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f ' VVHAT AIM SHOULD WE HAVE IN LIVING?
"It you can so live that a lot of good folks will really be sorry you're
gone, isn't that enough preparation for the swift summons," says a mod
ern philosopher.
What a motive for living right! And yet how often do we hand out
similar admonition to the sinner.
So live that a lot of good people will be perfectly miserable because
you've gone. Grief at our going, on the part of those near to us. is natural,
however selfish in many, many instances, but one ought to have some
higher, more sensible motive of living than the production of general sor
row, some more substantial bequest to the public than sorrow.
So live that your usefulness will live after you is better, for all must die
and time assuages the biggest part of borrow.
Looking at death in the abstract, there should be joy, rather than sor
row, when the truly great pass over, for this life is but a breath as com
pared with eternity. The man who has impressed himself upon his time,
who has helped humanity a step upward in the march of progress is en
titled to peace and rest, the rewards that Christianity concedes, and he is
the last one to demand recognition in the shape of mourning and misery.
Picture to yourself the man who has lived an exemplary life, who has t
been just toward his fellows and helpful to those less fortunate than him- .
self, who has performed a deed, or written a book, or invented a machine
that uplifts and must uplift for all time, or until such time as something
better is given. He neither fears the, death which comes to all nor desires
to leave to any who stay behind him sorrow. The real acme of human de
sirej should be "Well done, good and faithful servant," not everlasting
Weeping by those whose earthly end must also some time come.
Every human being has his or her part to play, great or small, be iL
the part of a Washington or a Helen Gould, theiengineer who dies to save
his passengers from a wreck, or the typewriter girl who toils to do the best
she can. The lowliest may live long after physical death, through their
examples, and when their course is run, when comes the next stage, into
which all must enter, their satisfaction must surely lie not in the sorrow
they leave behind, but in the seeds of good and of usefulness they have
planted.
Knowledge that one leaves sorrow for aflot of good folks is not enough
preparation for the swift summons of death. Knowledge that one lives be
yond death, in deeds of lasting benefit to those who stay behind, is what
gives faith and courage 'to face the grim reaper unafraid.
o o
GRATITUDE GALORE
"What's this one hour's overtime,
-Bill?" said the master of the mill,
when settling up his wages on Satur
day morning. "No one worked over-
lime last week that I know of."
"It's quite right, guvnor; one
-hour," answered Bill, passing a horny
hand across his mouth.
"When was it, then?" queried the
master suspiciously.
"Last Thursday."
- "Why, last Thursday I sent you up
to my house to help shake the car
pets. And I know you got off at six
sharp."
"True, boss; but your missus gave
me half a meat-pie to take home,
and that there hojir is for carryin'
the dish back!"
o a
"How much do you want for
that dog?" "Twenty-three dollars,
guv'nor." "But you asked me twenty
yesterday?" "Yes-, but he's gone and
eaten a chicken singe then1,"
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