Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-01-24

DO YOUR LEVEL BEST.

(By L. T.. Lewis, Sioux city. Ia

aAAoAiA SO1uS III SiIc minus " SoA ~
often pricking more deeply as the
years go on.
/ we'll remember many things which
L might have lone. to say nothing of
others which l should lay done, for
those who have long gone beyond
reach of all human help or sympathy;
and the remembrance rankles.
During h early part of the war OF
1861 men We're enlisted for short terms.
The mess to which l was assigned en-
braced five of US young fellows from
lS to 20 years old. and one man about
managed to avoid all guard duty dur
Ing the whole term. On the day be-
fore we We're to be mustered out, l
was drawn for guard duty. Tamblin
came to me in the morning just before
time for guard mounting and said.
Lewis. I have o stood guard once.
L DO not want to go home with that
record. Lee me stand in your place"
The most irksome service to me was
Keeping awake during the night watch
on guard. so l gladly re%linquished the
privilege
met an old friend on the street. Taking
him by the lapel of his coat. the gov-
ernor said: John, you and l started
life about on the same plane. When
the war broke out you enlisted and
fought it all through. 1 studied law,
went into politics. made money-lots
of 1t. j would give it, every dollar. to
be able honorably to wear that army
button"
The conscientious discharge of duty
is not always joyous in The perform
ance-often indeed 'grievous, neverthe-
less. afterward it ~yieldeth the peace
able fruit of righteousness" We are
usually told that the Lords expression,
He that loseth his life for my sake
snail find,' relates to the reward of "A
life beyond life. But there are those
who even in this world lose their lives
and find them again-lay them dow
upon a lower plane and take them
again upon q higher.
Two travellers, accompanied by
guides. We're crossing the Swiss Alps.
one guide preceded with a rope about
him: next came the two tourists also
fastened to the rope. while the other
guide. with the rope about his waist.
brought up the rear. Suddenly the
front guide broke through the treach-
erous crust over an awful chasm and
disappeared. followed by the next man.
two remaining We're barely able
to maintain their position upon the
precarious footing-wholly unable to
draw up their companions. The lower
guido realizing the situation. passed
up his watch to be given to his wife,
stranger would be saved. he deliber-
atelN cut the rope and fell into the
darkness. Long and tedious work
finally brought up the other man but
he was dead from the cold. and the
survivors ~sorrowfully making their
way into Neufchatel reported the
death of their comrades. Late in the
evening the lost guide returned. He
a fallen upon II soft bed of snow
n at last worked his way out of the
crev1ce Owe down the mountain.
In 1876 when the plague broke out
In Milan all the doctors, all the priests.
all the people who could, fled and left
tslshop BOrromeo alone to care for
thousands of poor people. The bishop
justly considering la the place for a
cure OF souls at such 4 time was with
his flock. at once set his house i'm order
and went out to devote himself to the
temporal II spiritual alienation of
the misery until the end. AS the call
amlty deepened he was overwhelmed
with labors of all kinds. facing death
in ten thosaud forms. until when the
relief came. more from lack of mater
1al than abatement of the scourge's
~virulence. the bishop worn to a shad-
ow. emerged from the awful ordeal as
one from the very gates of death.
Borromeo's tomb is today the chief
glory Of the grand Milan cathedral
and FEW saints in the calendar are as
worthy OF canonization.
surely. after that great experience
IN felds of such suffering and attic
ton. he took his life upon a higher
plane. and during his remaining years
might say with Paul, ~"Henceforth let
no mar trouble me for 1 pear in my
body the marks of the Lord Jesus"
The full dinner pail is a very de-
sirable thing to possess. but it is not
the ultimate of life. There are many
things to be preferred even by a
hungry man. We have a sense of per-
sonal exaltation of nobility in which
We all wish to share-as we think of
the continental soldiers at Valley
Forge. walking with bare and bleeding
clad limbs n "unfed sides upon the
frozen earth. when a bit of a walk and
the oath of allegiance to England's
king would at any moment give them
FOOD and shoes. and clothes and
warmth: of Bishop Hooker calmly en-
stake when he might at any
evidence his recantation by just reach
Ing out Il hand n taking the pre-
pared discharge spread out upon a
stool beside him; or of that greatest
One of all, who. when IAN hungred"
necessities, said. as an example for all
time: Man shall not live by bread
alone. but by every word that pro-
ceedeth out of the mouth of Cod
A man may easily give too much for
his full dinner pail, as Esau when he
sold his God-given birth-right for a
dis of pottage. though Esau's lapse
In his strait seems less sordid than the
act of Jacob deliberately planning to
forestall his brother. True, all this
fell about in the order Of divine prov
idence that Jacob should be preferred
to Esau. but there was nothing in that
order which obliged Esau to "despise
his birth-right" and sell it for 8 7cor-
sci OF meat" or approved of Jacobs
exceeding thriftiness. Such words as
thrift" .%carfulness." economy"