The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-11-24

matchleSS books OF trayel, labOrS hard
to prove that the slight ruins of that
city are really worth visiting. Carthage
buried in the cemetery Of dead nations.
Not one altar to the true God did she
rear; not one of the Ten Command
ments but she con~spicuousiy violated.
Her doom was settled in HEAVIER when
it was decided far back in the eternities
that the nation and Kingdom that will
not serve God shall perish.
BREEDERS OF DISCORD.
Walk ON In the cemetery of nations
n see the long lines OF tombs-
Thebes and Tyre and Egypt and Baby
lon and Medo-Persian and Macedonian
and Roman and Saxon h~eptarchy,
great nations, small nations, nations
that lived a year and nations that
lived 500 years.
Our own nation will be judged by
the same moral laws by which all 9TH
er 1,ations have been judged. The
gme day for individuals viii
Judgment day for nations is every
day, every day weighed, every day ap-
proved or every day condemned. Never
before in the history OF this country
has the American nation been more
surely in the balances h it Is this
minute. Do right, and we go up. Do
wrong, and we go down. I am not so
anxious to know what this statesman
or that warrior thinks We a better
do with Cuba and Porto RICO and the
Philippines as | am anxious to know
what God thinks We had better DO.
The destiny of this nation will not be
decided on yonder capitoline hill or at
Manila or at the presidential ballot
box. for it wifi be settled in heaven.
Another thing decided in the same
high place is that happiness is the re-
suit of spiritual condition and not OF
earthly environment. Ii we VINO may
sometimes have a thousand dollars TO
invest n it such a perplexIty 10
know what to do with it and soon
after find that we invested it where
principal and interest have gone down
through roguery or panic, what must
be the worriment of those having mil
lions to invest and whose losses cor
respond in magnitude with their re-
sources! People who have their three
or four dollars a day wages are just
as happy as those who have an income
of $500. 900 a year. Sometimes happ1-
ness is seated on a foOtstool and some
times misery on the throne. All the
gold of earth in one chunk cannot pur-
chase five minutes of complete salts
faction. Worldly success is an atmos-
phere that breeds the maggots OF envy
and jealousy and hate. There are those
who will never forgive you III you nave
more emoluments or honor or ease
than they have. To take you down
is the dominant wish of most or those
who are not as high Is you are. They
will spend hours and days and years
to entrap you. They will hover around
newspaper offices to get mean Ime
printed depreciating you. Your heaven
is their hell.
A dying president of the United
States said many years g In regard
to his lifetime or experiences,
laa.~,+ ,o-y TNbo 1oa1inO statesmen
of America i'm letters of advice Warn
Young men to keep out of politics.
Many of the most successful have tried
in vain to down their trouble in strong
drink. On the other hand, there are
millions Of people who on departing
this life will have nothing to pat
a good name and life insurance
whose illumined faces are induces of H.
lumined souls. They wish everybody
we'll. When the fire bell rings, tney 40
not go to the windows at 10
see if it is their store that is on hre, Tor
they never owned a store, and Wnen
the September equinox is abroad they
do not worry lest their ships founder in
a gale, for they never owned a snip,
and when the are maze
for high political office they are not
fearful that their name Will De over
looked, for they never applied for OF
fee. There is so much heartiness and
freedom from care in their laughter
that when you hear it you are compel
led to laughi i'm sympathy, although you
know not what they are laughing
about.
When the children of that family as
semble in the sitting room of the old
homestead to hear the fathers will
read, they are not fearful of being cut
off with a million and a half dollars,
for the old man never owned anything
more than the farm of Is acres, which
yielded only enough plainly to support
the household. They nave more happi-
ness in one month than many have in
a whole lifetime. Would to God I had
the capacity to explain to you on how
little a man can be happy and on how
much he may be wretched! Get your
heart right, and all is right. Keep our
heart wrong, and all is wrong. That
is a principle settled in heaven.
SCHOOL OF LIFE.
Another thing decided in that high
place is that this world is a school
house or college for splendid or dis
graceful graduation. We begin in the
freshman class OF good or evil n
then pass into the sophomore and
then into the junior and then into
the senior. and from that we gradu-
ate angels or devils. In many col
leges there is an elective course"
where the student selects what he will
study-mathematics or he languages
or chemistry or philosophy-and it is
an elective course we all take in the
schoolhouse or university of this world.
We may study sin until we are satu-
rated with it or righteousness until we
are exemplifications of it. Graduate
we all must, but we decide for our
selves the style Of graduation. It is
an elective course. We can study gen.
crosby until our every word and every
act n every contribution of money
or time will make the world better, or
we may study until u
soul shall shrink up to a smallness un-
imaginable. We may, under God, edu-
cate ourselves into a self control that
nothing can anger or into an irascibili-
ty that will ever and anon keep our
face flushed with wrath and every
nerve a-quiver. Great old schoolhouSe
of a world in which we are all being
educated for glory or perdition!
Some have wondered why graduation
day in college is called commencement
day. when it is the last day of college
exercises hut graduation dayS arc