The Progress., 1898-07-23

ones never again Would you want 20 80
through the process of losing your father
| again, or your mother again, or your com
paniOn In life again, or your child again:
If you Were permitted to stop at the six
ticth milestone, or the tifticth milestone
! or the forticth milcSt0nc and Yotraco Your
steps to the twentieth, your experience
would be something like mine one No.
vcmbcr day in Italy walked through Il
great city with IA friend and two guides,
| and there were in all the city only four
| persons, and they were those Of our own
group. We went up and down the streets
We entered the houses, the museums, the
! temples, the thcatcrS. We examined the
wonderful pictures on the walls and the
most exquisite mosaic on the floor, In
| the streets were the deep worn ruts OF
wagons, but nCb a wagon in the city. On
! the front steps of mansions the word swell
come" in Latin, but no human being to
| greet us. The only bodies of any Of the
citizens that we saw were pctrlllcd and III
the museum at the gates. OF the 3d. Geo
| people who once lived in those homes and
worshipcd in those temples and ciappcd in
|
years that city Of Pompeii had been buried
before modern exploration Scoopcd out of
it tho lava of Ncsuvius Well he who
should be permitted to return on the path
way of his earthly life and live it over
again would find as lonely and sad pill
grimage. 1t would be an exploration Of
the dead past Tho old schooihousc, the
old church, the old home, the old play
ground, either gone or occupied by others,
and for you more depressing than was our
POmpeiian visit that November day.
Besides that would you want to risk
the temptations of life over again? From
the fact that you are hero | conclude that,
though in many respects your life may
have been unfortunate and uncOnsccratcd,
you have got on SO far to}embIy well, if
nothing more than tolcrahlc As for my
self, though my life has been far from be
ing as cOnsccratcd to God rs | would like
to have had it, would not want to try it
over again, lest next time | would do
worse.
Why, just look at the temptations we
have all passed through and just look at
the multitu(cs who have gone completely
under! just call over the roll of your
schoolmates and college mates, the clerks
who were with you in the same store or
bank or the operatives in the same factory
with just as good prospects as you, who
have come to complete mishap. Some
young man that told you that he was go.
ing to be q millionaire, and own the fast
est trottcrs on the turnpike, and retire by
he 10 Of ri
not hear from for many years and know
nothing about him until some day he
comes into your store and asks for cents
to get mug Of beer
Another Life Might BE Worse.
You the good mother of a household,
and all your children rising up to call You
blessed, can remember when you were
quite jealous of the belle Of the village
who was so transcendently fair and popu-
lar But while you have these two honor
able and quecnly names of wife and moth
er she became a poor waif of tho street
and went into tho blackness of darkness
forever. Live life over again? Why if
many of those who are respectable were
permitted to experiment, the next journey
| WOulu DC uclHoiltloH. Iou Sct tufouSll,
as Job says, by the skin of your teeth.
Next time you might not get through at
all. Satan would say, Il know him now
better than ! did before and have for SO
years been studying his weaknesses, and
will weave stronger web Of circum-
stances to catch him next time" And
satan would concentrate his forces on this
| one man and the last state of that man
would be worse than the first. My friends,
our faces are in the right direction Bet
ter 60 forward than backward, even if we
had the choice, The greatest disaster
can think of would be for you to return
to boyhood in 1898. Oh, if life were a
smooth Luzerne or Cayuga lake, would
like to get into yacht and sail over it,