Evening star., 1901-09-21
HUMBUG OF REFINING.
A Breezy Lay Sermon On HOpefu1ness
and Content.

| A Breezy Lay Sermon On HOpefulness
and Content.
! From the Brooklyn Eagle.
There is a literature Of groans. Some
people wish to live their lives again. be-
| cause they went wrong at the first living;
| they have wasted their opportunities; they
| have narrowed In selfishness and uncharity:
| they have been basely content with fgno-
rance and stagnation; but when prosper
Gus. healthy people go on In this strain.
| as some Of them like to do. In, company,
| their repining sounds very like affectatton.
They have little to repine over. This fash
ion Of bewailing earlier years and past
times was common in the first half or the
nineteenth century, but it was literary
habit and belonged to an era OF sentiment
talisfn that is funny to us now. Heroes OF
| old stories are always choking with emo
| tion and the heroines were bathed in tears
| for hours. But in these healthful, practi-
| cal days there Is no cause for the genteel
| miseries of our grandparents. We all nave
enough to eat and We wear better clothes
| than our ancestors, and we live In more
comfortable houses. and have wider re-
sources in illness and trouble. Nay, We
even have more money and spend 1t more
lavishly. Our lives are longer: honest
pleasures are for all, instead of the rev:
the hours of work are short and the world
is ever growing better.
Is the man believed, then. who repines,
or Is his fearful manner taken as an ldio.
syncrasy, a result Of dyspepsia or lack OF
proper employment? Unless he pleads III
health. his repining is humbug. he wouio QUE
be child once more. II he We're suo,
denly put back into frocks and realized
what had happened to him, would ne no.
lift his voice in frenzfed protest! Wouio
he be dwarfed to tops and kites II ne coulo
help it? Would he go back to the monot-
ony of school, to parental restraints, TO
petty plays and occupations, 10 the annoy
ances and tyrannies suffered from larger
c,,ffn illnesses
dured for lack of forethought and sense,
to the blindness of inexperience that woulo
shut the eye and ear to so much that was
mai jestic or beautiful, to the closing against
him of the callings and enjoyments OF
adults? He will say that he would be a
child that he might be free from care. for
getting how big are the little cares OF
child; that he might live in continual sun
shine forgetting how thunderously dark
are trifies in small eyes.
The fact is, memory Is kind to us. 1t
| selects what we best like to remember.
Pain and grief anxiety and sin, dlsap-
pointment and shame, pass from us, !eaV-
ing our minds clear for delight or DUTY.
We see with envy the play OF chlidren'
realize that they have none of the botherS
that aff1ict us; realize, too, that happy
futures may be for them. and that, whereas
we have resigned all hope OF pelng presl-
dent the youngSter quarrellng over MS mar
bles on the sidewalk may one day occupy
the White House. We remember the pleas
ures of youth, for youth was inexperienced
in sorrows; not because youth was 1ntrln-
sically happier. - ---.-.
Cease repning. 1t is not good FORM nor
good sense. We say that we might now
be great or rich or useful or happy, II
onlv'' such and such things had happened.
Make them happen, If it is worth while.
It is never too late. And the farther we
are from childish ideals the more easy IL
is to force them into being. 1t is hard
to live in the present We are forever
dreaming on the future or the past But
iS the future SO glorious OF Tic
past so joyous we conceive Happiness
is the not of now. 1t is todays sunshine
| that warns 1t is the faces that look at
| us that we love. 1t is absurd to seek trou-
| BILE; to say or to believe, that trouble :, is is
always seeking us; to wall forth that Ire
is all tears and partings and indigestion, a
| purgatory that fits us for another life, and
| no more than that. Life suffices to itself:
| 1t is scorn to the world to deny its
flowers it's music and it's brightness: 20 re-
fuse it's fruits and sweet sayors. Let us
| an Nnnnortunities gone forever and turn to
the Joys and duties that are for us today.