Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-04-07

bility that makes man man and not a
! mere automaton controlled by powers
above and beyond him.
God has established that real lasting
happiness shall be built up upon the laws
of health and moral goodness, and disobe-
dience of those laws and neglect to cult
vate certain temperament and DISPOSE
ton should no more expect to grow up
into peace and happiness than
an idle man should expect to
heap up riches. Happiness means
health and the disposition to enjoy and APP
preciate life and its blessings when we
come in contact with them. And as to
temporal happiness--in matters of love,
success and business. How often we stand
at the forks of the roads, one leading to
peace and joy and content, the other to
sorrow and misery; yet we go the wrong
way, and then wonder at the unhappiness
or failure we meet with as life worth
hvingY Look into history and life and
get back the answer. What is the ever
moving present doing for US? The past
is not lost; it lives and glows in the pres
entail its treasures of sweetness and
goodness garnered as a rich legacy for our
present use and comfort,
The trouble is that we are too micro
scopic in our vision; we overlook a thou
sand good things to concentrate our
thoughts on the imperfect or evil. We
reject bushel of wheat for few spears of
chat, or disturb ourselves about those
things which do not concern US; for God
did not intend us to use our time in
microscopic hunt after the weakness and
Investigations nf thOO,, N bo,,+
We will allow some weakness or imper-
lection to outweigh hundred manifesto
tions of goodness and generosity. One
weakness no more makes a character than
good deed or evil action makes saint or
sinner. 1t is not our concern-God will
look after the proper adjustment in His
final judgment. Do not fear that any one
will be overlooked or forgotten in the final
reckoning. There is no such thing as
individual or public perfection. The
grandest characters of history have had
their weaknesses and imperfections. Ba-
con had his weak and even sinful quail
ties; Milton had his hours of ill-nature,
and sometimes rudeness. Luther was false
in some of his opinions and superstitions.
Demosthenes could urge others into battle,
but was himself cowardly.
Caesar and Cicero were both vain and
egotistic, SO, too, Hale and Webster were
weak IN some points, yet they were grand
men, and it would only show the narrow
ness of mind that argue from their faults
the meanness Of mankind And So too,
Christianity asks for broad and not a
mean, little, narrow treatment. 1t must
not be entangled with the sins of David
the l-Y,accna Cf Mrea, CoJ
1t must not be mixed up with the views
OF Edwards and Calvin in their ideas of
material hell, in the damnation of inno-
cent infants. Nor with individual churches
nor individual Christians. Churches and
individuals are not religion any more than
books and colleges are education. They
are only means of grace opportunities for
spiritual growth and development. If they
produce no result, the trouble is not in the
religion of God, but in the wiIlful reec-
ton of spiritual influences. Have we ever
thought that the very fact that immortal
ity is so longed for indicates the amazing
worth of human existence? Each year is
so dear that we crave for more of them.
What a blessed thing to have this present
consciousness, these throbbing and out
reaching powers of thought, feeling and
emotion.
To see the seas and the mountains, the
hills and the valleys the storms and the
sunshine, the planets and consultations
wheeling their eternal cotillions in the
heavens above u.s. To be able to taste
thousand different delicious favorsl To
catch the perfume of a thousand different
flowers, the pink, the rose, the delicate
violet, and the fragrant heliotrope! To
hear Thousand different sounds from the
great heavy roll of the rafting thunder,
to the exquisite songs of the birds or the
tender notes that fall from thrilling harp
strings.
To have such powers of mind and spirit,
to think such thoughts, to glow and throb
with such deep and sacred feelings, which,
if God be true and our natures not lie
and mockery, must grow and expand in
a realm beyond this. Oh, what worth in
such deep, tender and divine conscious
ness. Who can realize the blessings of
God all through life, and the possibilities
bound up in each created soul, and still
ask is life worth living ?" The adverse
reply is more often settled by ill-health or
poor digestion than by any logical or
philosophical argument
Whether life is worth living to you or
to me will depend upon the use we make
of it Use it aright-live in harmony
with the laws of health and life-of good
ness and God, and peace and Joy will teach
you It's value and preciousness. But waste
or squander it in sin and dissipation, and
then be assured by every law and analogy
of life-by the ten thousand wrecks of
restless, disappointed, blighted lives about
you, that some day you too will ponder
this gloomy, dismal question of disappoint-
ment, waste and bitterness-you too will
cry out, ooh God, why was | created ?"
as life for me worth living ~ And the
reply will come from bitter and empty
past, at vast was; but your folly and
your sin-your neglect of goodness and of
God has made 1t a wreck and blight, and
little wonder that, gloomy and despairing,
you brood and ponder over that question
of broken health and wasted opportuni-
ties-"Is life Worth ivinp2',