Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-10-04
CHURCH CHIMES.
A Brief Sketch of the Sermon Of the
Rev. j. Ii. Thrall Delivered at
the Congregational Church
Yesterday.
Subject: SIS Life Worth Living "-
Text: Matthew 6:25; sis Not the
Life More Than Meat"
SIT is a Question Of How Much is In.
vested in Life and How Great
are the Profits"

These are days when life may be very full
and rich-days when great events rehappen
ing and great ideas are ripening, and great
progress is being made-days when centur
les are crowded into decades. And yet it il
in these days of activity and labor-savinl
machines, this world of variety and luxury
that the cry has become most intense, Is liz,
north lining?
Never was there an age so pregnant with
opportunities for making life worth living
AS the present age. Yet never was there an
age so full of aimless, frivolous, foolish
pleasure seeking lives. Never an age so full
of overcrowded, weary, stale, Improbable
and worn out lives. Never an age when
suicides have been 50 frequent. This ques-
ton is not asked by slow and stupetied peo-
pie, but by high bred, highly strung, highly
developed people, ideal and reflective peo-
pie, but people disappointed because out of
their proper sphere.
Is life worth living? That depends. De-
ponds on who you are and what life you are
living. 1t is question of how much is in
vested in life and how great are the profits
If you have invested immortal capabilities
in an enterprise that fields only time returns,
your life is not worth living. The life of u
clam is worth living if you are clam, but
not if you are a man. The life of an
archangel is worth living if you are an
archangel, but if not best to aspire to it if
you are only man. Every life is worth
living for somebody or something, but not
for everybody and everything. Agassi2
said he could not afford to make money.
There are men living lives and living them
contentedly that it would never pay me to
live. If man is discontented it is because
he is not in his proper sphere of life, or be-
cause he is trying to leave his proper sphere
for Il sphere that for him is improper. 1t
certainly is not because of life itself. Life,
per Sc, is simply field of unlimited oppor-
tunities broad enough to contain both a
heaven and hell at once.
How many lives are out of their proper
relations?
A man was meant to be a man. That in
wolves much. 1t involves thought, purpose.
Think, then, and have purpose. 1t in
wolves a definite plan and perseyering ac-
ton. Go forward, then. Let not your con-
tent be the content of a dumb brute content
with food. clothing, sleep. That is the sure
road to discomfort. els not the life more
than meat" A life with God has always
been worth living, ever since Enoch walked
with God. A life in large human and di-
vine relations, with large social and spir-
itual hopes and purposes, and in a great
light, has always been worth living. You
are man, and a life in Gods image ought
to be worth living. You are a man among
men, and life for others ought to be worth
living.
As man you are walking through life as
through enchanted ground To look back
is dangerous. If man looks back, and
spends his time in retrospect and vain re-
grets, he is lost. He is turned to stone like
Lots wife. The future is mans kingdom.
Let him 60 forward and conquer it. Do
scenes vary? Let hope and enjoyment take
the color of each new scene and vary with
it. Live ever on the new plane of the
present. Too much philosophy of life, too
much dream, too much wish, too much retro
spect, and not enough purpose of action,
would confuse even nm angel and
forward and make the very stones
in your pathway, stepping stones to
a higher life and larger and grander
and more spiritual future. Is sorrow yours?
Step upon your trouble as the ship steps up
upon the pillows, and it will bear you on
ward and upward.
The sorrowful, melancholy life is not
worth living, and ought not to be lived. The
empty, sunless life is not pleasing to God or
man. Sorrow is a human reality, but it
should, like bird, sing its plaintive song
sweetly.
If, when touched with disaster, the
changed life takes on a new beauty and
strength, such a sorrow is worth having
The peculiar mission of a bereaved person
is to bear perpetual witness to the truth of
the promise, He giveth songs in the night"
Greater and greater grows such life; ripper
and ripper such hope; brighter and brighter
such joy; sweeter and stronger such a
character. Who ever heard of growing
Christian who did not find the Christian
life worth living? Keep in your sphere. A
weary life is not worth living. The sphere
of weary man is to rest. A monotonous
coorless life is not worth living. A mser's
life is not worth living, and he is made to
feel it. Who ever heard of a happy miser?
A stereotyped, changeless life, however per-
feet, Is not worth living. Imagine such a
thing as finished world, a finished heaven
Every stage and phase of growth
has its own peculiar meaning and lesson
and joy. The best and happiest life is not
born into luxury like a flower full-blown.
always pitied Adam because he never was
boy. 1t is natural that there should be
first the blade, then the ear, then the full
corn in the ear" And in heaven there is
action and growth, "They go on from glory
to glory"
A life behind its own chances and cling
ing to dead past is not worth living. There
are people here in Utah trying to live thou
sands of years behind the age. Once such
a state of things would have amounted to
something but that time has long gone by.
Leave it alone, and such a state of society
and government and religion will rot down
in its own discomfort. Most discomfort
comes from looking too far behind or too far
ahead. You never heard of men who live in
the present with their faces to the future
complaining of the emptiness and vanity of.
life.
The world is getting crowded, and there
is no longer room in it for a cynio, or n pes
3lmist, or for carping and critical person.
We are imperfect men in an imperfect
world God meant we should stay here and
make the best and the most of it. Our
sphere is to be good, hopeful and happy and
10 make the rest of the world better. When
we get ready for the state of an arch
angel God will let us know and will
transplant u.s. There is no place in the
world for the man who lives wholly
in and for himself. Room room! giyee
your soul an environment that it may grow
Physical, mental, spiritual room! Don't
measure God and destiny by your own lit
5leness, or estimate heaven by your own bad
feelings, particularly if these are due to
neanness or dyspepsia. Get out of lassi-
,ude. 1t is not the place for you. Get out
Of pain, and let your doctor help YOU. Get
20 the fullness of your little world A very
simple life contains boundless resources and
endless variety, though most people fail to
ind it out. There are two kinds of worlds
and telescope. If you
haven't telescope at hand to
each the distant world you long for,
lse your microscope on your own world
while. Unmask the dark planets and
earch for the small asteroids in your own
title system. BE yourself. There are pecu-
lar compensations in all spheres of life.
search for the compensations peculiar to
'our own sphere. In everything do
'our best, and leave mistakes and fail
lres with God, Live the higher life
hat is more than meat. Physical beauty
lies and is buried. Self-love dies and il
,uried. Earthly pleasure dies and is buried.
earthly treasure perishes and is thrown
way But love of God and love of man
ever dies. Beauty of soul never dies. Truth
lever dies. Heaven never perishes or is
God md al,