Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1893-01-06
DIsAPPOINTMENTS.



sarily as Intellectual as the mere guesses of the
unskillful practitioner Of the healing art
Competent knowledge of medical science
would dictate diagnosis Of apparent condi-
ton and instcnt and thorough search for the
malignant even il obscure cause. Common
place remark upon the universally of an
evil, the impossibility of escape from the
common lot, and the advisabeness of endur-
ing stoically the inevitable, may proceed from
an uninterested heart and vacant mind and
such cold .blooded counsel must be as offensive
to real sufferer as that man is hateful TO
battlers against life's surging food who, from
a point Of rest and comfort
Observes the swimmers, and cries, Very fne'
But keeps dry linen equally.
To the rescue 10 the rescue that is needed
come with philosophy, come with sincerity,
with experience, most of all, with religion.
Truth 10 nearly always welcome when moth
ing else will avail. If ever downright hon
esty and softened sincerity were needed, for
the peace of our own souls and the welfare
Of others, they are needed here calm sur
vey will reveal number of indispensable
facts.
Disappointment has a fruitful cause in I'M
reasonable expecta ton. Unreasonable in the
nature Of things, and denied by all expert
ness-if that word may be philosophically
and truly applied to anything or everything
felt or known relating to the present world
separately-must OF necessity be extremely
limited; Doth because no one individual may
utilize the extent of rational sources OF true
enjoyment, nor enjoy what he touches only
for the briefest season. The most dilige mt
student can hope to study no more than a few
hundreds Of greatest books, passing, like the
bee among flowers, to suck honey from a page
here and there in the remaining thousands.
And sweet companionship that frailest Of all
the vases that contain our gilded joys, is
shattered by cruel separation while in life,
and our best-beloved and dearest how soon
they leave the earth and US These two, be-
cause the chiefestiand purest but lesser pleas
ures, in their decay aud evanisbment, keep
equal pace. Expecting every thing, we get
little. The world offers next 10 nothing;
Nor I, nor any man, that but man is,
With nothing shall be pleas till he be cas- d
With being nothing.
Limit desire, circumscribe expectation, and
querulousness is cured. Contentment is
heartsease. 1t 10 not so far from us nor 90
difficult Of attainment as is often supposed
The mental attitude will determine whether
Its hiding-p place shall be discovered. Con-
ful acceptance of the distributions of Provi-
dence; profoundest pity were not misplaced
for those rapacious minds ten thousand worlds
could never fill. 1t is abundantly proved that
environment alone has not power either to
create or destroy happiness, as humanity con-
ceived. The habit OF regarding objects in a
calm, if not a cheerful light; the habit OF
choking down covetousness and cultivating
thankfulness will conquer and improve na-
ture, il rooted in reason and truth, aud gen.
erOuslv encouraged.
Disappointment may proftably be regarded
rs corrective. Especially il the frustrated en-
deavor was exalted and noble. 1t may serve
to show the actor what had been overlooked ,
the inequality Of his parts
With golden virtues and heroic aims
Subjoined to limping possibilities
or mismade human nature.
Suppose the failure be 10 extirpate a personal
fault Sincerity will investigate, perhaps,
discover, the false estimate OF strength, the
mistaken course, the fatal oversight, or un-
warranted hope. With the light turned on,
the man will see clearer He now knows him.
self better. Renewed effort will find him
better prepared to triumph. Suppose his OBJ
ject related, not TO himself, but to others
lie was benevolent, and sought their good
His schemes have failed, his purposes are
frustrated. Stolidity, stupidity, earthiuess,
he has not been able 10 overcome. The objects
Of his intended kindness could not discern
their bensfactor. Csllousness or indifference
repay his effort. lie has learned the bitter
lesson that il is always difficult sometimes
impossible, Tor one man TO drag up thou
sand. Only The experienced can understand
the poignancy OF such grief as this; for
"age gives us all keener sense OF what should
be, greater pain TO see what is" Wide
reading aud extended study of men would
have taught him to expect just this result !;
but, il is earnestly hoped, would not have de-
TERED him from making the attempt; for
though a bitter disappointment it surely is,
yet, no good deed was ever lost, and the dis
cipline TO the actor over-values a thousand
such disappointments. Not only the reflex
influence of the discipline, but full compen-
sation in the far-reachiug effects of iustruc.
ton by example. Barbara Hare for years
secreting an undying, well-nigh unoo ntroll-
able love for noble man, installing the in
timacy Of brother and unselish interest 10
the sorrowful affairs Of her family for the un.
spoken confession of recprocation of her own
consuming passion, when he takes to wife
another gives way utterly to commissions of
grief, in private, and waits for an occasion to
pour out upon the unsuspecting friend tor
rent OF passion, jealousy, and rage, which
swept away all sense and recollection of her
sex. Ruth Huckaback, cherishing an afec-
ton equally strong and enduring, suddenly
hears from the lips OF the equally uncon-
scious object OF her love a cousinly Invitation
to his wedding. The gray of ashes over
spreads her features . convulsive SILVER,
dumbness, a feeling like unto death, sieze
her; she retires from his presence oue-quarter
OF an hour, and returns conqueror of herself
When the lovely bride, stricken at the altar
by the fendish traitors bullet, falls II is into
the arms Of Ruth, who, covered with the
blood Of the dying wife, bears her away to
watch, and tend and pray, beside her, till
life, and health, aud beauty all return then
yields her to the man she loved, with smile
not born of earth but heaven. II will be seen
how differently disappointment may be borne;
for, though IL may be said these are charac-
tiers of fiction, il is replied, truth is stranger
still.
In dealing with disappoiatmeuts extremes
are TO be ided-disparagement and exag.
geration. What may seem very light TO a
beholder may be very grievous to the sufferer
A disappointment toa little child may be a
thousand times more affective than million
times greater matter would be 10 the child 9
father. just so, q very small trouble may be
magni6ed out of all reasonable proportion -
In this case, complaint, always childish and
useless, would become criminal. But through
out this article the writer has had in mind
real disappointments, which wrench the heart
and almost paralyze the brain Disappoint-
meni 10 men, their Punic faith, their treach-
erous smile that hides dagger, their prof.
iered cup with poison drugged, their devil
heart with angel robe torn of. The ,en,er-
hooks OF dread suspense, choking anxiety
ending in despair. Religion, actual, earnest
religion, is the only cure for hearts that bleed
like this. To those who believe that "svory
man makes his own fortune" that il is ali
his own fault his expectations have not been
realized that he has brought all his trouble
upon himself-if any intelligent creature
ever did believe such stuff-this reference TO
the source OF comfort will be mean ngless.
But thrse who believe that God is a sovereign,
working his own will in the world, recog.
mixing, without approving, the evil, aud
overriding II for righteous euds; ordering
and controlling the fall Of a sparrow or the
march Of q planet; sending health and JOY to
one, and sick ness and sorrow to another; vet
never lifting His hand from fulfilling His eter-
nal purpose to etfcctuate all possible good to
the GREAT ire and hi0hast glorv IN thu Nraa,n.