San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-03-21

Christs gospel Of purity want to visit
the slums? Why should the man ut
the pillow take thought of the man at
the helm of his ship? Why should the
man who inhabits the earth lie awake
nights wondering what is taking place
on Mars? What has practical knowl-
edge got to do with speculationS that
amount to nothing and cannot
amount to anything?
Just sit down one hour of your life
and think how little you can know.
Not how little you do know, but how
little it is possible to know. What
one thing do you know perfectly?
What positive information have you
as to the simplest things that are part
of your every day life. Very little,
and you leave these necessary things
that are a part of living, the knOwl-
edge of which is indispensable to sue
cess, and roam over the world of mat
ter and spirit to find reasons for that
which is, and which you know is, and
beyond that bare fact you cannot
know anything. There is no plea for
ignorance here, but there is a plea for
the study of all that concerns you and
your present practical life, and there
is nothing beyond that.
The man who causes two blades of
grass to grow where only one grew be-
fore is a success, so far. 1t is not
thinking and specializing and dream
ing and hoping and fearing and wish
| ing that is going to add to your life'S
| value, but it is your being and doing.
| What you actually do you may be the
| Hpny In 1,n nd
| it will be if you do not Utilize it. The
more tools that a man has unless he
uses them and knows their uses the
poorer he is off. 1t is and ever has
been the man or the woman with one
central idea, that idea embodied in
| practical effort that astonishes the
world with results. 1t is n positive
detriment to you to know any more
than you can properly use. Just as it
is to eat more than you can digest.
Settle it with yourself, that so long
as you live in this world your greatest
| concern lies with 1t and not with some
other. Settle it with yourself that so
long as you have any work to do in
this world, that which concerns that
work if of more value to you than is
anything else. Settle it with yourself
that the great body of so-called knOwl-
edge is mere speculation and that
there is really very little known of
what or how, and absolutely nothing
of whence or whittier. To do and be
is the end of life. Not to believe and
think. This lack Of practical adoption
of means to ends, those ends the
greatest possible development of all
the forces of being, is and has been
the impoverishment of the world. Men
and women have run mad in the eff
fort to know what is hidden ever
since Eve ate that apple.
Not that there is any you shall or
you shan't, or you will or you WON'T
about this knowledge business, but
because the limitations of being, no
matter how gifted you are, bar you
out. The conditions are not of your
making and cannot be of your chang
ing. The man who only knew how to
drive his coach from Bristol to Bath,
and was ignorant of all else concern
ing which he was asked had mastered
the proper problem of life. He restrict
ed his knowledge to that which was
practically his business. and outside of
that sought to know nothing. 1t was
life on a very low plane, or at least
on a very simple one, but it was his
life and he was n wise man in that
he so lived it and did not attempt to
dive into that which he could not IN
derstand. Mental content Is one of
the most inestimable blessings Of hui
man life
This is the conclusion OF the whole
matter. Understand the necessary
things. Let the unnecessary things