Morning journal and courier., 1889-06-24

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 l ward in case it is gained, and how completely l 1t passes away from the conscious possession ! of the recipients at the end. And with yet
 more solemn force 1t is taught, think, to 1 educate men, such as we are, when we see the often-repeated sight of the dry and | pleasureless life of 8 man whose whole ener- I gy for long years has been given to the ac. | cumu1ation of wealth.
 When this man retires from his business for the hoped for happiness of advancing l age, indeed the impossibility of falling into l such joylsss condition is one of the grounds of our thankfulness for the privilegs of be- ing educated men. The word of scripture, that Godliness has the promise of the life
 that now is, bears in itself the truth of deep
 and wide meaning. The things which have
 their home within the man are not of value
 hereafter, but here not only in the future,
 but the present.
 So it is of all the inward things. They
 far surpass the outward and show their work
 in the experience of the man to-day and
 every day. But they also remain. Knowl- edge and thought power and character are 1 of the things that endure. The greater of
 them is character, for 1t is the foundation of
 all enduring and endless life, and it gives to
 thought and knowledge the greatest power to
 bless the soul.
 The third thing which the years bring to our knowledge is the fact of the silence and
 unseen growth of mind and character. One I of the most remarkable peculiarities of our
 ife's development fig found in this fact. It goes forward largely through the same means even to the end of life. But after a certain progress has been made the movement seems
 to be also by self propelling force, hidden
 alike from our eyes and our thought.
 Strangely to his own view the man finds him-
 self in some unexpected hour with what
 seems to be sudden increase Of power or of
 knowledge. He is able to do what he could not do before. He understands what was | before concealed from his vision. So it is | with character also. The one who turns into
 the right pathway and establishes himself
 strongly in the right line does no become ! stronger only by continuous conscious effort. He does not even have to- watch the growth of his inner life every day. It devel- ops like >t5 F1ter life. As the child goes about i his daily em rloyments and amusements half the time thoughtless of himself except for ! while by the passing of time becomes a man ! in the fullness of his nnsturity-so it is with ! character. The man rises and sleeps; he 4 thinks his thought and does his work; he Egives himself to the ful6llment of his plans and the realization of his hopes; and the ' character grows of itself.
 | There is silent, unseen, unrealized process \ going forward sleeplessly, through which new | power is attained and, if character is ! worthy ono, ,new beauty manifests itself This
 strange development moves on independently | when the man is filled with other thoughts1,
 
 when he puts them forth and by it's aid rem
 ders them more effective and fruitful.
 How true this is to the experience of ev- cry one who looks into himself as life passes
 on in its course. How suggestive it is with ! reference to a future growth in remoter
 years and beyond the limits of our present vision. How fully it accords with the teach ing of that wonderful teacher who laid hold \ upon character with divine energy and re- vealed his glorious possibility of the great | future
 | A fourth revelation which the years give \ us is of the wonderful and beautiful way by | whick life passes easily and gently from one | stage~of it's progress to another. There is nothing which more deeply impresses man | in the review of his own personal history ! than this. Life is, indeed, beautiful de- ' velopment. know now how 1t could be ! more so than it is, when it answers in any ! measure to it's ideal, and when it is viewed | in relation to the divine ordering of it. Let \ us observe the matter for moment in two lights. How striking, as we take one point of view, is the movement of life in relation to it's thought and it's enjoyment. The child thinks almost wholly of the physi- cal and the outward things. He finds his happiness as he dwells among them. He grieves sometime in the thought that the ad- vancing years must carry him beyond their sphere. He cannot believe in the future. But little time elapses, and he discovers himself to be in a new condition. He has hardly been conscious of the change, so gradually has it come to him. He can point to no moment, or no year, or no marked time in his living when he suddenly or abrubtly entered upon the higher stage. And yet he knows that it is the higher stage and that he has reached it. The thought of returning to the earlier state would be most unwelcome to him now, for his mind has learned more of the inward life. He has begun to realize the joy of knowledge and greater power, and in 8 peculiar sense is he conscious of himself The two stages have over-lapped each other so that the passing out of the one and the passing in of the other is like the | passing of the dawn to the morning
 The old enjoyments drop away as the I necessity of their presence ceases. The mind | and soul reach forward, and the new enjoy ment opens itself to meet and satisfy the \ larger possibilities of the opening life. We ! forget the things that are behind as we gre in the very act of pressing on to those that | are before. The lesser thing is not lost out | of the souls experience; it fades away into | the greater one.
 Thus life moves on delightfully from the ohild-age to growth and maturity. The | progress is after the same manner in the | years that follow. The young man who takes his classmates by the hand bids them farewell at the end of his university class, has sadness in his spirit because he thinks | that the most joyful season of his life is | closing, and that the friends and | the thoughts and the work in the future can | hardly be what they have been. But he | lives on in his manly career and silently-as | the character grows while he sleeps and rises | in his daily course-the old enjoyments pass I into the new ones; the old employments find | their places taken by higher and larger | works; the old scenes become a pleasant | memory, while those in which the later years have their home become present and per manent satisfaction. The transformation is | wrought by such slow degrees, and in a way so hidden to the mans view, that he can scarcely realize it, though he knows it's reali- ty. He is so different from what he thought I himself years agoi His daily life and work and pleasures are so changed from those of I the earlier season, and so far in their offer of ! good beyond what appeared to him then to be the happiest daysi And yet how natural he thinks it now, to be as he isl How concentrated in his thought he is upon his present life, and how full and rich it is to him. The morning hours have passed into the noon and afternoon as easily and gently as the dawn changed to the morning. There is, as 1t were, no consciousness of the change until it had been long accomplished. There is no regret of 1t, since the mind becomes ready for the new experience and happiness as soon as it learns that the old is no longer offered to supply it's wants. How striking, also, is this gentle movement of life as we think of this change in another view of it. HOW the man lQ HI HIS Sss6uIl01 mAnnOOO continues the same through all the changes. We leave behind us only what we do not need; only what belongs to one age or one period, and thus must pass away when the time for it's use or it's existence ends. The child's enjoyment, the use, thoughts and visions are out lived, they serve their purpose, work ing into life and character, and then they cease to be. They have fulfilled their mis. sion for the man, but the man does not lose out of himself the child element or the youth element; he bears it on with him to the after time. These elements of his life are forces in his growth and development, and the prowess and .fruitage of ad vsncing age are largely due to their presence.
 The man who returns to the university af- ter forty years of graduate life to meet the associates whom he knew in the years of his education, recognizes them as the same per sons that were with him then. The youth, whom he knew, indeed has taken OF 8 larger life He shows the growth of mind and heart which the long interval of time has