The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-09
A DOUBLE EXPERIENCE
PART 1.
BY CHARLES WAGNER. 1ooE hx, McClure Phillfps & Col
'.Though our outward man perish"

Though our outward man perish"
 We would like you to reflect with us over the double experience described by St. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, in part of the fourth chapter, and which is expressed in a concise form, as follows: For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" It would not be possible to pause before more serious subject. It is not ques- tion that he puts to us, but the ques- tion. Our fate depends upon the na- ture and extent of the experience men toned here. We all carry it out in its first part: if the second part is not carried out, the balance sheet of our existence shows deficit.
 The outward man perishes Life it. self proves it to us. Its lessons are gratuitous. and yet at the same time cost us very dear. We all learn, at our own expense, by exposing our own person, in full meaning of the words, that is to say, by losing our body and possessions, that the outward man per fishes.
 As though to impress itself upon us still more forcibly, the lesson Is re- peated; to perish, to disappear, is al- most a second nature to whoever has taken the habit of living superfi- cal opinions is expressed by these words: We can only die once." How many times do we not die before we die in reality, or rather. before we finish dying? Do we not depart this life with all those whom we have low ed? As our treasures pass, more and more over to the invisible, are not our ties with this side of the grave un1 loosened, more and more? The boat tied to the river bank is unfastened, little by little; one by one the moor fngs fall apart. To die is to loosen the last rope. Sometimes 1t is worn out and when at last 1t gives way. the sails are already filled by breeze of the far beyond.
 Let us suppose that you ignored what such words meant, because you have never felt a part of your being depart with a loved friend. Yet, you will certainly understand, inasmuch as you have experienced 1t, the de- structson of the outward man by trans formation. Under what shapes have we not disappeared? Does not the young child disappear, to make way for the youth? Ask mothers if this ls not so. Which of them gazing at the child's face on her lap, so fresh and pmiling and enframed in sunny curls, sn all the charm of youth which, to childhood, is what the dawn is to the poming day, has not secretly uttered he wish "Oh. that he could always eemain thus"! The young creature, on his side. only asks to grow. He is happy in his transformation. and finds lt is easy to bid farewell to his childish days.
 Rarely does youth look back upon childhood to regret 1t. Are not the boundaries of Its possessions exten- ded? Has it not gone on, from one con- Quered country to the other, always richer, always more beautiful, always more living? And yet. when the first hardships of life appear. when the first contact with unkindness or human usliness Is experienced. deceptions that are all the more deeply felt when the heart is fresh and young, does not youth weep for far-off childhood, for it's wealth of illusions and it's spotless freshness?
 When youth is behind us, who can count the many times when the ma ture man discovers that vital evolution is demonstrated by a series of destruc- ctons? When we are no olnger teh same as we were, is there not something in us that is ended? The oak tree bids goodbye to its old foliage. 30 that the new leaves may burst forth We, also, Go follow the progress of life, must Did many farewells. Sometimes they gre sorrowful-one cannot be trans formed without suffering. If these transformations were always to our ad- vantage 1t would not so much matter; but there are some that are downfalls. Listen to the poet singing of the in- Rasion of our hearts by prosaic care and the loss of generous ideas when positive manhood has taken the place of dreaming youth. full of poetry and adaals:
 ,~u exists, en un mot. chez les trois
 quarts des hommes
 pn poete, mort jenue, a qui Thomme
 survit."
 A. de Musset k''rhere exists. in three quarters of
 mankind.
 A poet. who died young, and is sur
 vived by the many