The Progress., 1897-09-18
The Life that is Worth Living and
How to Live Tt.
Wore Of Timely Counsel to Young Men
a TFfs of Mere Money Getting
It the Most Successful
or SATISFACTORY

vital to all and of timely application.
1t is based on the text:
What is your life:-James ~, II,
If we leave to the evo4utlonlsts TO
guess where we came from and To the
theologians 10 prophesy where we are
going to, we still have left for consid- |
Grafton the important fact that we are |
here. There may be some doubt about |
where the river rises, and some doubt |
about where the river empties, but |
there can be no doubt about the fact |
that we are sailing on 1T. So am not |
surprised that everybody asks the |
question: is life worth living?"
Solomon, in his unhappy moment |
says it is not. Vanity" ''veXation Of
spirit" ''no good" are his estimates.
The fact is that Solomon was at one
time polygamist, and that soured his
dispositiou Oae wife makes man
happy; more than one makes hlm
wretched. But Solomon was converted
from polygany to monogamy, and the
last words he ever wrote, SO lar as we
can read them, were the words noun
tains Of spices" But jeremiah says
life is worth living. In a book sup
posed to be doleful, and lugubrious,
and sepulchral, and entitled 'Lamen-
tations," he plainly intimates that the
blessing of merely living is so great
and grand blessing that though
man have piled on him all misfortunes
and disasters, he has no right to com
plain The ancient prophet cries out
in startling information to all lands and
to all centuries. Wherefore doth a
living man complain
A diversity of opinion in our time as
well as in olden time. Here is a
young man of light hair and blue eyes
and sound digestion, and generous sal
ary, and happily af1ianced, and on the
way to become a partner in CONNER
cjal firm of which he is an important
clerk. Ask him whether life is worth
living. He Will laugh in your face and
say: "Yes, yes, yesr' Here Is man
who has come to the 4os. He Is at the
tip-top of the hill OF life. Every step
has been a stumble and a bruise. The
people he trusted have turned out de-
serters, and the money he has honestly
made he has been cheated out of. His
nerves are out of tune. He has poor
appetite, and the food he does eat
does not assimilate. Forty miles
climbing up the mill of life have beer
to him like climbing the Matterhorn
and there are forty miles yet to gC
down, and descent is always more
dangerous than ascent Ask him
whether life is worth living, and Ia
will drawl out in shivering and lugu
brious and appalling negative: No
no. mop
How are we to decide this matte
rightly and intelligently? You viii
find the same man vaeillating, oscll
latiag in his opinion from detection I
exuberance, and if he be very mercuria
in has temperament it will depend yer.
niue on which way the wind blows
Ii t}se " "a blow from the northwest
and ask him, he viii say, Yes,
ana a At blow from the northeast, an
you ask him, he viii say, No" HOY
are we, then, to get the question right
eonsly answered? suppose we ca
all nations together in great conven
ton on eastern or western heml
sphere. and let ali those who ar
in the affirmative say Aye" and a.
those who are in the negative sd