The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-06-15
AT SEVENTY.
A Glance Backward After Three-Score and
Ten Years of Life. -

Al oEVGNI u.
Glance Backward After Three-Score and
Ten Years of Life. -
Those who go down to the sea in
ships, if they make long voyages, sail
ing away into the southern seas, keep a
sharp lookout for the moment when
they shall pass the equator, or, as sea-
men call it, 'cross the line" As they
make their observations they find that
they are sinking day by day into lower
ATTITUDES, and can hardly resist feel
ing that they are somehow descending
the mighty slope of the round globe,
and will experience some sort of a shock
when they strike the ''line;" yet when
the moment comes there is no sign in
earth or heaven to indicate the change;
it is the same sun over their heads and
the same ocean under their feet; not the
shadow of passing cloud, not ripple
of the waves marks the moment when
they pass from hemisphere to hemis-
phere.
1t is many years since first crossed
the line" 1t was on the other side of
the globe, at the very Jumping off
place" below the most southern point
of Asia. 1t was in the night when men
slept that was borne across the invis-
able line, and woke to find myself on
the outer rim of that hemisphere which
had never touched before. And yetit
was the same old world. But familiar
as it looked, there had been change
in the night, for now the vertical sun
ence, on the other side of me; the lights
and shadows were reversed henceforth
| the southern exposure" was not the
warm side of nature; if you pushed that
way the sun would linger behind,
while with every degree of latitude it
would grow colder and colder way
down to the Antarctic pole.
This experience of many years af2
comes back to me now that am aSoul
to cross another slime" | shall soon be
seventy years old. So far have l sailed
on the sea of life on which we are all
voyagers; and it is good time to take
ones bearings If we are wise we shall
not be content to drift hither and
thither at the sport of winds and tides,
but take observations from time to time
to discover in what ATTITUDES we are
floating, and to what unknown shores
we are bound.
Seventy years! / can hardly believe
it, and try to cipher it out different
ly. Yet there are the tigures-lS22 and
1892! and l can not by any mode Of
subtraction of one from the Other
make the difference less. Accept
ing it, therefore, as a fact which
can not be denied, friends ask: ''Hov
does it seem to be three score years ant
temp" How do you feel about it?'
''Tell us now after this experience il
life worth living?" | have heard mel
in a cynical mood say: mo, it is no
worth being born and enduring all tn,
miseries, petty or great, that beset ex
istence from the cradle to the grave.
This was the philosophy of some of tn
ancient Stoics who thought it a proc
of wisdom as well as of courage to com
nit suicide. And in these latter time
many man of intellect, perhaps O
genius. has been heard to mourn hi
fate in being thrust into the world
not indeed against his will but withou
his choice-to exclaim in this bitterness
OF his soul. Would to God that ha
never been born!
To all this | answer from prett
long experience of life that it is wort
living. 1t is something to live. even
-, it were only for the joy of being tina
we have in common with all the anima
creation. Truly the light is sweet, an
a pleasant thing it is for the eyes t
behold the sun. How much more is
to think on what we see; to lift on
Q eyes to the heavens above us, and I
e take in little of the awful submit
g of the universe in which we find GU
selves. But is not the world full {
i misery?" Yes, but that is one Of i
e 4 attractions in that it gives us the o.
t portunity to do something to relieve i
woes and to brighten wretched huma
Q lives All the darkness of the worl
y did not repel Him who came fro
8 | heaven 10 reueeln III. ne Cdlut 10 Sll
fer with the sufferers, that He migl
| make the most guilty and unhappy {
e men the partakers of His joy. And
n is the greatest privilege of life that
9 gives us the opportunity to follow su,
q an example.
But the world is not all dark. ha'
:. seen a good deal of it, and with all
/, dark features, have found grsat de
= of good in it. Some may think it a
A feet of vision to see only the good si
: of different countries and people; but
;. am not so blind as l seem. 1 see t
;. dark side clearly enough, but l do n
!. dwell upon it, especially when there
another side that some do not see, viii
- is full of promise. But is it not true
= day as of old that 1.-The whole wor
licth in wickedness?" Yes, but t
!, spirit of life is l.rooding over it, so as
= bring out of that which is dark and de
: the fruits of righteousness. And S,
:. do not look upon the world. bad as
- is, with despair, but with courage a
!. with hope, believing that it is to ha
future that is better than the past