The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1916-06-29
LIES TRAINING-SCHOOL.

That the world is great training school
we are perhaps willing to admit but that
we are willing to avail ourselves OF It's
advantages as such and turn them to our
individual benefit we do not so readily con-
cede. 1t may be that we wish to choose the
means of our development and because we
are denied this privilege we are not always
amenable to its discipline We cannot pick
and choose the happenings of life any more
than we can select the circumstances Of
our birth and death; we are but creatures
of wonderful destiny directed by the
Almighty. 1t is said that many TRACE
dies of life might be averted if we "took
our medicine like men, and did not put
our personal happiness above everything
else. 1t is as natural and to be expected
to long for happiness and cling to it as for
the flowers to turn to the sun. Happiness
is the great lamp of life which lights our
way through all sorts of shadows-shadows
that blur the vision and make long nights
of our days, shadows that terrify by their
grotesQue shapes and threatening aspects,
and shadows that bury in their depths much
that we hold most dear. We are jealous
of our happiness and guard it as the most
precious thing in life and when we watch it
20 down the long aisles of memory farther
away from our yearning eyes we begin to
plead for it, and strive for it, and fight for
it. We batter the walls Of the past in our
vain efforts to call it back before it is too
late, and spend long days and waste preci-
Gus strength in the futile endeavor to clutch
it back to our hearts. And all the while,
perhaps right at our hands within easy
reach, happiness in new guise stands
ready. We may not recognize it at first ;
indeed, it may seem to US only hard duty
and distasteful work and we continue on our
way unmindful of the fact that the fairest
flower springs from the blacklist earth and
the most abiding faith is born of the dark
est hour. We keep on demanding personal
happiness and we value most our accom-
plishments according to the degree of hap
piness they impart. Therefore, We look
with dread and Impotence at any cloud
which obscures the light and forget that we
are really at school learning great lessons,
lessons that must be mastered one by one
as they are assigned to US and which we
cannot escape. Oh, we may succeed in
running away from them for time, in de-
ferring them while longer, but the very
fact that we do run away from them make
them all the harder when the time comes
from which we cannot further escape.
We are told that everything that happens
is for the best, that really nothing ever oc-
ours without good object in view or which
we are not fitted to bear or to overcome as
the case may be. This may seem severe
doctrine for many of US, but he who has
faith in the wisdom and impartiality of Coo
must sooner or later realize that He does
all things for our sakes that we might grow
into that higher and fuller development HI
demands of US. 1t is through our tears anc
sacrifices that the weaker elements in ou
natures are strengthened and while 0
course we must pay certain price in orde
to progress the results more than compen
safe. Life is growth after all; it is expan
sion and development and better under
standing, and if we cannot achieve thes
ends in one way we must in another. W.
cannot afford to remain at a standstill; in
deed stagnation is really retrogrogression
ndifwe do not advance we fall back. Hap
pines5 is not everything; it is not the sun
total of existence nor the sole aim Of life
1t is very good asset, to be sure, in al
our undertakings but it is not absolutel,
essential. Naturally, we can work will
greater ease and comfort and qualification
if we are happy, but very often it 50 hap
pens that in such conditions we do not de
velop as fast as We would were we oblige'
to lay aside thought of self and be fcrce'
to make the most of undesirable conditions
If We have it in US to succeed we shall d
SO despite uninviting circumstances an,
the price that we pay in gaining the SUNNI
Of our hopes is necessarily an exacting one
We are not placed on this earth smpl
to enjoy ourselves, but to suffer as we'll.
is all part Of the Great Plan of life an,
in the worlds training school this pla
evolves slowly and surely. 1t is too big
thing to be bound down to individual hap
piness. ltembraces the happiness of man
kind, and we must each Of US individual
be willing to contribute to the greater end
BY so doing We provide for our own vel
fare and our own happiness and as lif
unfolds with its new possibilities and it
new sacrifices, its new joys and its ne>
sorrows, its new recompenses and its ne,
hardship5 we must be ready to meet it Sc
cure in the knowledge that we are doin
our best to win honors in the school of ex
perience.
The cry now is ''go on boys!" Their
are number Of the ''old boys of to da
to whom these words have both a familia