Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1906-03-09
MANS BEST WELFARE.
By Rev. John Milton

1ue Hlouln OF the righteous man Is
a well of life.-Prov. x, 3.
Without water life cannot be. Take
water from the earth and the fevers
Of death burn their fires.
Where deserts blight, a well Of wa
ter is a possession beyond price. To
the Hebrew of the Psalms and Prov
erbs, therefore, who knew the heat
and the distress of scorching sands,
who knew water as the synonym Of
life, no more powerful language could
be used to set forth the value Of right
eousness than the brief sentence which
says, THE mouth Of q righteous man
Is a well Of life"
de speaks the truth always and his
word Is like water from cool wells. 1t
refreshes. 1t vitalizes.
Man builds nothing that is not build
ed on truth. The hands Of his daily
toll move IN truth. This is the reality
from ore to engine, from quarry to
house, from forest to furniture. In
dealing with things he is dealing with
truth. If he deals truthfully, the uni
verse conspires to bless him with
achievement. If untruthfully, gravi-
tation, iron, wood, water, fire, the
truth Of things, presses the bitter cup
Of failure to his lips. In mans rela-
ton with his fellow man. great civili-
cations, as great worlds, can be built
only upon Righteousness, upon every
mans speaking truth with his neigh
Dor.
Every great state is bullded in truth
and goes to ruin in falsehood, through
disloyalty to its moral ideals. Not
withstanding appearances to the con-
trary, this Is the fact which the uni
verse in its every atom sanctifes.
Through the mists of the apparent
look with clear eyes into the reality.
Build your career on the integrity of
the universe, mastered in friendly wise
by the integrity of yourself. Then
you are building SO wisely that every
atom Of the universe works with you,
willing your success, Beauty is its
own excuse for being" Righteousness
is its own justification. Truth is its
own bliss.
Whether the eyes of men see or not,
the Joy in which God loves and lives
enters into the heart of the righteous.
Within the soul of the righteous is life.
To that life is the abundant good for
tune with which righteousness re-
wards its own. When he expresses
that Righteousness 1t Is like the hills
expressing themselves in streams
which run among the valleys, giving
life to bird and beast, to grass and
tree, making farms possible and the
human life free of the fevers Of death
There is nothing so fine as a right
eous man. No beauty can equal the
beauty of holiness. 1t has a lowell.
ness more gracious than flowers.
1t has a charm beyond the enchant
ment of birds. 1t has a grandeur out
doing mountain and sea. No sunsets
are so splendid, not suns nor stars mol
|
canvases, nor cathedrals; not anything
built by man.
The chief passion of the soul should
be the passion for holiness; for in its
beauty all other beauty is hallowed
in its spirit all other achievement has
worth and in the soul of the achievel
the eternity of God is awake.
Things pass. A brief while and the
places of earth we know are no more
forever. Even while here things can
not satisfy. They disappoint. They
enslave The greatest good fortun,
any one can achieve is integrity o1
heart. The divinest welfare is tha
conscious rectitude, the peace of which
never forsakes a man through al
years and all worlds. The imperish
able riches Of God are this good for
tune whose youth Is a well-spring o.
life