The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-09-07

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| given;
| And many a tree and bush my wandering
| knows,
And cen the clouds and silent stars of heaven;
| For he who with his maker walks Alright,
| Shall be their lord as Adam was before;
His ear shall catch each sound with new delight
Each object wear the dress that then it wore;
| And he, as when erect In soul he stood,
Hear from his Fathers lips that all is good"
Most devoutly do l believe that
whoever will SO live and 30 train him
self that he can hear the great pulses
of nature beat, and feel in his inner
being the touches of her warm soul,
will never grow sick of living; will
never feel that it was a misfortune to
be born into this world, but rather
will he rejoice and be glad that the
good Father called him into being,
and placed him in this vestibule of
existence for time, giving him eyes
to see the beauties and glories of this
outer world, and heart to feel the
pulsations of the divine life.
l know that life has it's trials and
its disappointments; its shady side as
we'll as it's sunny side. I know that
cold sometimes pinches and poverty
gnaws, and friends forsake, and the
world seems dreary. know that
those who do the best they possibly
can to succeed sometimes make life a
failure as the world views it; and the
pure and good seem to be s'cast as
rubbish to the void" l know there
is much sin in the world; there are
great and crushing evils, cruelty.
oppression, and wretchedness. |
know there are great griefs, poignant
sorrows, and heart-aches that are ter
rible to bear. Yet for all this, life is
worth the living.
What we and the world may count
as failures, God may look upon as
successes. Perhaps John Howard
Payne, as he wandered through the
streets of London, friendless and
penniless, thought his life failure.
But had he written only Sweet
Home" it were enough to immortal
ize his name. And the influence of
that song for good shall sweep down
the ages forever. And who knows
but that all our trials, and disap-
pointments, and sorrows of life may
be just what we need to round out
and perfect our existence, and pre-
pare us for higher and diviner exper-
fences and sweeter joys?
Tennyson has said that
ut is better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at ALL"
How crushing to the soul to part
with some loved one,-a mother,
child, dear friend 1t cuts to the
very quick, and we stagger under the
terrible burden. And yet what foun-
tains of love that dear one has opened
in our soulsl How that precious gift
to us has heightened our existence
and opened unto us new ways of life,
and given us new visions of the eter-
nal glory
There is no evil but has its attend
ant good, and the good is greater
than the evil. And ] most firmly be-
lieve that when the final summing up
is made, and you and / are led to see
our lives in their completeness, weshall
discover that all these sad experiences
of life were designed by a kind Provi-
dence to unfold character, and to let
us into mysteries of the Kingdom
which could not otherN Use be pened
to us. 1t is said of Christ that he
"was made perfect through suffer
ing"
Let us look upon our own suffer
ings in the same light, and in fact all
the trials and hardships which we
have to endure. 1t is when the plant
is all crushed and mangled that it
gives out its most delicious fragrance
So let us turn all our disappoint-
ments and sorrows to some good ac-
count, and thus "breathe sweetness
out of VICE." There is nothing gained
by brooding over our troubles. 1t
does us no good to wish we had
never existed, or to try to make our
selves believe that life is not worth
living. Existence has been given us,
and we cannot help it. We are in
Gods world, and in it to stay his
good pleasure.
Being Gods children, we possess
his immortal nature. And SO the best
thing for us to do is to make the most
of life, to take the brightest view we
can of it, to reach out after only those
things that will give us the greatest
strength, the divinest joys, and that
will best fit us for that living temple,
"that house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens"