history of a rare, sweet life, and
does indeed suggest the sources of that
strength which enabled him to withstand
all the temptations of business and political
life, and of that fortitude which enabled him
to meet every form of adversely without
audible murmur.
Cheerfulness, patience, charity, and faith,
are not the qualities which command most
attention, or win most admiration, in a world
where men know even their nearest friends
'only in part" and where they sec even
these, las through glass, derkly."
Mutually supplemental as these qualities
are, they are by no means of necessity CO.
existent. They are not the fruits OF chance
;own seed, and are not attributable TO cir
cumstances. Prosperity often produces
their semblance, or at least hides their alb
sence. Adversely does not produce them,
but is often urged as an excuse for their alb
sence in otherwise exemplary characters.
The most sterling attributes cannot sub
stitute these. Integrity, courage, humility,
often defy adversely and maintain themselves
intact in a soul, despite her worst assaults.
But these qualities which are sometimes
brought into relief by adversely, do not
even combined, make lovely character.
If, in single word, one were asked TO
sum up the character of Mr.. Thompson, one
would needs say sweetness, loneliness.
proud man, to whom absolute independence
of opinion was as necessary as air, who ap-
preciated intellectual and social distinctions
and valued the high places in this life justly;
one who could enjoy the best gifts of this
external life with the best, he, the real man,
was not affected by financial losses, or by
the loss of place. man peculiarly adapted
by temperament TO value domestic joys, of
rare paternal tenderness, capable of maternal
sacrifices, he saw daughters who were the
objects of his fondest love, and SONS who
were the centers of his pride, fade out of life
and himself returned to its duties with no
bitterness, with no despair. Industrious,
active, accustomed to be the stay of wife and
children, and joying always in his ability to
serve them, he saw his powers wither, his
faculties fail and he became the conscious
witness of his own dependence on her whose
strong support he had been for nearly half
century. Yet no impatient or repining word
ever escaped him.
During the last few years, when his mental
life was in the past rather than the present,
his memory was haunted by none but pleas
ing images. His conversation during this
period betrayed mind which had in its
strength, been always occupied with the
worthy and the inspiring. No schemes for
money getting, nor political advance
ment, nor the promotion of material in
terests mingled with his recollections of the
past.
The deeds of patriots, the aphorisms of
sages, the songs of poets, abided with him
and testified TO a noble mind whose habit
had been, not preoccupation by self, but re
Election on impersonal interests.
He had accustomed himself to ignoring
the unpleasant and the evil, and so had re-
NAMED unsecured. His faith in the final out
come of good, with his consciousness of his
own purity, sustainedhim. He bad, all his life.
been wont to contrast time with eternity,
and he thought it only short patience that
should be as long as time.
This beautiful life emphasizes many noble
lessons bat perhaps none more than this,
that nothing is of so great value "a the
habit of discriminating between the essential
and the non-essential. A soul thus taught
may be stripped of all accidents, and remain
even unto death, sweet and confident, like
the spirit of him whose absence we deplore,
bat whose present freedom bids us rejoice.