Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-03-23

hoard and wanted to save him, ana l dld
save him. and 1 consider the lie OF one
sailor worth all the vessels of the British
NAVY No wonder he was indicated.
life is indeed very precious. Yea, there
are those who deem life so precious they
would like to try it over again. Ihey woulo
like TO go back from seventy to sixty, from
sixty to fty from ity to iotty tTIf1 from ior's
"The fact is, that no Intelligent and right
failing man is satisfied with his past life.
"However successful your life may dave
been. you are not satisfied with 1t. Mhat
is success? Ask that question OF hundred
different men, and they will give hum
dred different answers. One man Will say,
Success is million dollars;' another Will
saw. success is worldwide publlclty; an
other will say, Success Is gaining that
which you started for But as It is Tree
country 1 give my own definition, ana
say, Success is fulfilling the particular
mission upon which you were sent, whether
to write a constitution, or invent new
style of wheelbarrow, or take care ot SICK
child Do what God calls you TO 90, ana
Won are success, whether you leave a
million dollars at death or are buried at
public expense, whether it takes fifteen
pages of an encyclopedia to tell the Won
derful things you have done, or your name
is never printed but once, and that in the
death column. But whatever your success
has been, you are not satisfied with your
life.
"But some of you would have to go back
further than to twenty-one years OF age 10
make a fair start, for there are many who
manage to get all wrong before that period.
Yea in order to get fair start, some would
have to go back to the father and mother
and get them corrected: yea, to the grand
father and grandmother, and have their
life corrected, for some of you are suffering
from bad hereditary influences which
started hundred years ago. We'll, il your
grandfather lived his life over again, and
your father lived his life over again, and
you lived your life over again, what clut-
| tered-up place this world would be-a place
| filled with miserable attempts AT repairs.
| begin to think that it is better for each
generation to have only one chance, and
/ hen for them to pass off and give another
| generation a chance. Besides that, IL we
were permitted to live life over again, it
[ would be stale, and stupid experience.
! The zest aud spur and enthusiasm Of life
come from the fact that we have never
| been along this road before, and every
I thing is new, and we are alert for what may
| appear at the next turn of the road. sup
| pose YOU a man of mid dle-life or old age,
were, with your present feelings and large
! attainments, put back into the thirties, or
/ the twenties, or into the tens, what nui-
| sance you would be to others, and what an
unhappiness to yourselfi Your contempor-
aries would not want you, and you would
! not want them. Things that in your pre-
vious journey of life stirred your healthful
ambition or gave you pleasurable surprise,
Or led you into happy interrogation, would
] only call forth from you disSusted oh,
! oshawl' You W yuld be blase at thirty, and
a misanthrope at forty, and uncomfortable at
| ifty The most insane and stupid thing
Imaginable would be second journey OF
! life.
''Out yonder is a man very old at forty
| years of age, at time when he ought to be
| 1uoyant as the morning. He got bad habits
J m YER those have
! become worse. He is a man on fire, on fire
With alcoholism, on fire with all evil habits,
put with the world and the world out with
lim. Down, and falling deeper. His
| swollen hands in his threadbare pockets,
and his ewes fixed on the ground, he passes
through the streets, aud the quick step of
| an innocent child or the strong step of a
young man or the roll OF a prosperous car
| rage maddens him, and he curses society
and he curses God, Fallen sick, with no
resources he is carried to the almshouse.
loathsome spectacle, he lies all day long
waiting for dissolution, or in the night
rises on his cot and fights apparittons OF
what he might have been and what ne will
oe. H. started life with as good pros
oect as any man on the American continent
and there he is, a blOated carcass waiting
'or the siovels of public charity to put him
| I've feet under. He has only reapea what
| ne sowed. Harvest of wild oatsl There is
4 way that seemeth right to a man, but the
End thereof is death
ITO others life is masquerade ball, and
rs at such entertainments gentlemen and
ladies put on the garb of Kings and Queens
Or mountebanks or clowns and At the close
put of the disguise. so a great many pass
| their whole life in a mask taking of the
mask at death. While the masquerade ball
| Of life goes on, they trip merriiy over the
floor gemmed hand is stretched to gemmed
hand, cleaning brow bends to cleaning
brow. On with the dancei Flush and rus
lie and laughter Of immeasurable merry
making. But after awhile the languor of
ueath comes on the limbs and blurs the
eyesight. Lights lower. Floor hollow
with sepulcbral echo. Music saddened in
to a wall Lights lower. Now the mask
ers are only seen in the dim light Now the
fragrance of the flowers Is like the sicken-
ing Odor that comes from garlauds that
have lain long in the vaults OF cemeteries.
Lights lower. Mists gather in the room.
Glasses shake as though quaked by sudden
thunder. Sigh caught in the curtain.
Scarf drops from the shoulder OF beauty a
shroud. Lights lower. Over the slippery
boards in dance of death glide jealousies
envies, reyenges, lust, despair and DEATH
stencil of lamp-wcks almost eXtingnished.
Torn garlands will not half cover the ul-
cerated feet. Choking damps. Chilliuess.
Feet still. Hands closed. Voices hushed.
Eyes shut. Lights out.
Young man, as you cannot live life over
again. however you may ,oug to do so, be
] sure TO nave your one Ire ElRDL. lutEt i
in this assembly. wOt not, for we are
made up of all sections of this land and
from many lands, some young man whG
has gone away from home and, perhaps
under some little spite or evil persuasion
Of another, ana his parents know not whore
he is. My son, go home! Do not go to
seal Don't go tonight where you may be
tempted to go. Go homel Your father
will be glad to see you; and your mother
l need not tell you how she feels. How L
would like to make your parents present
of their wayward boy, repentant and in
his right mind. 1 would like to write
them letter, and you TO carry the letter,
saying: BY the blessing of God on my ser
mon introduce to you one whom you have
never seen before, for he has become a new
creature in Christ Jesus My boy, 20
home and put your tired head on the
bosom that nursed you so tenderly in your
childhood years.
"A young Scotchman was in battle taken
captive by a band of Indians. an he
learned their language and adOIte their
habits. Years passed on, but the old Indian
. chieftain never forgot that he had in his
| possession n young man who did not belong
to him. Well. one day this tribe of Indians
} came in sight of the Scotch regiments from
, whom this young man had been captured
and the old Indian chieitain said: 4 lost
my son in battle, and L know how a father
feels at the loss of a son. Do you think
r your father is yet aliye?' The young mar
said: Il am the only son of my father, anC
} | hope he is still alive Then said the In
} dian chieftain: Because ofthe loss of my sol
) this world is IA 1esert. You go free. Return
I 20 your countrymen. Revisit your father
Z that he may rejoice when he sees the SUI
, rise in the morning and the trees blossom
y the spring SO say to You, young man
' captive OF waywardness and sin. You
} mother is waiting for you. Your sisters ar
waiting for you. God is waiting for yop
10 homel Go home!"