The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-02-19
THE MURMUR
OF THE WORLD

the earth manifest towards me by Writa
ten and verbal expressions great good will
and for these I am very deeply grateful.
Many questions are asked, which, 1t IL
scarcely within my province to answer.
Therefore as a rule I answer none, except
through the silent emotion of nameless
gratefulness. Some one who Is good to
me-so many individuals In the world are
good to me-asks me some leading and old.
time queries; for example, whether 1 con-
slider marriage a failure" whether "be-
lieve In material hell" and whether ire
venge Is sweet" 1 frankly confess, my
beloved that l am not in position to
answer satisfactorily either proposition.
Never having been married. do not feel
competent to answer that problem. My
personal observation has led me to dis
cover that, in my poor opinion, many mar
riages absolute and glaring failures.
Many time have known hearts to break
and bleed at the very foot of the altar,
and have known two souls to pledge lies
in the very presence of the source of all
Truth. But many a time and oftener I
have known instinctivcly that love had
found the way and the nuptial ceremony
was blessed in the intangible material pres
altar and saw two souls united and I
will swear to you that love and life and
success found the way thither, and will
find the way through the changeful years,
be they few many There a.e numer-
Gus other instances known to income in
particular, in which the union of two noble
souls makes the world surprisingly beau
tiful to a husband and his wife. The others
need not be even incidentally specified but
the united lives of men and women love
have given me more joy than all the
women l ever loved for themselves.
Every man must have known a woman
whom he loved and whom he kis sed to be
in any position to comprehend he power
of good woman to please. No man who
has not loved or kissed her whom he claim
ed as his own. whether in loveship or mars
riage, cannot possibly speak of the great
happiness of what the French very prop
erly term the great passion. On the path
way of his life there are numerous in
stances of the failure of marital relations;
but it is my privilege to leave these fall
ures to others for discussion.
If I were personally concerned, I would
not exchange that moment of joy expert
enced in turning from the altar with my
sweetheart my wife for all the other
honors and other joys of this world And
1t is nobler for man to receive, when his
days work is done, the caress of his wife,
and, in the goodness of God, hear the
voices of his children than to lis
ten to the trumpet of fame sounding
down the spaces of the earth! And early
marriage makes immortal" 1t is the
prop of empire, and that man who Resolves
to live without woman, or that woman
who resolves to live without man, is an
apostate and rebel against nature!" The
thought belongs to Tacitus. 1t was given
to me in my youth by an old man.
AS to the suggestion lis life worth the
living" can do no more than answer that
my life Is worth living-to me- M any
griefs have come into it, burdens physical
and spiritual hard beyond reason TO bear;
shadows dark as the shades of any i'm
aginable hell. But the sunshine has al
ways broken through the gloom at the very
moment when gloom rested darkest, hcav-
lest, damnabest. There have been hours,
days, months. when the aching heart cried
in the end. 1t might be delayed, or one
thought SO; but 1t came. The mists rolled
in splendor from the granduer of the hills,
and the sunbeams warm and tender rested
on the beauty of the rills. One may have
smoaned by the side of the valley of the
shaded river and longed for the summons
to cross. But other summons came, and
with them that peace which can come to
those only who have dwelt in the great
slaye-ground of pain.
AS for revenge that does not belong to US.
The question does not admit of discus
sion.
The existence or non-existence of a mate
rial hell gives me no personal concern; and
it is subject that preferably l shall not
dwell upon. My correspondent knows as
much about 1t as do, and know quite as
much as any other man on this planet
knows
That man or woman who lives temper
ately in all things may face the future with
calm security. A cheerful and generous
spirit comes very near to godliness; tenn
perance In all the material things of life
approaches very near to holiness. These
virtues are for every one to cultivate and
abide by.
Incidentally. but not disconnected from
recent local excitemene, it may be permit
ted to observe in this place that 1t is a
cause for serious concern. the ever-rising
tide of intemperance in drink, in food. in
religion in politics and even in that which
passes current nowadays as literature.
The conviction is forced upon one by nearly
twenty years of active and robust contact
with what We call "the world largo
proportion of which time of joy and sor
row, hard wark and time-killing pleasure.
has been spent with the most enlightened
social elements of civilization-that violent
intemperance is no more confined to strong
drink than that the winds roar on the
mountain tops alone. Morally, the glut-
ton is no more worthy of respect than the
drunkard. The man who kneels pitiable
and pitiful adorer at the shrine of whisky
is not any worse than he who makes a