The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1918-01-24
SPIRIT OF WORK

Sinking Work and Making Pleasure the Obje
Life Makes for Unhappiness
Ru Orison S,oett Marden. in NautiZua


truth is, it depends entirely on
how we manipulate our personal
assets. The material of which sue
cess and happiness are built is in
our own hands. The building is
the work of every day. 1t consists
in living life up to its maximum
possibility of good. There is no
unnatural straining and striving in
this. 1t is simple matter of hon
est, earnest, persistent endeavor
EVERY DAY; of always trying to
better our best and to make our
highest moment permanent.
The enjoyment which comes
from reading, from social inter-
course with friends, from the
opera, from the theater, is tenn
porary thing in life; but the man
who loves his work has a daily en-
joyment, a perpetual pleasure
which never fails him.
People who shirk work and
make pleasure the object of their
lives never find real pleasure or
happiness. I have watched pleas
ure hunters travel over the world,
trying to find new sensations, new
excitements, new pleasures. but
their faces always indicate that
there is something lacking, some
great gap which all the money
which they can expend in chasing
pleasures will never fill.
The human machine was made
for action, was designed to per-
form useful work, and there can
be no happiness for an able-bodied
man or woman outside of an in
dustrious life. We cannot cheat
nature. If we would be happy,
we must conform to natures laws.
Work and play are the great bal
ance wheels of mans being. We
were not made for perpetual play
ing, any more than for perpetual
work. You can no more be happy
without first earning your pleasure
by doing your legitimate share of
the worlds work than you can en-
joy your dinner without being
hungry.
If after being wrecked at sea,
you should manage to climb upon
a great raft which your fellow
passengers had made out of floating
pieces of the wrecked ship; if you
should take the most comfortable
position, and eat all the food and
drink all the water you wanted,-
even though the workers went
hungry and thirsty, while you
refused to do your share of the
necessary work in the desperate
effort to get ashore, how do you
think your companions would feel!
Would they not be justified in
throwing you overheard!
Now the human race is on a
great raft, flying at lightning
, speed through space, and the work
of every human being on board is
necessary to keep the raft headed
in the right direction, and always
moving toward its appointed goal.
''Work cannot be evaded with
: out serious spiritual loss," says
Hamilton w. Mabie; for work is
{ the most general and the most
searching method of education to
} which men are subject. A process
! which is educational in a way at
, once so deep and rich must, in the
nature of things, form part of the
spiritual order of life; for educa-
ton is always spiritual in its re-
, suits. Christ's life among men was
one of toll; he was bred to trade
and practised it; his labors were
manifold and continuous; and in
word, deed and habit he identified
himself with those who work.
Many of his most beautiful para
bles grew out of his familiarity
t with the tasks of the shepherd and
! husbandmen; many of the deepest
! truths he gave to his disciples were