The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-07-10
WHY ARE THEY BURDENs9

Il
Americans are famous for their pre-
disposition to worry. While not famous
as athletes, it is well known that
large majority of them are ever ready
to meet trouble half way. Obstacles
and possible troubles that are great
mountains in the future frequently
prove but mole-hills in the present.
The first shadows of possible troubles
are p0rtentous with the direst calami-
ties, and the imaginative look out means
and shrivels and shrinks, exhausting
physical powers that would much bet
ter be used in furling sail and getting
the ship in good order to meet the COM
ing storm or, if everything is done,
then better store up the physical and
spiritual strength necessary to endure
the storm and its possible outcomes.
Many who claim the faith that would
remove mountains must use the faith
to remove some ones else mountain,
for frequently we see them buried un-
der the mole-hills of their own difficult
ties. Not that there are not grand souls
who endure; natures that never bow
before any storm except in the spirit of
submission. Such natures do not worry.
Then there are those who will not
adjust themselves to the inevitable con-
ditions that surround them. They are.
continually seeing how different their
lives would have been if only they had
the other persons opportunity. The
secret of life is not in being the other
man, but in being yourself, getting and
giving every possible opportunity for
growth and strength in your own life.
Nothing shows more clearly the mental
weakness of person than the excuse
for deterioration, material OF spiritual,
that 81 have not had chance :" that
circumstances have been too much for
me-" Circumstances are the waves in
the sea of life; if man is swamped
by them, it is evident that he had not
learned how to manage his life when
these waves were met.
/ Every one must meet his life under
it's own conditions. These may be a
EheApfnl wind, causipg one to sail alone
| in the line OF success, or they may be
heavy anchors, apparent drags and clogs
! to progress. If these last must be
borne, is it not wisest and best to carry
them as unconsciously as possible, do
ing the work that comes into the life
that calls the best powers into play,
and not consider results that the possi-
BILE success that this same life would
have if only these apparent hindrances
were not part of it?
Resistance to existing conditions that
one has no power or right to alter is
childish. The tramp has time to sit on
a fence and kick against the thorns by
the roadside the man pursuing the
same road, but with purpose, mas no
time to waste, and ignores the thorns
as far as possible. The more important
his errand, the more intense his inter-
est, the less time he has to notice trifes.
''It is hard for thee to kick against the
pricks." The pricks were the inevita-
BILE facts of Gods ruling power. Not
all the Pauls in the world, fired by the
most intense zeal, could prevent the
triumph of Gods purpose in the world.
So with our lives; we can sit down and
kick against the pricks, or we can so
adjust ourselves to them that we make
them part of our purpose of working
out eternal good Christian Union.