Hope is comfort in distress; Hope makes misfortunes less; Hope is day in darkest night. We should not make hope less by satire and skepticism; but help the young soul to blow the coals into a useful flame. Despondency comes easily enough to the most sanguine. The cynic can make the most buoyant disheartened by a single word. So easy is it to sprinkle everything with doubts and make the most stable of facts seem all afloat in uncertainty. So hard is it to wipe away the doubts that may be dropped by a single dash of the pen. There are those whose words fall like a frosty day on the earth and make all that is blooming and odorous vanish. It is cheap and easy to destroy. But once hold truth invaluable and doubt loses its paralyzing force. There are, per False pride undervalues and contemns. haps, no evil passions which are so carefully guarded from the world as those which proceed from envy. Whoever is envious of another, confesses his inferiority to that person in some point of view. This is the way to lower one's selfrespect, and is not conducive to elevatedness of mind and calmness of manner. Anxiety is effaced from all properly unfolded minds. They are serene and happy. Action and re-action are inevitable. Some people represent the motor power. They seem to be peculiarly adapted to provoke stupidity into thinking. Their true function is to excite, detach and enkindle. Mere logical exercise is a prostitution of the faculties. A beautiful and heavenly time it will be when men shall universally exercise reason concerning the great questions of today; then will they become, not mere disputants, but true and serious inquirers after truth. Superficial high-minded ness, or the positiveness of ignorance, or the pride of knowledge, seal the soul to the reception of truths. Many philosophers, becoming wearied with the ever-recurring contradictions and paradoxes of human nature-acting foolishly when wisdom was appropriate, manifesting insufferable weakness when strength was demanded-have allowed themselves to grow cynical and sarcastic, and so live in a prison of logic, positive and skeptical. It is difficult to harmonize conflicting views with the positive and tenacious of opinion. Knowledge must supersede opinion. It requires the same amount of evidence to disbelieve as to believe. We look afar off when the solution of a truth lies right before our eyes simple and natural. Some people find a gratification in scrutinizing everything and comprehending nothing-will without motive, power without design. In merely looking and in idle gazing there is no observation; in mute wonder there is no science. But what the human mind demands and resolves to find, it never fails to discover, and success but engenders new desires. The mind grows large in proportion to its breadth of application. Originality is being one's self, and reporting accurately what we see and are. That we are benefited by everything in proportion to the justice with which we treat it, is not yet practically recognized. How much they err, who to their interest blind, Banish the tranquil bliss which heaven for man design'd! The one great error is in ignoring the joys and blessings of our existence. It withers up the springs of gratitude in the soul, and retards the sensibilities of our nature. A spirit of thanksgiving is the soul of all true religion, the mainspring of all successful life. Be grateful for what heaven bestows, of light and life and love; Be grateful for the thrilling joy in every pleasant sound; THE SOUL NEEDS APPRECIATIVE SYMPATHY. Men want to see themselves reflected in the hearts of others. They do not want compliment and flattery, but kindly recognition and notice at the hands of their fellows. To give this is but justice, but it is a justice which will sweeten many a bitter experience, heal many a heart-wound, and cheer many a sad and lonely life. Those who have never pined for an appreciative recognition and love, know not what they endure who hunger and thirst for them. There are those who need the encouragement of approval. There are more than is thought who feel the burden of imperfections too sorely, and receive strength from approbation. An assurance from a beloved friend, a word of cheer, how potent to nerve the heart that cannot be calm without sympathy. Life is made up of little things. We should accord credit and dispense praise to the deserving. Were we as ready to commend others as to criticise them, we would find more to commend and less to criticise. The satisfaction in the attainment of knowledge and excellence is immensely increased by an appreciative sympathy. This attribute of the affections can be strengthened by exercise. No faculty whatever will grow, save by the performance of its special functions; a muscle, by contraction; the intellect, by perceiving and thinking; a moral sentiment, by feeling; consequently, selfishness may be rendered less, by arousing a fellow-feeling with the desires of others. Who lives well, lives sympathetically. Those who love most live most truly. We should seek happiness in trying to make others happy. The cold distance which vice, vanity, ignorance, covetousness, selfishness, self-esteem and fear have created and nourished, must be melted away by the sun of intelligence, love, veneration, hope, ideality, adhesiveness, conscientiousness and suavity. Force must give way to thought, knowledge and virtue. The resultant advance of individuals and nations is in the direction of thought. Happiness for all being the object, let every action during the day spring from well-conceived and well-developed thoughts. Men should become Christ-like-above the plane from which temptation emanates. The departure from the highest purposes ultimates in failure. When it is announced as a dictum that no individual being can hope to rise above his highest conception of immutable justice, then we shall seek happiness in a broader and more ideal philosophy, and with a truer light, and with a philosophic habit that will lead directly to the precious idealization of happiness. Happiness seems to be the common object of life; but people err as to what constitutes the true means of happiness. Pleasure is the spirit's pay for work well done; happiness, the successful pursuit of an end; perfection, the resultant of moral dynamics. Happiness does not exist in any exhilaration or ownership, but comes from the right use of the faculties of body and mind, and from inflexible integrity. If there is a royal road to happiness, the simple-minded find it, and the peace and contentment they participate is a boon which the vexed and scheming adventurer, however well meaning, is seldom privileged to enjoy. There is only one way in which genuine simplicity can be attained by those who would fain reap its advantages. It is composed of three primary qualities-honesty, thoroughness, purityand these produce a fourth individuality. Affectionate communion with trusted and confiding friends appeases the misgivings of conscience, satisfies the vague searches of the mind, and gives peace to the cravings of our gregarious nature. In free intercourse with others, our foibles are kept in check, and we come to differ less upon fundamental principles. Comparatively few can afford to do without the animating motives of fellowship. We instinctively imitate our compeers, and the more we live in the presence of souls of inspiring nobleness and commanding virtue, the more shall we become like them, and attain, perhaps, a collossal placidity. It is a great blessing to associate with affluent natures, who are always generous and life-imparting. They are those who deserve happiness, because they make others happy. No one can live long apart from their fellows without suffering in the affections. Isolated being and unaided doing are incompatible with true humanity and permanent progression. More of active life would keep the thoughts in better balance, and the mental base more expanded. What is needed to make life really valuable and happy is a mind thoroughly alive in all departments of thought, and rich in the power of reproducing all it gains inwardly. To have richness and peace of soul we should have less of vague passion and ambitious activity, and more of dedicated sentiment to the inner life. If any soul has a healthy thirst unslaked, or a healthy hunger unappeased, be sure it has not drank of every fountain, nor eaten of every fruit in the illimitable gardens of the Lord. The worth of life lies largely in the fact that the spirit is always hungry, and finds its happiness in being fed. |