The Newtown bee., 1905-06-23
TOWN TOPICS.
SOCIAL TOPICS.
WHAT IS THE UsE?-BY o. o. WRIGHT.

WHAT IS THE USE?-BY o. o. WRIGHT.
 What is the use of this Old Home celebration? Why do we care to go back? What difference will it make to us? What shall we gain by it? about the past? Will it pay?
 We'll, what do we live for anyway? What is the purpose and end of this life? Why do we dwell together in communities, towns, and states? What is the real significance and val ue of our social life? The use of any thing depends upon what you want of it. What are we living for? is 1t just to get all the fun we can out of it? Then let us te looking out for the fun, and make that the chief thing? Is it to see how much of this worlds goods we can scrape together, which everything count to increase the pile. ''Get all you can and keep all you get," is the motto in that case. See how much stuff you can accumulate to leave when you get through. Or do you wish to rise and shine in the eyes of the gaping crowd? Spend all your time and money in posing before the great, unwaShed thrOng, court the fa- vOr of those you despise, and purchase the so called honors which the public is always willing to sell for price. Pleasures, riches, and honOrs are the inventory of the world. Will you use the world and your God-given powers to secure these things above every thing else? This is one ideal.
 People know what they want as rule. We all know what we like, and what we do not like. And what is the use of anything that we do not want? Many do not care for knowledge, cul ture and the things of the moralspir- itual life. The great majority, per haps, have little taste for science, art, literature, and the real progress of civilization. "We do not care for these things" they say; and that seems to settle the whole matter with them. And it is difficult to make them see that such state of mind toward all the best things of life is the most discouraging thing about it. There is always hope of people who show some little interest in the finer things of life. But people who don't care fors anything; who are not in want of anything; but who just pre- fer to be let alone, are the ones we are. after, It is our business to sell goods to those who don't want them, or at least to those who do not realize that these best things in life are in the market.
 Now, how shall we estimate the real value of the things of this life? It is in what they do for us. < And that de- rends upon the use we make of them. Wealth is of no value save as we use it. It must be invested to bring re- suits. Houses, lands, bank stock and bonds are worthless except as they oS~%~ %o 1,4 mental, moral and religious welfare of the world. Character, usefulness, progress and happiness express the values of things. To live is to think, feel, will and act to some divine pur- pose. 1t is in what we are, not in what we have. It is in what we give, not in what we gain, that we grow into the higher life. The rich fool in the para ble was not to blame because he had much goods, but because he laid them up and made his life to consist in those mere things which were only the means to the end.
 Sooner or later we all begin to look back. The historic sense grows in us as we begin to pass into the record of our family, and town, and race. Par ents, home, grandparents and the family tree in general, appeal to us IuUIc duu LlOIC dS WC IClCCU uQOu Uuc ever approaching end which must come to every one. We are as linksin a liv- ing chain of generations. We owe something to the past: we owe some thing also to the future. If as Dr Holmes says: 'Live people are only dead people warmed over," then our interest in the life of our day and generation is of vital importance. Public spirit is common duty. We ought to be glad to plan and do some thing for those who may come after us. The lessons of 200 years of history in our town should be deeply impressed upon the minds and hearts of the young to prepare them for the coming duties of their citizenship. We are only part of the program, and we should be willing to perform the role we play with some proper respect to l the rest of the drama.