The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1914-07-21

4 , nently useful philosophy. 1t
is commended to all to whom life
brings not just the most desired gifts.
Turn defeat into victory.
Don't let your courage fade,
And if you get "lemon"
Just make the lemon-aid
Neither sages nor poets can bestow
more valuable advice. To be able to
transform yellow and sour facts of
experience into wholesome elements
of comfort and power is moral VIC
tory of high degree.
Life for average people would be
simpler matter if it could be rid OF
hampering and embarrassing restric-
tons. With the field apparently clear
and a fair goal in sight obstacles
spring up overnight to thwart our
plans. Good fortune arrives with mis-
fortune tagging at it's heels in way
to spoil everything. The fly in the
apothecary's ointment makes the
whole mass unsavory.
Moreover, we often select the ''lem-
ons" ourselves. How our human judg-
ment goes away! How many game
proves not worth the candle! The OBJ
ject Of strenuous pursuit appears as
tawdry thing on possession and a
closer view. Many a man has built
house or bought mining stock or
secured coveted job only to find
that what glittered like gold was real
ly brass when he got it to the assay
office. Instead of gaining wings to
fly with he has gathered weights to
carry.
Much depends on the cast of mind
with which we survey misfortunes.
Under no other circumstances are
hope and courage and a certain buoy
ant ingenuity so requisite. Crying
gets one nothing but red nose. But
half the battle of life is fought when
determination is aroused to make
even the sourest "lemon" aid.
The knock that has not potential
boost concealed behind its hard
knuckles has hardly yet been invent
ed. You would expect that to be true
in world organized as we believe
this one is, not on the principle of
hate or of chance, but of love. A high
authority has said, "All things work
| together for good to them that love
God" 1t remains for the average man
actually to prove the apostolic word
by recognizing the good in whatso-
ever dismal situation he may con-
front. Nor is the search such hope
less one as the pessimists would have
us believe. A month in bed with
broken leg may start one on acourse
of reading that lends touch of cul-
ture to his whole later life. A fail
ure in business may reveal mans
points of strength as well as of weak
ness and set him on the high road to
success.
Old Thomas Fuller, relating his ex-
periences in England's civil war, says
quantity: 81 have observed that towns
which have been casually burned have
been built again more beautiful than
before, mud walls afterward made of
stone; and roofs, formerly but
matched, afterward advanced to be
tiled" And he adds the pious hope
concerning his own fiery trial that
my renewed soul, which grows out
of the ashes Of the oiden man, be a
more firm fabric and stronger struc-
ture."
I sometimes think that never blows
The rose, as where some buried Gaze
sar bled.
The Persian poets surmise has be-
come almost an axiom of experience.
The sacrifices, disappointments and
hardships of life have yielded the
sweetest flowers of song and the rich
est fruits of achievement-but only
in courageous lives. For only brave
spirits can meet the challenge of diff
ficulty without finching.