Year: 1871

''Let's try and be happy, we may if we
will


|, Find some pleasure in life to DER ball
T. ance the ill. r
five were but as ready to look to the
+ light,


AS we are to sit moping because it is
u -iIanight, p ~-7r.
| . We should own it truth both in word
and in deed


That who tries to be happy, is sure to
"A succeed" M
Life is full of deep well-springs of love,
joy and hope ]


The whole world is filled with rejoic-
ings The very waves ripple to a glee-
full gladstone melody. The little birds
sing out from every bush and covert in
strains of sweetest harmony. The rose,
the lily, and the pink. breathe only one
perpetual breath of the very sweetest of
perfumes. There is beauty on every side
of US, beauty above us, and beauty be-
meath our very feet The whole world is
overAowing with tie element of the best
and purest happiness. And can it be,
that amid all joy and beauty, there can
be found single person who will say
"Man was made to mournY' No! No!
away with such a thought. The day has
long gone by when it was believed to be
the very quintesence of goodness, the proof
of the supremest piety and devotion, to
torture and mortify the body and cruelty
ones natural desires, pleasures and enjoy
ments, so that the soul might thereby be
the better fitted to enjoy happiness in the
future. But thiDkest thou, my friend,
that if it had been best for US to be thus
tormented in the flesh and the spirit, that
we would not have been created so that
our every breath would have been very
torture, and every sweet have turned to
gall and bitterness in our possession ?
But thanks to the increase of knowledge
and civilization we are learning better
things. We no longer believe that the
only way to become zone with God is to
mortify and abuse the body" like Simeon
Styles the christian devotee who lived
81 days on the top of high pillar upon
which there was hardly room enough to
stand. Ascenticism is now thing of
the past. Tue world has gone on beyond
such ideas as these, and is daily becoming
wiser and better as it grows older, just as
every individual man and woman should
do. The surest road to true happiness is
to be good and 20 do good, and how can
we Go more good than by teaching people
that it is their right and their duty to be
happyl Teach them every day both by
our precept and example! Let our lives
be one perpetual song of JOY and our words
be ever cheerful and pleasant. All! but
say'st thou, sorrow, sickness and death
mast come to us all. Yes it is true that
these may come to any of us at any time,
and if they do. still say-make the best
of them. If thou art sick cheerful spir-
it will help thee to get well. If grief
and sorrow come, try to look ever upon
the sunny side and they will quickly fee
away. Has death robbed thee of friend
Cherish them in thy heart, as precious
memory, all that thou did'st love in that
departed friend, and keep this memory
| of thy Loved and Lost" as one of the
bright spots in the picture of thy past
but waste no moment in useless repinings
over the inevitable Brood not over the
sorrow, nor hug it to thy breast, but the
first poigancy of thy grief passed away,
then pour out the boarded treasure Of thy
love upon some other heart that is long
ing for affections sweet and holy balm.
The world is full of lonely ones all waitin
and wishing for love, why then waste OF
thy hearts pure fountain by useless muir
merings over what is irretrievably gone?


Hast thou made mistake in deciding
upon some important step in life and
found it out when it was too late? 1t SO,
don't let thy life all waste away In useless
grief and bitter lamentation, but make
the best of what thou hast left and thou
wilt find that there are yet ten Thousand
avenues of joy and bliss open unto thee
sI.ife is sometimes bright and fair, ano


sometimes dark and lonely


Then let's forget all pain and care, ano


note its bright hours only,


A lesson in itself sublime, lesson wortf


enshrining,


Is this-It take no heed of time save wheI


the sun is shining"


ELMIRA DRAKE SLENKER.


FAcToRYyILLE, Tenn, Oct, 1871.