Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-05-08

HILLSBC
OF homes where instead of living simple
life the members of the household are liv-
ing at pace that is terrific, and all this
is killing. the business man, the society
woman, the parents and the children, and
instead Of possessing JOY and peace we are
pleasure in these days is So great that we
nave become absolutely unscrupulous in our
attempts to gain the objects of our de-
slres. We ought to be satisfied with just
what we are and in the most natural way.
We have come into the world with differ
ent gifts, some one with gold, others with
silver, still others with marble and many
with only clay, and our task is to fashion
these things into the strongest manhood
and the truest womanhood, and to do it
in the most simple and unaffected man
ner. We are too selfish in our living, we
long to satisfy our appetites, our passions
uppernost in our living, and the man who
| makes it so makes his appetite stronger
than himself, and his need is dreadful, for
he who lives simply to eat, to drink, to
sleep and to dress, whether he be pauper
or prince, is on the downward grade to de-:
spair.
Contentment is one of the greatest
blessings in the world. It is not question
Of the possession of either poverty or
| riches. He who knows how to be content
possesses the secret, not because he is
either poor or rich, but simply because he
knows how to be content. The mere fact
that we are Christians does not amount
to much IN many cases; II our religion in
creases our confidence, our hope, our love,
it Is good, but if it gives us the spirit that
we are better than other people, If we seek
| to control the interests Of other people,
make them fashion their lives according
70 our own plan, if we are good simply
profession OF religion is almost worthless.
The difficulty is not in our surrounding, but
| in ourselves. "Joy is not in things, it is
! in u.s.
| | met young woman this winter in the
| South who told me that she was the pos
| SCISSOR Of a $4,000 violin, AID with shin
! ing face she said, ''You should hear toe
music O. that instrument" and yet in the
| hands Oh very many people it would have
| been just a. producer of unharmonious
sounds, while in the hands of this gifted
young woman it was truly marvellous, ard
all because the music was in her. and the
violin was. the best movement of the ex-
| preston of that music.
When Ole Bull, the great violinist, played
in Princeton, one of the professors asked
| him if the secret of his success was in the
violin or in the bow or in himself and he
| said, THE violin and the bow amount tc
but little. never play until 1 feel that
there is music in me that must be ex
pressed, and then any instrument l touch
fitted for life because we have become toe
artificial, have had wrong ideals and have
| tried to be what we never can be.
| A friend recently sent me that wonder
ful little book, ''The Simple Life" BY
Charles Wagner, which every one woule
do well to read. To the author of this
book I am indebted for some of the ex
pressions used above, but in one of thu
chapters he tells us in speaking of ths
| home life, "In the time of the Second En-
pire, in one Of our p,easantest sub-prefec
| lures OF the provinces, little, way from
some baths fcequentcd by the Emperor
there was mayor, a very. worthy man
denly turned by the thought that his SOW
ereign might one day descend upon hi
home. Up to this time he had lived i,
the house OF his fathers, a son respectful
Of the slightest family traditions Blu
when, once the all-absorbing idea Of receiv
ing the Emperor had taken possession c
his brain he became another man. In thi
cient for his needs, even enjoyal le, all thi
simplicity that his arceStors had loved, az
peared poor, ugly, ridiculous. Out of th
question to ask an Emperor to climb thi
wooden staircase, sit in these old arm,
chairs, walk over such superanuated cal
pets. So the mayor called architect an
masons, pickaxes attacked walls and &
was made out of all proportion t
the rest Of the house in size and spler
: dor. He and his family retired into clos
quarters, where people and furniture i,
commoded each other generally. Thel
having emptied his purse and upset hi
household by this stroke of genius,
awaited the royal guest. Alas, he 500
saw the end of the empire arrive. but tn
: Emperor never. The folly Of this poo
man IS not so rare. AS scottish as he al
all those who sacrifice treir home life t
l the demands Of the world
II.
, What was the difficulty with Elijah
First his physical strength had been over
r taxed. He had been iaboring under Tn
highest tension, his nerves were unstruns
. and he was just in tie position whc1
. are many like him to-day. They are
despair, and they need not so much a spil
, ltual physician as the presence of doctc
T who can tell them that their bodies mus
a have rest, their nerves must be built VI
and they themselves must remember ths
their bodies are the temples of the Ho]
, Ghost, and that they may sin against Go
, just as truly when they break command
+ touching the body as when they comm
). sins touching the soul. Elijah needed res
n and instead of taking it he prayed that /
q might die.
Second, he looked away from God to h
j circumstances: Up. to that time he e1
n dured as seeing Him who was invisibl
= then like Peter when he saw the wind tn;
a was boisterous he began to sink I do n,
4 think that any. minister could preach t
: day if he realized the iniquity that su
e e rounded him.. the hypocrisy in maj
i hearts, the awful sins in many lives;
e would grow faint and sick at heart, ar
4 all because he looked down, while it
+ possible, on the other hand, for anyboe
II to preach in the midst of all this desol
r ton if he: keeps his eyes turned up, al
is the difficulty. with you is not that yo'
r. ened upon the ground instead of turn'
IS upward to heaven, and the cause. of 70
distress is not that your mother has gol
away from your home, but that you a
# standing like Mary looking in at the tom
Il when you ought to be standing with u