The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-03-18
LINKSIN A CHAIN.
WORKERS MEET ENEMIES
ALWAYS.
TRUE LIVING.
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMo."
Some Rambling Thoughts.
(Copyrighted.)

4xOW 0A1O0R-1AAO many Va VIZ ~S~S' "
reflect on neither past nor future there
is for us no glorying in deeds done by
the race, no realization of our share in
further progress no learning from the
voice of history, no vision OF happy
people yet to be blessed. Sheep take
things as they find them. Men force
Nature to their will. Sheep are con-
tent if merely we'll fed. Men do not
live by bread alone. Sheep look con-
stantly at material things. Men gaze
upward unabashed even by the SHIN
mering glories of the throne of ever
lasting might. Let us be men !
Try to cultivate tree mind that will
believe in things not seen, in deeds not
shared in, in powers not possessed by
yourself. A tad-pole's horizon is limit
ed by his unwholesome puddle, but
your horizon Is limited by nothing if
YOU will but curb selfishness and be a
sentient being. The past is all yours.
Though often you forget it, you are
lineal descendant from the earliest ages.
The great OF every cline are your kins-
men, bone of human bone and flesh OF
human flesh. Find interests outside OF
yourself enjoy the inheritance OF great
things already done.
Just as learning a dead language
helps us understand English, SO the
past interprets the present with its
muItiform activities. Without such
knowledge life is to us, as with the unz
thinking brute, bereft of clue as to
whence or whittier. The blood OF
heroes for righteousness and martyrs
to racial duty courses In human vains.
Such knowledge will thrill man into
the full stature of manhood. Yet the
supreme grandeur of living can be ours
only when doing something definite.
We may draw inspiration and pride OF
birthright from the past; we must live
and act in the present.
Bunyan's muck-heap raker saw no
beauties selfishness in the essential
duties of life, and appreciation OF the
full meaning of lite do not abide to-
gether. We cannot serve our race and
worship Mammon. If we flank our
selves with money-bags, or if we want
to, Just for what they may bring OF per-
sonal comfort we are cOndemnlng
ourselves to loneliness and heart-aches.
Money never bought a friend, and
money never held one. The transform
ing grace of true woman's love, it
never purchased. It buys eye-servlce
it buys self-seeking sycophants. The
house of the heart is empty when such
fill it.
The trained ear can detect sounds in.
audible to the unframed the trained
eye can see into beauties invisible te
ordinary mortals the trained hand &C
complishes things impossible to gros:
manipulation. The heart trained te
interests outside itself looks upon new
world. Without interest in others, {
narrow life remains narrow; with i
even a sick-room may become th'
centre of worldwide influence. Th'
shepherd tending his wandering sheep
the miner working amid dangers, tn
farmer wrestling with difficulties, tn
wife at her unpaid labors, all can liv
transformed lives, if they feel thel
shares In the worlds best interests.
Whittier describes life as "a cry be
tween the silences." That is lone
|some view of it. Your life and min
are links in an endless chain. We az
the living expression of the dead VIII
, rest from their labors; we are th
custodians OF the future, if so be ths
we live. How dead the imaginatio
that cannot understand this.
But mark you! To live is to tur
the back on inaction; sloth and re-
r living are antlpodal. Likewise, earnes
a ness and appreciation by our fellows al
+ impossible. Human nobodies ha'
no enemies but he who goeth fort
with noble purposes, is bound to ru
counter to the legion demons of lazine
e and stupidity, gluttony and filth, wi
" cry out "Leave us alone. What ba
: we to do with thee?" They who
souls are to go marching on wi
rs armies whose footsteps never yet ha
re echoed, must face sontumely if th
" try to lift humanity one inch hlgh'
lel Unhappy for the world is it for
man to attain his full ambition.
ceases his efforts; inactlon Is dea
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