Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-11-16


Sea-" but l never afterward could hav
written that thing, for before we go
home, we got a terrible shaking up
The first voyage of life may be yer,
smooth; the last may be a euroclydon
Many who start life in great prosper
ity do not end it in prosperity.
The great pressure OF temptation
comes sometimes in this direction; a
about forty-five years of age mans
nervous system changes, and some one
tells him he must take stimulants tt
keep himself up, and he takes stimu
lants to keep himself up, until the
stimulants keep him down; or a mar
has been going along for thirty OF
forty years i'll unsuccessful business
and here is an opening where by one
dishonorable action he can lift himself
and lift his family from all financial
embarrassment. He attempts to leap
the chasm and he falls into it.
Then it is in after life that the great
! temptation of success comes. IL man
| makes fortune before thirty years OF
age, he generally loses it before forty
The solid and the permanent fortunes
for the most part do not come to their
climax until in midlife or in old age.
The most of the bank presidents have
white hair. Many Of those who have
been largely successful have been flung
OF arrogance or wOrdliness or dissi-
lost their integrity, but they have be-
come SO worldly and so selfish under
the influence of large success that it is
evident to everybody that their sue
cess has been a temporal calamity and
an eternal damage Concerning many
people, it may be said it seems as II
ii would have been better if they could
have embarked from this life at twea-
ty or thirty years of age.
Do you know the reason why the
vast majority of people die before
thirty? 1t is because they have not
the moral endurance for that which is
beyond the thirty, and a merciful God
will not allow them to be put to the
fearful strain.
Again: There is a blessing in an
abbreviated earthly existence in the
fact that one is the sooner taken off
the defensive. AS soon as one is old
enough 10 take care of himself he is
put on his guard. Bolts on the doors
to keep out the robbers. Fire-proof
safes to keep off the flames. Life in
surance and fire insurance against ac-
cident. Receipts lest you have to pay
a debt twice. Lifeboat against
shipwreck. Westinghouse air-brake
against railroad collision, and hun
dreds of hands ready to overreach
you and take all you have. Defence
against cold, defence against heat,
defence against sickness, defence
against the worlds abuse, defence all
the way down to the grave, and even
the tombstone sometimes is not a suf-
fcient barricade.
If a soldier, who has been on guard.
and stung with the cold,
pacing up and down the parapet with
musket, is glad when some
one comes to relieve guard and be can
80 inside the fortress, ought not that
man to shout for joy who can put
down his weapon of earthly defence
and go into the kings castle? Who is
the more fortunate, the soldier who
has to stand guard twelve hours or
the man who has TO stand guard six
hours? We have common sense about
everything but religion. common sense
about everything but transference
from this world.
What fools we all are to prefer the
TO the center. What a
dreadful thing it would be If we should
he suddenly ushered from this Wintry
world into the May-time orchards Of
heaven, and l. our pauperism of sin
and sorrow should be suddenly broken
I'd BY q presentation of an emperor's
castle surrounded by parks with |
springing fountains, and paths up and
down which angels of God walk two !
and two. We are like persons stand |
ing on the cold steps Of the national |
picture gallery in LONDON. under um-
lrella in the rain, afraid to go in amid |
he Turner'S and the Titians and The
taDldGIS. 4 COIle u luem ana say,
why don't you so inside the gal
ery?" oh" they say, we don't
tnow whether we can get in" | say,
Don't you see the door is open?"
Yes" they say, but we have been so
ong on these cold steps, we are so at
ached to them we don't like to leave"
But" | say. lit is so much brighter
md moro beautiful in the gallery, you
lad better go in" NO" they say.
we know exactly how it is out here.
tut we don't know exactly how it Is in
iae."
So we stick to this world as though
We preferred cold driZZle to warm habi-
alton, discord to cantata, sackcloth to
oval purple-as though we preferred
piano with four or five of the keys
nut Of tune to an instrument fully at
though earth and heaven had
Exchanged apparel, and earth had TAX
n on bridal array and heaven had
;one into deep mourning. all its wat
RS stagnant, all Its harps broken, all
halices cracked at the dry wells, all
he lawns sloping to the river
Flowed with graves, with dead angels
lnder tho furrow. Oh, want 10
lppal IN my owu inflammation ond |