The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-11-12
10 Life Worth Livinq7


jority of men it is an unceasing
struggle with the every day affairs
Of existence which perplex, weary
and dissatisfy.
In view Of all this, the questions
are often asked, "Is life worth liv.
ingp "Why are we herep-
@Whence do we come and whittier
do we goin "For what was the
race created" Is each individual
man bat one link in O long chain of
being that must ultimately perish !
We look at men great in renown,
whose imperishable deeds shall en-.
dare as long as the memooy of man
survives; we see them pass to the
silence Of the grave, and we ask, is
this all Is this the end of lifef-
Is there only nothingness left of all
that vast With the lying down of
the mortal part, whittier has passed
the egO-that something within us
which our consciousness asserts is
our real self enthroned within, yet
independent In its supremacy over
our physical being.
These questions are such as all
men ponder. Thought cannot be
stilled. From the first dawn of our
intelligence to the latest hour of
eur consciousness, like the unresting
tidal forces of the sea, the powers
of the mind are never at rest. The
problem of existence is that which
stirs Us most profoundly. That which
Is beyond life we long to explore, to
understand. Il is questionable if
the sam of pleasure in this life
balances the total of disappoint
ment and sorrow, whether the
worlds merely physical enjoyment
is not far less than its sufEering.-
Disease, and crime and poverty are
constantly at war with human hap.
piness. "Man 10 born to sorrow.n---
The world with its beauty is full of
death. What part, then, does man
play in the complex drama of exis-
tencea
Science teaches us that in the
natural world nothing can be utter.
" destroyed. Fire may consume
the forest, bat it still exists, though
in another form. Our bodies die to
hive again In plant or tree, or in
some other thing. Change, bat not
death, is written everywhere on the
face of this great universe.
IL death, then, left for mans soul
alone3 Isit left for him who is able
to harness the lightnings, to speak
across the seas, to measure the stars
IN their courses, TO weigh the suns
OF different systems, and to explore
BY the aid Of science the mysteries
ct the universe, to be hurried out of
that existence where he stands the
highest, and he alone of all things
10 be no moref
That such Is the case 10 the most
foolish of all assumptions. There is
nothing in nature, and nothing in
our own consciousness to sustain it.
Standing face to face with our own
thoughts, we feel and know that
underlying and superior to our ply.
sicial life there is that which is dis.
tinct and separate from it-there ia
that which loves and hates, which
reasons and aspires, which reaches
cut after immortality--impelling
forces within as which we recognize
% our true selves, superior to mat.
Ter, and more powerful than death.
Its the soul-life-the THAT which
makes the man, which goes out in
noble deeds, in living charities, in
heroic actions. in sublime self-sacri-
ESQ, which lifts the world to God.
and makes the human kindred with
the divine. aLf Q man die shall he
live againp From the dead flower
which in the spring time puts forth
it's buds and shoots, waking to fresh