The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-06-06
The Battle of Life.
BY MRS. MARY A. LIvERMoRE.

IFE is battle. All who have
IL come to be old enough to take
their part in the great world of life
have learned this truth. As we go
on, we realize that the whole world is
one vast encampment, and that every
man and woman is soldier. We
have been drafted into the service,
and cannot escape taking part in it,
although that part has not been sell
ected by ourselves. The place we
are to occupy we have not chosen.
We have been pushed into life, to our
seeming, arbitrarily, and cannot be
discharged until mustered out by
death. We cannot furnish substi-
tute, no matter how rich we may be.
We may straggle to the rear, we may
fight under the black flag of wrong;
but the fact remains that we are all
drafted into the battle of life, and
are expected to do our duty.
We are told that we are free agents,
and that, while we cannot choose the
place we shall at first occupy, we can
change it as we advance. But, as peo-
pie look back over the weary. dusty
path of life they have travelled, they
come to feel that, while they have
stood in their place and tried to do
the best they could, they have not
realized what they aimed at, but seem
to have been used by higher agency
to accomplish something else they
had not intended.
What makes of life a battle? The
fact that we are obliged to provide for
our physical existence plunges us
into struggle at the start. Nature
has not dealt with us as she has with
her brute children. She has en-
dowed us with qualities which enable
us to seek what we need. She gives
us earth, air, water, and light freely
We have lost two of the gifts. earth
to stand on and water to quench our
thirst; and, if men could make
trust in the air and light, we should
lose those also. We should only
have as much air to breathe and as
much light to see with as we could
pay for. At present we are safe as
far as those two indispensable tn ngs
are concerned, but everything else we
have to pay for at the hardest. The
fact that we must have food and
clothing and shelter, that we must
take care of ourselves and of those
dependent on us,-the children, the
sick, and the aged,-makes lite a
perpetual struggle. Three days ago
two men in my village took their
own lives because they could not
continue the hopeless conflict any
longer. The battle was sore against
them. Although both were over fifty,
and had been temperate and indus
trious men, they did not leave prop
erty enough to pay their funeral ex-
penses. Eight tenths of the people
of the world today do not know
where their food is to come from to-
morrow. This makes of life terri
BILE struggle. Our physical wants
compel us to fight a battle of life. If
you are sorry for those that are in
trouble, and have acquired willing
ness to try to find work for people
out of employment, you are over
whelmed by the applications of those
who do not ask for charity, but only
for work. "Let us have chance
to work." they say, land we will help
ourselves" The country is full OF
such people all the time. To my
way of thinking, our present civiliza-
ton is antagonistic to Christianity.
This fierce competition of trade and
business, which leads one man to
tread down his neighbors that he
may rise on their ruin, is not Christian;
and this severe competition increases
the intensity of the battle of life.
If tomorrow morning we should
wake and find that all civilized ma
tions had come to decision to arbi-
trate their national quarrels, that all
armies were to be disbanded, all for
tifications dismantled, all the great
warships were transformed into yes
sells for peaceful uses, think what the
world would gain by that one change!
War would be at an end forever. All
difficulties would be settled by courts
of arbitration, as men settle disputes
about contracts and estates in court
today. Think how the women of
Europe, who are now dewomanized
and dehumanized by being thrust
into employments that are unsuitable
for them, would be set freel Think
how the brakes on the wheels of the
worlds progress would be loosenedl
If, again, we should wake ON some
other morning, and find that every
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