Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1896-08-05
What We Really Need.

Matthew. Xxx. IA.
There is large number of things IN
the world Which we can get on very
well without. There is also a large
number of things which we cove1 De-
cause we think them necessary TO our
happiness, but which we really 40 NOT
need. Lastly, there are few things.
but only few, which we must nave III
order to make our lives what Uoo H.
tended they should be:
A large part of our discomfort comes
from not having what we ourselves
think we ought to have. but what Prov
idence evidently regards as unnecessary
to our development. This difference OF
opinion between us and the Almighty
is the fruitful source of much human
misery. We demand that He Shall
agree with ms, whereas it is clearly our
duty to agree with Him. Our ignorance
is the standard by which we measure
His wisdom, and yet if one of onr chill
dren should as-nIne the same altitude
toward us it would well nigh break our
hearts Instead of accepting what
comes and making the best OF it, we
constantly pray that God Will do what
we want to have done, and because the
prayer is not answered we not only
grow spiritually cold but open the door
to a great many doubts which literally
freeze the nobler part of our natures.
IF tyro should come into our ware
house or mandatory and ask-us to
conduct our business on the basis OF his
inexperience rather than on that of
our hard earned knowledge, the differ
ence between us and God is that we
should Indignantly eject him, whereas
God pities US for doing precisely the
same thing. The forbearance of the
Almighty with our wilfulness and con.
ceit, His everlasting patience with us
under such circumstances, is one OF the
most wonderful facts of the universe
and one of the most thrilling and start
ling.
Human life may be reverently com
pared with an opera. God is the author
of the music. and He gives each person
the part he is to take. Religion is SIM
ply the drill-master who constantly en-
joins upon us the necessity of strictly
| following the score, and constantly in
sists that we cannot make changes in
| the score without injuring the unity
| of the production. Of course do not
| refer to the formulas of religion, but to
| it's essence. The formulas are simply
certain mems opinions of religion, or
| possibly their prejndices, while its es
sence is contained in the statement
that the author of the opera knows
better how it should be rendered than
you do.
But suppose each singer should insist
on singing in accordance with his own
| Interpretation, and suppose further
that you had the impression that these
various and discOrdant interpretations
represented the author and not the
personal pecularities of the singers,
what strange piece of music it would
all be, and what a queer idea of the
author the listener would have! Well,
| that is precisely what we are doing all
| the time in matters of religion, and
that is why we make of it such a jun
| biz and jangle. Sing the music as il
was written and it is exquisiteiy beau
| tiful and uplifting, but let it be sung
as each Individual thinks it ought to
| be sung and the discord becomes deaf
eniug and dishesrteuing.
| Our real wants are very few, though
we are apt to think them very many.
We can be happy-this is true of at
least nine tenths of the world-with
what we have if we know how to make
the most of it and the best Of it. 1t
| takes but little to make the soul con-
| tented il We do not try to make our
avarice and our envy contented also.
| When we begin to count the things we
ought to have we begin to be misera-
BILE, but when we begin to be thankful
for the things we really possess we be
gin to be happy. You do not need
wealth, nor yet fame, nor palace, nor
a park. If you have shelter and have
made that shelter Il home, if you have
dear ones whose love is trusGful and
confiding, whose lives are woven into
yours by threads of steel, pray what
more is there to ask for J? Ii you are
not happy then, you can hardly expect
to be happy in heaven, for heaven has
only love to offer.
This happiness is the product of
faith and of faith alone. A love which
death can destroy is simply anticipat-
ed anguish. Souls that are knitted
together may be torn apart, but their
love for each other is as indestructible
and as lasting as the throne of God.
The man who has the moral courage
to recognize how few things he really
needs, who disdains the worlds pomp
and show, who refuses to listen to the
clamorings of wealth and its charlatan
pretensions, has reached that spiritual
eminence on which he finds himself in
, the company of the Christ and of the
: noblest men and women who haYe
dropped the benediction of holy lives
on a weary, a hungry and a troubled
world. With health, with honest
work, with the love of those whose
arms are about your neck and whose
affection will never fail you, with a
simple faith that is like sunshine and
dew--with these things you are one of
the most privileged men on the earth,
and even the New Jerusalem will have
but few additional joys to offer.
| GEORGE 81 HEPW0RTH