Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1915-06-03

Then died of thirst, because there
was no more to drink"
The emptiness of life void Of vision
has been voiced for US by Tolstoi,
Buddha, and others of the worlds
deeper thinkers, but no one from tho
depths of his own bitter experiences,
ever stated it more tersely, or en-
phasized it more forcibly, than Solo
mon. He began life as an idealist
placing the treasurers of wisdom
above the treasurers of wealth, and
preferring the power of vision to the
pleasures of vice. He ended life as a
sodden materialist, revelling in the
pleasures of sense, vice-debauched and
soul-besotted. In Ecclesiastes, ne
sums up his experience in the wall OF
the pessimist, ''Vanity of vanities; all
is vanity" That is the biography Of
the materialist. Solomon had substi-
tuted living for life. In his morally
lucid moments he realized his mistake.
One day he sat down by himsef-it
may be God was standing by-and
thought the whole thing over. Gold ?
Yes! Glory? Yes! Greatness? Yes!
Power? Yes! Pleasure? Yes! Posses
sions? Yes! But-no God! The palaces
were but pest-houses, and death sat
upon the throne. And from the lips
Of the man who had forgotten God
came the great truth, upon which
alone the individual or the nation can
securely build: "Where there is no
vision, the people perish" To see
God-that is LIFE! TO fail to see God
that is DEATH!
Vision is the perception of the ideal.
The ideal is simply life at itS richest
and best. Lowell says that to 1zaak
Walton: :,
"A fine morning, a meadow flushed
with primroses, are not only good in
themselves, but sweeter and better be-
thankful thank 'f for them" NJ
That is to say, Walton had spiritual
vision. He looked beyond the gift
and saw the giver. Beneath and BE-
hind the surface he apprehended the
substance: When the material nils
our thought, the ideal is lost, and a
man without vision is Of the earth,
earthly, a vanishing and perishin!g
quantity. The materialistic vision Is
SIGHT; the ideahstic vision is IN
SIGHT. One grovels; the other
scars. One marks time, and leans up
on the staff of this world; the other
inhabits eternity, and walks with God.
One knows how to make living; the
other has solved the secret of making
life. Hon. VIM. E.. Russell, once the
brilliant governor of Massachusetts,
addressing body of college students,
once said
"Fellows, remember that there is
an everlasting difference between max
ing living and making a life
This wise utterance is fit to be
written in letters Of gold, not only
across the entrance of every educa-
tional institution, but over the door OF
every great commercial and industrial
establishment in the land. 1t is the
sovereign antidote to that old heresy of
selfishness: "The world owes every
man a living" All the world owes
any man is fair chance-"a square
deal:" and every man owes the world
the very best Of himself that he can
fashion out of the material God has
put into him. That makes the diff
ference between SIGHT and IN
SIGHT; between a LIVING and a
LIFE.
The experiences Of Christ are COM
mon to humanity. Every aspiring
man sooner or later, finds himself
alone upon "an exceeding high noun
tain" with "all the kingdoms Of the
world" spread out before him.
AT the devils booth are all
things sold;
Each ounce of dross costs its
ounce of gold.
For cap and bells our lives we
pay:
Baubles we buy with whole
SOULS tasking.
IT'S Heaven alone that's given
IT'S only God may be had for the
asking"
Our maxims of success are largely
destructive. Too often they are bas-
ed upon the doctrine that personal ex-
istence is the chief end Of life and its
energy. Such teachers build life on
a lie True, we must "get living;
we must work for our bread; but bread
is not the supreme end Of work. Man
does not live by bread alone. The end
of work is service, justice, character,
the perfected individuality of the Sons
of God. With this vision flooding the
soul, the lust Of money which makes
q religion of. couvetousness, becomes
hideous. Our estimate Of values is
transformed. A man becomes of more
worth than fine gold.
Not money, but manhood constitutes