The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-08-31
Jesuit,s Advice to Young Men.

That a man should meet his trou-
bic face to face, measure it, weigh it.
grapple with it, and by the invincible
power of his spiritual will make of it
no curse, but a blessing, this is manly:
and what is manly elevates and cheers,
makes one sturdier and. therefore.
Drawer, and therefore brighter. But
that man when he has already done
what he can for his trouble should
return to it again and again, stare at
1t until his eye becomes dim, brood
over it until his thought gets entan-
gled, lament over it until his will grows
respondent, shiver and shudder over it
until his nerves are unstrUmg, hysteri-
cal, this is not manly. 1t is womanish.
It is worry
When you must think about trouble.
give it all the quiet time and serious
thought that it needs. Fix beforehand
some broad limit to this meditative
study. Let it be real downright prac-
teal study. Mediate intently upon
what you can do and ought to do. in
order to avert or endurA or repair
your misfortune, or it may be your
fault. Let not your thought. rest. even
for one moment, upon any point that
is not practical.
What is to be done? That is the
question that you have got to ask and
answer When you have reached the
best road as you think to take do NOT
keep looking back, wondering indeed
whether you be right or wrong. Do
not decide in hurry, nor until YOU
have thoroughly sifted the matter
But when you have once decided turn
your face resolutely forward and in
exorably set further reflection aside
If still you allow this trouble to
haunt your nights with spectral shane
and to dog your days with importunate
after thought, your mind, like a wild
blrd Gagged and terrified, instead of
seeking to escape through some OMEN
ing, will beat itself helplessly against
fatal bars; your energy will grow en-
ervated, yet restless; your resolution
spasmodic, yet vacillating; your views
morbid; your whole life wretched
wasted, worthless.
When trouble is over do not still
cling to 1t. Let the dead past bury
It's dead" If there be aught in the
past that tells a wise lesson. LET il he
listened to. If there be aught that is
sacred to friendship let it be revered.
II there should have been much love,
lar more than few then knew, for
winch we should thank God. even
~ 'iCN lOSls let us thought
be cherished as a recollection to he
brought with us to Paradise.
But the past is dead. We may learn
from it. We may love it. We must
not, we can not live in it. Our life
is IN the present. We have our present
work to do, our present load to bear
our present cross to carry and orr
present comfort to lean upon. We
have our present life to live. You win
OF course. look forward But do NOT
look at the future with the blear ewes
OF senile dependency. nor with tbe
superficial glance of infantiIe conceit
Look forward with the clear, practical
gaze of robust anticipation. with tba
wise. quick intuition of a healthy tone
OF thought. Many people live in mis-
cry of their own imagining. With
hankering morbidness they foreca ct
trouble to come, so as to taste ali
Its bitterness before ever it reaches
to real life. Dotards live in the mast.
tools live in the future; men live in
today. Be brave, then, in your ac-
tual day.-Rev. Robert Kane. s