The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-09-07
SERMON.
Is LIFE WORTH LIvING7
BY REV. B. F. ROGERS.

but Wnon ne was SIOWAAS Oiu3 "H
he seems to have given himself up to
dissipation.
Said an English writer once, a man
who had occupied conspicuous places
in the British government:
"who breathes must suffer; and who thinks
must mourn;
And he alone is blessed who ne'er was born"
PriorD
Another, who was poet born, but
whose dissipation cut short his days.
penned these words concerning life:
"wen well, the world must turn upon its axis
And all mankind turn with 1t, heads or tails,
And make love die. and pay our taxes,
And as the vereing wind shifts. shift our sails,
The King commands us, and the doctor quacks
The Priest instructs and so our life exhales;
little breath, love, wine, ambition. fame.
Fighting, devotion, dust-perhaps NAME"
(Byron.)
And another gives us his estimate
of life in these lines:
"All this passing scene
Is peevish April day;
A little sun, a little rain,
And then death sweeps along the plain
And all things fade away"
And thus have men estimated life,
what they themselves are, and what
they feel, entering into and making
up their estimations.
But there is higher position from
which to view life, and when that po-
sition is reached, life is seen to be
something more than vanity, some
thing better than non existence. 1t is
grand reality, full of earnest
thought, and lofty emotions and
blessed experiences, and great and
noble possibilities. 1t was on this
higher and diviner standpoint that
Paul stood when he exclaimed, "For
me to live is Christ" Viewing Christ
as the perfect man, the embodiment
of all that was pure, noble, great and
good, Paul would live that he might
catch this divine spirit and weave it
into his own life. Though believing
that death would be gain to him,
because it would usher him into a
higher life than this, with sweeter ex-
periences, and purer joys, yet Paul
put higher estimate upon this exis-
tence. To him this life was infinitely
above non being. Though it has its
trials, hardships, and disappoint-
ments, and, if properly lived, its fierce
conflicts, yet he believed it was we'll
worth living. Having caught some
thing of the spirit of Christ, and in
spired by his inspiration, he felt life
looming up before him as something
grand, precious gift from the Faith
er of spirits, and he sought to make
the best possible use of it, and secure
all that was really valuable in it.
And every man whose life has been
a success, who has lived to make the
world better and happier, whose soul
has mounted above all low and selfish
desires, all sordid ambitions, and
been swayed by that spirit of benevo-
lence, charity, and good will toward
men, which ruled the life of Paul, has
always looked upon existence as a
precious gift from heaven, even
though it had it's trials and its disap-
pointments.
The time to look at life and to real
ize its true worth is when man is at
his best; when he has made the best
possible use of life. A man is unfit,
to place a proper estimate upon any
thing when through his own fault he
has placed himself in antagonistic
relations with that thing. 1t is no
way to ascertain the true value of a
musical instrument by inquiring of a
man who is no musician, or if he has
been musician once, now, through
neglect. or disease, is out of all
harmony with music. When the
musician is at his best is the time for
an impartial, candid, just judgment of
the real worth of the instrument he
uses.
And so we should go to the truest
of men, those who have put them
selves in harmony with the laws OF
life, and have aimed to use life
Alright, and extract from it all the
good there is in it, to ascertain if life
is really worth living. And by con-
sulting the best specimens of man
kind and in their best moods, we will
never find them crying down life, and
saying at is vanity of vanities;" that
she, alone is blest who ne'er was
born" But to him who is true to the
voice of God in his soul, existence is
a continued blessing. He finds in his
soul powers capable of unlimited de-
velopment, longings and desires that
reach out toward the infinite; yearn-
ings and throbbings for the good, the
t,,o 4ha beautiful ond the hleaaa1