The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-04-06
STORY OF TWO LIVES.

Inc Lesson Taught by an incident OF Bos-
ton Common.
On bright October day not long ago
two men who, forty years before had
been friends and classmates at Harvard,
met under the elms of Boston common,
and passed each other without recogni-
tion.
Mr.. A went down Beacon street,
and entered a stately house in which a
famous literary club met that after
noon. They discussed the hackneyed
question: SIS life worth living?" Mr..
A read paper which, in cynical,
indifferent way, proved to the satisfac-
ton of his hearers that it was not worth
anything.
He was a slight man, with keen, in
tellectual face. In his native state he
was well known for his wealth, his
learning and his high social position.
All the resources from which affluence
and brilliancy and power can be forced
into a mans career had been within his
reach since boyhood; but his face bore
no other record than that of a sickly re-
finement and weary discomfort, and
when he pronounced human life fail
ure, his hearers knew that he gave the
honest verdict of his sixty years.
1t did not occur to them that they
had been sixty useless years; sixty
years in which the intellect had grown
diseased from self-absorption, and the
heart had withered like an unfruitful
plant.
The other old man, in his patched
shoes and coarse coat, crossed the'com-
mon with swift, energetic step, and
entered fremont temple. There was a
meeting there of delegates from the
mission-fields of the far west.
He came to report the progress of
civilization and Christianity along the
wonderful Columbia river, on Puget
sound. in the valleys of the Frazer,
whose mountain walls rival the Alps,
in the ports of Alaska, and in the fog
bound islands of the Pacific
He was tall, powerfully-built man,
| his hair us white as snow. His rugged
face bore marks left by self-denial and
severe privations, but through it shone
the light of a lofty purpose and high
faith.
THAT man." said a by-stander,
"chose forty years ago to give up the
| agreeable associations which he would
have enjoyed in New England, to dc
| Gods work on the western frontier
His salary has never been more thar
three hundred dollars year. But he
understands the Importance of hi
work.
| The political future of our nation
lies largely in the development of thu
| great western empire, and he with hun
dreds of other obscure martyrs, has
given his life to found the new towns
and future cities of our western worlC
upon Christian principles"
When the perils which he had me
and the hardships which had grount
down his life from youth to old ag,
We're described by one of the speaker
who introduced him to the audience h,
answered cheerfully that they had onl,
fitted him the better for his work Hi
voice rose like trumpet as he told o
great provinces yet to be civilized, an,
of masses of men, Indians, Chinese
negroes and corrupt whites, but all hi
brothers, needing, and some of then
waiting, to be told of Christ.
That evening friend met him hurry
ing to the station. What going bacl
to your work again?" he exclaimed
After forty years absence you ough
to give few days to your friends, ant
to rest in your native New England"
II have not time" he said, smiling
II am an old man, and there is S
much 10 do"
An hour later, he sat in the trail
rushing toward the setting sun. As h
thought of the vast provinces in tn
west filed with tribes of men frou
every quarter of the globe waiting t
hear the message Of hope and chez
which he had to bring, the boo
throbbed in his old body, aud his eye
glowed with JOY.