The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-12-21

" ii"iN HnoNellleHG LOT winch you are
not ready.
AS u sorrows are new, our Joys
are new and all our experiences are
new. Our life is one long discovery
of things that we did not know and
could not know, because we nave not
passed this way before. We have
found, for instance, that gratitude is
the rarest of virtues. You used to
suppose that if you do a kindness it
will be fully appreciated and recip-
rocated. You have found out by ex-
perience, rs you could have found out
in no other way, hat gratitude is
apt to be on'y another AK to grind.
While there is a possibility that you
may return still more service you are
thanked, but when you can return NO
more advantage you are dropped.
Here is a man whom you have helped
in political elevation. When the time
comes for the compliment to be re-
turned, you are not only refused help,
but you receive positive opposition.
You have found out that you should
do the right thing not with respect
to reward or gratitude, but because
1t is the right thing to do. Many are
miserable because they are all the
way looking for gratitude which they
cannot find. You might as well go
down Pennsylvania avenue, Washing
ton, or Broadway, New York, or Ire
mont street, Boston, your eyes scruti-
nizing the pavements looking for tur-
quoises and emeralds and rubies. Per-
haps you might find them, but there
is not much probability that in so
years you would find one of them.
We talk about the great discoveries
of the age, the electric power, the
telescope and microscopic power, but
90 not say anything about the discov-
cries we all make year by year and day
by day. There are surprises all the
time. 1t is a new road we are travel
ing. "Ye have not passed this way be-
fore"
But closely allied is the other fact
which we limited at in the opening
that we will not pass this way again.
This is our only opportunity for doing
certain things that ought to be done.
On all sides there are griefs we ought
to %solace, hunger we might feed, cold
that we ought to warm, kind words
that we ought to speak, generous deeds
we ought to perform. All that you and
| do toward making this world better
and happier we must do very soon or
never do at all. Joshua and his troops
never came back over the way they
were marching toward the crossing of
the Jordan. The impress of the sandal
or the bare feet of each soldier showed
in what direction he was going, but
never did the impress of the sandal Of
any one of them show that he returned.
We are all facing eternity to come.
There is no retreat. Alertness and
fidelity would not be so important if
we could truthfully say: 81 will be
back here again. The things l neglect
now | will do the next time. | will be
r~eincarnated, and I will resume my
earthly obligations. Having then more
knowledge than I have now, I will dis
charge my earthly duties better than
[ can now discharge them. | 90 not give
solemn farewell to these obligations
and opportunities, but a smiling and
CHEEKY good-by until l see them again"
No, we canno say that. There will be
no new and corrected edition of the
volume of our earthly life, After we
make exit from the stage at the close
of the fifth act we cannot reenter. How
many millions of people have lived and
died | know not, but of all the human
ace who have rome only seven persons
7 Tine I -Nt,. .ltr1- - : loyo ,a4,rnaI +la
son of the widow at ~Zarephath, the
young man of Main, the rulers daugh-
ter, Tabitha, Eutychus, Lazarus and
Christ. Among all the ages to come
I do not suppose there will be one more
to return to this life, having once left
it.
Lord Bacon said that he who shall
discover the way to make myrrh solu-
bic by human blood will discover i'm
mortal life on earth, but no such dis
covery will ever be made. With what
suggestive solemnity does this thought
charge every hour of our earthly ex-
istence. 1t is said that it is possible
to know which way the wind blew at
the time of the deluge by the mark of
the waves still to be found in the sand,
and the direction of our influence, how
ever slight, will leave a mark that will
last forever.
o nearer, stop bothering about you
exit from sublunary scenes! By the
grace of God get your heart right and
then go ahead. If the Lord takes care
of you clear on to the bank on this side
of the river, I think you can trust Him
to take you from bank to bank, from
the willows on this side the stream to
the palms on the other side, from ;he
last kiss of %sorrowing ones on this side
to the welcome, sanity, cherubic Sc
raphic, deific on the other side. Keep
your eye on the ark, and whatever be-
tides you will go through all right.
One Easter morning Massena, the
marshal of France, appeared with 49,
600 armed men on the heights above
the town Of Feldkirch. There was no
arms to defend the town, and the in
habitants were wild with terror. Then
the old dean of the church cried out: