The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1897-11-05

written that thing, for before we got
home, we got terrible shaking up.
The first voyage Of life may be very
smooth; the last may be 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; at
about forty-five years Of age a mans
nervous system changes, and some one
tells him he must take stimulants to
keep himself up, and he takes stimu-
lants to keep himself up, until the
stimulants keep him down; or man
has been going along for thirty or
forty years in unsuccessful business
and here is an opening where by one
dishonorable action he can lift hlmselr
and lift his family from all financial
embarrassment He attempts to leap
the chasm and he falls into 1t.
Then 1t is in after life that the great
temptation of success comes. Ii 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 tnelr
climax until in midlife, or in old age.
The most of the bank presidents nave
white hair. Many of those who have
been largely successful have been hung
of arrogance or wordliness or dissl-
patton in old age They may not have
lost their integrity, but they nave De-
come so worldly and so selfish unuer
the influence of large success that 1t is
evident to everybody that their sue
cess has been temporal calamity ana
an eternal damage. Concerning many
people. it may be said it seems as II
it would have been better if they coulu
have embarked from this life at TWEEN
ty or thirty years of age.
Do you know the reason why the
vast majority of people die pelore
thirty? 1t is because they have not
the moral endurance for that Wnicn is
beyond the thirty, and a merciful Coo
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 on
the defensive. AS soon as one Is ola
enough to take care of himself he Is
nut 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 &C
cident. Receipts lest you have TO pay
a debt twice. Lifeboat against
shipwreck. Westinghouse air-brake
against railroad collision, and nun
dreds of hands ready to overreach
you and take all you have. Detence
against cold, defence against heat
defence against sickness defence
against the worlds abuse, defence all
the way down to the grave, ana even
the tombstone sometimes is not SUI
| ficient barricade.
If a soldier. who has been on guard
shivering and stung with the colu'
pacing up and down the parapet WIN
shouldered musket, is glad when some
one comes to relieve guard and he can
On 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? VINO IS
the more fortunate, the soldier VINO
has TO stand guard twelve hours OF
tho man who has to stand guard SIX
bourso 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
circumference to the center. what
dreadful thing it would be II we should
he suddenly ushered from this wintry
world into the May-time orchards OF
heaven. and il our pauperism of sin
| and sorrow should be suddenly broken
IN nv a presentation of an emperor's
castle surrounded by parks with
Swinging 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 UNI
brella in the rain, afraid to go in amid
the Turner's and the Titians and the
Raphaels. I come to them and say,
"Why don't you go inside the gal
lery?" "Oh," they say, 1--WE don't
know whether we can get in" I say,
Don't you see the door is open?"
"Yes," they say, "but we have been so
long on these cold steps, we are so at
tached to them we don't like to leave"
But" 1 say, sit is so much brighter
and more beautiful in the gallery, you
had better go in" mo-" they say,
1--WE know exactly how it is out here,
but we don't know exactly how it is in
side"
So we stick to this world as though
we preferred cold drizzle to warm habi-
tation, discord to cantata, sackcloth to
royal purple-as though we preferred
a piano with four or five of the keys
out Of tune to an instrument fully at
tuned-as though earth and heaven had
exchanged apparel, and earth had TAX
en- on bridal array and heaven had
gone into deep mourning, all its wat
ers stagnant, all its harps broken, all
chalices cracked at the dry wells, all
the lawns sloping to the river
plowed with graves, with dead angels
under the furrow. oh, want to