The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-15
THE TRIALS OF LIFE

"All thy vexations were but my trials
of thy love, and thou hast strangely
stood the test"
From the ethical point Of view, the
lrials of life which wither and crush
and kill are not the blind accidents Of
chance They are the tests and strains
On mind and heart which develop soul
and strength.
The material and the physical are not
the highest things in human nature. The
moral and the spiritual are higher levels
on the scale of our spiritual life.
There are men and women, not far to
seek, to whom the years of time are
only an opportunity for the pursuit and
qualification of appeutes and passion.
They measure human existence by its
success or failure to satisfy those in
stincts which man has in common with
the brute,-"God made them, so let
them pass for men"
They know that man is akin to the
animals in many, very many respects.
They never knew, or they have forgot
ten that man is also akin to God.
Without trials, tests, temptations, NOR
al life, conflicts, griefs, sorrows, we
should not be able to enrich experience
nor to develop character.
The known and unknown agonies of
human souls are many, dark and terri
Bile. There is a supply of data for our
melancholy and dispirited cynics and
pessimists. But suppose for a moment
that desire was never frustrated that
hearts were always glad. that love was
never bitter misery, that death never
snatched our treasures, that joy reigned
supreme that we We're never chastened
and scourged? Would not a world with
out trials be a worse home for US than
this world? Yes.
Then welcome each rebuff
That turns earth's smoothness rough
Each sting,
That bids nor set, nor stand,
But go"
Many a sorrow and many tear form
the foil Of laughter and enjoyment.
over against the lily and the rose are
lamb and the dove. There are the wolf
and the hawk-and God made them
both! In His sight is what we call evil,
really evil?
Jean Paul Richter says that love
would lose It's sacredness and power if
it were not Swallowed by a fear and set
between pain and loss.
Man might have been a sinless being.
but then he would not have been man.
Man might have been spared trials of
soul and pains of body, but not with
out ceasing to be man.
Buddha thought that desire,-unsatis-
fed desire, is the root of all our disap-
pointment. Perhaps he was partly
right. But if our desires We're all salts
fed, should we be like the ox,-ready to
lie down and chew the cud of content
ment?
1t is good to live and learn, as in the
proverb. But do we ever wonder wheth-
er there will be any time left to live af-
ter we have learned?
Now is the time to live. Now is the
time TO conquer base desire and pas
sion. Now is the time to wresue with
our sorrows and griefs, revealed or hid
den, and TO win victory on the field Of
moral conflict
Now is the time to love and to be
loved. 1t is poor balm to a broken
heart and TO lips that can never speak
again to heap their collins with violets
and to shed tears Of bitterness alone in
the silence.
Nay, speak now, live now; if not as
you would, yet in the noblest way your
opportunities and powers make possible.
1t was the crucihed Christ who con-
quered II is the suffering soul who is
on the road TO the gates Of Paradise.
The trials of life are stepping-stones, not
stumbling blocks. JOY belongs 20 him
that overcometh, and, some time, some
where, hope still fondly dreams that
God will show the meaning Of our woe.
FRANK L. PHA-.EN.