The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-02-04

The best physicians now all agree IN
recommending abundant sunshine for
the preservation and restoration of
health. SO cheap. easy, and pleasant
medicine would seem TO nscd no fur
ther recommended on, yet there are
many people who can hardly be induced
to adopt 1t, except in hom9ophat .
doses. BY . variety OF means, they
contrive to throw shadows that effect
ually exclude from themselves, their
families and their guests most of the
rays Of sunlight, which would other
wise render Their homes cheerful and
wholesome.
Something of the same kind is large
ly practiced with re gard to the JOY and
| gladness that surround humanity, and
that may justly be called the sunshine
of life. Every one desires this sun
shine in general way for himself and
for others; many seek it eagerly in
their own way, and many complain Bit
teily that SO little of it falls to their
lot. Yet multitudes OF these very peo-
pie are daily engaged in putting up
barriers against tin throwing shad-
ows that spoil and annul as much of it
as comes within their influence. One
OF the most common Of these shadows
is that OF discomfort Each one pos
sesses many actual sources of gladness,
and imagines multitude of others
which are out of his reach. Now, to
dwell in the first of these, to realize
them keenly, to rejoi Q in them gladly,
to recount them and emphasize them,
is happiness. To dwell in the latter,
to be continually thinking of the things
we have not got, or the advantages that
We never had, is certain unhappiness.
One man has good health, good hab-
its, and strong arm, with which to
cleave his way through life. Others
look upon his conditionwith envy, but
he values it lightly. He is occupied
with wishing he had more money. or
larger business, or more powerful
friends. Another man is wea thy, and
all that money can command is his but
his mind is full of things that money
cannot buy-health, or genius, or love
these he fancies are all that can make
life worth living. Another has good
home, fair prospects, and many friends,
but he has suffered bereavement
which he allows to cloud the whole, or
he has failed in one undertaking, and
all other successes he counts as moth
ing. So in innumerable cases. what is
lacking is held up continually before
the sight, and, like heavy curtain, it
shuts out the real sunshine of life.
which is plentiful enough to envelop us
all in brightness, if we will but dwell
in its rays.
Another shadow which spoils the
sunshine of life is that of selfishness.
1t is q truth which is often declared
and seldom believed, that the seeker of
happiness at tho expense of others is
always eventually unsuccessful, while
he who strives TO make others glad is
always the happiest Of mortals. Men
are, on the contrary, constantly fancy
ing that LIES sunshine will fall short,
and that somo one else will get their
share, and in the struggle to gain more
they frequently lose all. The sun in
the heavens is no niggard, parceling
out his rays to be caught by the most
agile and appropriated to their use
alone; his light and warmth are plenti-
fully poured upon all. and the same is
true of the sunshine of life. No effort
to snatch some of its rays from another
for ourselves can ever be successful.
y
life by selfishness and injustice, but he
shall, even more surely, overshadow his
own in the process.
One shadow of which men are far too
little conscious is carelessness. People
may be amiable, kind. and even unset
fish, and yet, by lack of watchful
care in fulfilling their own duties, they
may shut out the sunshine from many
lives. A little carelessness in the archi-
tect's plan or the builders work, and
many lives are destroyed or health
broken up, inhicting misery on thou
sands. Some officer has simply ne
elected single duty, and the battle is
lost or the ship is sunk. The merchant,
meaning no njustice, is only careless in
contracting debts, and he fails, bring
ing poverty and distress to hundreds of
innocent sufferers. Many q careless
wife and mother Is responsible for the
ruin of husband or children and the de-
struction of the home. Dark and thick
are the shadows cast by unfaithfulness
In work and looseness in obligation.
There are other shadows, less dense,
perhaps, but sufficient to cloud, if not
to Bar out, the sunshine of life. There
is O gloomy disposition, which may be
at first an inherited misfortune, but
which, when INDUCED and encouraged,
becomes voluntary sin. There is a
spirit of fault-fnding and criticism,
with its irritating and singing power,
and there is q captious and selfish over
sens.tiveness that is always ready TO
imagine affronts where mono are in
tended. There is GOODNESS and pride
that kills affection, and an ungenerous
love that is ever claiming more than is
due and destroying spontaneity. Many
O home rs thus darkened and chilled,
and many friendship strained and
broken.
Let MS then strive, as far as possible,
to Withdraw all these and other shad-
ows that deprive humanity of the
blessed sunlight. Happiness is as
health-giving to the heart and soul as
the sunlight is to the body; and he who
keeps wide open all the avenues
through which it comes, and removes,
to the extent of his power, all the dark
coverings which obstruct its entrance,
will he in himself the manifest man