Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-29
An American Story.
Copyrighted
By A NEW HAND.
CHAPTER XIII.-SUsPEYSE.

Heaven from all creatures hides the book OF
fate
All but the page prescribed. their present state.
Iiope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To Be blest.
Little was the Hon. De Witt Blarnaby
thinking what were the discoveries made
by Sir John and his friend Hogg on their
distant properties. He never dreamt but
that they went on pressing private business
and for short escape from the strain of so
great excitement. If they. outside specta-
tors only, or principally. felt the pressure
severe, how much more so he, the chief
actor, with absolutely everything 1T stake.
Here stood Blarnaby, the pivot around
which all manner of wheels were wildly
cIrcling.
No man can set limit to the influences
that emanate from him. His every act goes
on producing consequences for ever and
ever. though he recks nothing of his eter-
nal responsibility AZ the moment The
words of a man 90 out from his lips lightly,
but they are laden with results weightier
than he dreams fraught with blessings OF
barbed with curses that do their work on
his hearers. and then come back to him
sometime or other in visible or invisible
form, and make marks on the character ne
will leave behind him when he goes We
talk of immortality we co ct 1t; we build
our hopes on its anticipation; sometimes
and cast ABOUT for other consultations.
when all the time we are binding our own
eyes TO the mightieSt fact of our existence
the answering truth that every atom of
US is we are, body. mind, and the soul of
us. IS living is real Immortality here and
now. We never die. We are cast into the
lake of life, and the ripping circles our lit
tie splashin.y creates go on widening and
will never cease widening while the waters
last. To realize this simple fact fully IS to
project oneself into the eternal future Life
grows more real. responsibilities more
terrible, but there is the salts
faction of feeling that one has
a controlling hold of the rudder that will
shape the course of the ship hereafter-long
enough at least to insure respect for good
captainCJ whose momentum outliVGS the
captain. To let loose our influence under
these checks and safeguards IS to raise the
tone of those whose influences come within
our own and 20 out again the nobler for the
contact; and to do this is TO live again in
the lives of those who have known us to
love us. ANY other immortality than this is
i sheer extra to our active, practical, lndi-
vidual existence. 1t must come Us 4 grl-
ciouS gift, new existence, rather than
prClOngation of the present personality.
This life is our working lie: our speech is
our works ne less literally than are our
acts; our total influence is our immortal
self The night cOmeth. The wise reckon
the DEVELOPMENTS Of the morrow from the
influences put out yesterday and to-day.
BlarnabY was given to reflection in this
vein \ man of wide rather than deep
reading, lie had long made it more Il hobby
than an &c. Of BiouS duty to Investigate rs
far rs ne could INTO the religions of the
world While he figured rs Il prominent
member OF the Protestant Episcopal
church, he would have felt no scruple in
confcSsing that his allegiance was at least
rs mrrn the outcome of tiS admiration of
the social institution rs of his respect for
its doctrines. He was one of those on
whose conscienceS the creedS and mysteries
of churchianity sit lightly. it is but due to
most of the churches to admit that they
evince no desire to make those encum-
briuceS more ur'teusUme than they are
On the contrary, truly surprising to the
plain man is it T. see how elegant and airy
they are daily growing. Anathemas and
combinations are now sung to voluptuOuS
music. which invests them with beauty to
which Is common prose they lay little
claim. NeStmCntS are woven of verbal fila
gree TO garb hard sayings in, a very proper
extension of the esthCticism that comes 50
handy in giving the door of sancity TO many
Il portly pulpiteer Besides, the chanting
of confession affords more openings for
conscientious pauses, unobServed, than
'vhen iabbered i'll Schoolboy unison. Blarn-
ably always liked to enlist the aid of the fine
arts as aids to faith.
He was fond of citing out some of his
out-of-the-way lore. Genie had quiZzed
him pretty l,eenl on several occasions,
trying TO get at his real religious beliefs;
for in these our progressive days the stu
penuouS mysteries of life and problems of
the heart have come TO be the ShuttlecOcks
that shallowpates teel entitled TO 0at about
across the table for the merriment of the
well-diucd. One evening the talk had been
OF Omar khayam ana his decidedly trans
lated verses. Elarnaby had been warmly
commencing SOME of the happy old pagan's
philoSophizingS, when ali of a sudden
Genie turned TO him and asked point-blank,
with all her edrneStnesS:
MIR. Blarnaby, please do tell ne what
you really believe in religion"
He smiled graciously, replying, ''Well. /
cannot refuse 20 answer anything YOU ask
me-. my dear Miss Dabchic; but allow me
10 say-you have only sci me the task of
filling fifty big volumes in enc short min
ute!'
"Oh. that won t do, you know I'm sure
if any body ever could turn out 4 pithy SEN
tence you can. and I'm just dying to know
what YOU Think
y can soon tell you that think you are
an irresistible sister-confeSsor!'
Now you are me2nly evading fair cues
ton, ana shall begin to think you are only
only one of those politicians, when up to
now just adore YOU as :. statesman
Very well, my dear inquisitress; now
truce 10 fencing. You ask me TO put into i
dozen words what my religious beliefs are.
] answer you by little story very dis
tinguished mana statesman, too, by the
way-waS once asked the very same QueS-
ton, and I'll be bound by such another win
some tormentor-"
"Now-hush! stick to business, please.
What did the great statesman say! I'm all
on the tidgets."
He replied, Madame, ! am of the same
religion as all the wise men have professed.'
Then she asked, AND pray what was thatl'
And he answered, Madame, they were all
too wise to tell
At this crisis in his career Biarnaby had
philosophers, old and new. They say the
gods are never so pleased as when they look
down upon a strong man struggling with
adversely. The more the odds are against
him the more they smile. The strong man
in his agony would swap a gross of such
cynic gods as these for d sight of an ever
present help in time of trouble"
Put yourself in his place You have
wrought and fought your way up to posi-
ton of pubic usefulness and esteem. Long
years of patient toll; a thousand uphill
strivings rewarded by swift slide back to
the starting place. You have given your
best and your honestest service TO the in
terests of your fellow-citiZens. and met with
the inevitable distorters of motives, cum
ming insinuators of base aims, the tribe OF
slanderers and the sisterhood of scandal
breeders. The whips and scorns of time
have scored your skin into a hardness not