Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-09-27

member and regret. we endure verit-
able tortures
To others Of us again different are
the scenes presented to view. The
curtain of oblivion rises and we
glance back on failure in life's strug-
giles. Misfortune after Misfortune
may have seized us with almost par
alyzing fierceness. We have attempt
ed this, but all to no avail. We have
labored in this direction. but have
] met naught but repulses and rebuffs
and defeat. We have struggled with
might and main along the rugged
| pathway of life, but the path has led
to what? To wreck and ruin. Some
OF us have fought with determination
begotten of despair to make both ends
meet, but alas! the ends diverge too
| much and such meeting is impossible.
Some of us, like Moses of old, have
assembled from the Moab of mediocrity
f! to the Nebo of ambition and hope,
have glanced about us at the Gilead
| and Lebanon of longed for success,
! have even been privileged to beholo
| the promised land, but while striving
| to reach it have found ourselves ex-
cluded therefrom. Yes, disappoint-
| ment after disappointment and failure
after failure have given us rather
pessimistic view of life, and under the
| burden of our misfortunes we grieve
! and moan.
To some of us the passing away of
| the dying year brings back and inten-
SITES membranes Of pain, of al
most maddening sickness, of days and
| weeks of existence when even death
! itself was besought, when recovery
did not seem worth striving for and
| all seemed over. To such no pleasant
| recollectiOns of joy are retained,
| naught but visions of sorrow does the
passing year bring to view.
! And then to some the retrospect of
/ the past serves but to resurrect the
agonies of months, serves but to open
old wounds to which the healing balm
| of consolation has been frequently APP
piled.
There is no flock however watched and
tended.
But one dead lamb is there.
There is no tireside howsoeer de-
Tended,
| But has one vacant chair.
And so among us there may be
| those to whom the death of the pass
| ing period but recalls the everlasting
| departure from earthly life OF dear
ones, of darling young ones, OF beloved
I sisters or brothers, OF revered parents.
What vacancy, what yawning chasm
| of chaos has their departure left in our
| midst To such as these evening re-
calls these thoughts, it seems that day
| itself were dark, that life itself was
| unreal, that everything is covered
with weeds and sack cloth, and that
| mourning alone, deep, heartrending
sorrow will ere be their lot Yes,
upon the stage Of the past year are be-
| held incidents and occurrences that
have brought naught but sorrow and
grief.
But then, after all, my friends, it is
! not for mortal man to be altogether
| free from pain to go through life never
| meeting adversely. Nothing that has
ever exerted any animating influence
on the world, nothing of any worth,
nothing lasting, has ever been produc-
ed without the producer thereof en-
countering opposition and difficulties
which oft threatened to engulf him and
cause him to yield. Civilization may
be the progress from savage life to the
cultured life of the arts and learning,
and opposition. Every century brings
| more to overcome. Every rise in cul-
ture encounters more accumulated OBJ
stacles. Every reform, invention and
| discovery meets with greater difficult
| ties And yet are they the less COM
mendable? Are they Of less worth?
| 1t is the law of the universe that with
| out pain there can be no gain. 1t is
oJv hot de
to success and victory. Moses took 40
years to perform a journey which he
might have made in as many days. Job
suffered affection upon affection ere he
beheld his vindication. And every hero
and martyr in the world has endured
indescribable tortures ere victory
crowned his efforts How shall we,
then, expect to pass through life I'M
touched by the strong chilling hand of
adversely? How can we, in the face Of
all this, hope to realize our Hottest am
billions unscathed by the flaming
, brands of life aches and pangs? If life
| is to be worth the living, we must pass
through gauntlet after gauntlet Of
difficult experience ere the distant goal
of triumph, success and happiness be
reached.
- Anu the goal nuSt anu Will De
| reached. For almost as memorable as is
the law of cause and effect is the law
of gain from pain. 1t is a scientific
fact that pain, particularly such as is
excessive, generally permeates in a
pleasure of a nature and kind just the
reverse of itself. Darwin, in his Zoo
nonuS, was the first to call attention
to the fact that when excessive light
affects the retina the contrary color is
produced that if we look with fixed
stare at a bright green figure until a
| little wearied, and then look on a white
| surface we see red figure. If we con-
! tinue to look at the red until the nerve
| is exhausted, we shall see green. The
effect of direct sunshine upon the optic
| is to blind us for a time. The brain,
under mental and physical excitement,
! is apt to take a contrary condition, by
| which ideas are suggested to the mind
| the very reverse of those which ex-
| hausted the attention. The analogy, l
| trust, my friends, is evident The past
year may have brought to us excessive
| sorrows and pains in our different
spheres of life, but may we not hope
! that the culminative point has been
| reached? May we not have the san
| guine expectations that tonight forms
the dividing line separating many of
| the sorrows from the joys Of life? Can