The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-06-17
TROUBLES OF LIFE.

-CulCdHO CtduuuTus
TROUBLES OF LIFE.
The Many Little Annoyances That for .
Time Spoil Our Lives.
We are quite ready, dare say, to ac-
cept the familiar fact, without stopping
to speculate much about it, that every
book of individual history contains some
dark pages. State it how we may, it is
one of those truisms which are tossed
about in the minds thoroughfare, and
at last, perhaps, trampled under foot.
There may seem to be few exceptions
to the general rule, elected to an APP
parent immunity from care, and excit-
ing the envy of less fortunate neighbors.
But one needs to have an exhaustive
knowledge Of others, before he can
determine what their troubles are. A
subtle law of compensation is working
everywhere, and tends to equalize the
most opposite fortunes, so that the
varied degrees in which the sharpness
of trial is felt may arise, not so much
from circumstances as from ourselves.
Some difference, no doubt, is to be
attributed to temperament, which often
has to cover multitude of sins. There
are men who seem to have positive
genius for making the most of what is
disagreeable, They always walk on
the shady side of the street, and look
with evil eye at those who are in the
sunshine. Half an hour in their COM
pany will suffice to destroy your own
peace of mind, and to make you quite
morbid in your view of the world in
general. At the outset, their gloomi-
ness may be simply bad habit, but if
it remains uncontrolled, it passes over
at length into a disease, and an in
fictitious one, too They are miserable,
and they make everybody else nlisera-
BILE with them.
1t is curious to observe how dispro-
portionate pftegtimss is the same init s
our worry to the real Importance of the
thing that worries us. One unconscious
ly braces himself in the crisis of some
great trial, and whatever heroism turks
in his nature comes into active.exercise.
But what small annoyance will change
the whole color of our landscape, and
paralyze our noblest energies! This
weakness, can not but think, is partly
due to kind of practical atheism, which
admits the compassion OF God in sea-
sons of unusual disaster, but leaves the
wide expanse of ordinary life wholly
unbefriended by His care. There
are some Christians who have
scarcely improved on the old
Syrian estimate of local Jehovah:
1.-THE Lord is God of the hills, but He
is not God of the valleys" They bring
their greater troubles to Him, and bear
their smaller ones alone. Surely they
can not believe in the God who watches
over the falling sparrow, and numbers
the hairs Of our head.
In spite of the one-sidedness of the
ancient Stoicism, it still teaches us some
useful lessons. The Encheiridion OF
Epictetus is said to have had the unpar.
alleled distinction of being adopted, as
a religious work, by the early Christian
church. In that treatise he shows that
the seat of trouble does not lie in things
themselves, but in opinions about them
Nothing, The says, that the will willetf
not can hinder or hurt the will, but itselt
can only hurt itself" Therefore, the
man who strives to live according t.
nature"-that is, according to the vii
of God as revealed in the heart and con
science, and interpreted by the facts o.
life, is impregnable to anything thai
can really be called evil, as long as h
walks in the path of duty. We can no
be too frequently reminded that th-
greatest troubles in life spring from ouI
own wrong-doing; and, while only ;
selfish spirit can shut itself out from tht
cares and griefs of others, the sorrow
that comes from sympathy can neve
have the sharp sting of the sorrow tina
comes from remorse.
At the same time, philosophy does no
prevent most of us from feeling the an
noyance of great many things whicl
lie outside our personal control. w
are apt to dwell upon them, and tn
more they are thought of, the large
they seem to grow. While reason ma
convince us of their essential in
significance, something which is nc
reason looks upon them as very i'm
portant, indeed. A slight misundel
standing, an unjust criticism, the wan
of sympathy, the ill-natured spite of ii
natured people, will sometimes spoil &c
awhile our whole life. A great deal c
pessimism may be traced to an ovel
weening sense of ones own Importance
The majority of men are more anxior
. to know what other people think abor
them than to know what they ca
!, honestly think about themselves.
Unless something is to be gained /
contemplating what is unpleasant, Il
will ought to turn our thought ava
as we turn our eyes away from some r
, pulsive object. But if trouble can
lessenea by facing it, or made to ser
, some useful end, whether the trout
| lies with ourselves or others, it -wou
4 be cowardly not to face it, a,nd Fl
out its exact proportions. We G