Show 2II t CHURCH CHIMES A Brief Sketch of the Sermon of the Rev J B Thrall Delivered at the Congregational Church Yesterday Subject Is Life Worth Living Text Matthew 625 Is Not the Life More Than 3Icat It is a Question of How Much is Invested In-vested in Life and Half Great are the Profits Following is a brief sketch of the sermon ser-mon delivered yesterday morning at the t Congregational Church by the Rev Mr Thrall to a congregation of attentive listeners lis-teners These are days when life may be very full L and richdays when great events rehappen ing and great ideas are ripening and great progress is being madedays when centuries centur-ies are crowded into decades And yet it is in these days of activity and laborsaving machines this world of variety and luxury that the cry has become most intense Is life worth living Never was there an age so pregnant with I opportunities for making life worth living as the present age Yet never was there an age so full of aimless frivolous foolish pleasureseeking lives Never an age so full of overcrowded weary stale unprofitable and worn out lives Never an age when L suicides have been so frequent This ques tion is not asked by slow and stupeneu people peo-ple but by high bred highly strung highly developed people ideal and reflective people peo-ple but people disappointed because out of their proper sphere Is life worth living That depends Depends De-pends on who you ure and what life you are living It is a question of how much is invested in-vested in life and how great are the profits If you have invested immortal capabilities in an enterprise that fields only dime returns your life is not worth living The life of a clam is worth living if you are a clam but not if you are a man The life of an archangel is worth living if you are an archangel but if not best to aspire to it if you are only a man Every life is worth living for somebody or something but not for everybody and everything Agassiz said he could not afford to make money There are men living lives and living them contentedly that it would never pay me to live If a man is discontented it is because he is not in his proper sphere of life or because be-cause he is trying to leave his proper sphere for a sphere that for him is improper It certainly is not because of life itself Life perse is simply a field of unlimited opportunities oppor-tunities broad enough to contain both a heaven and a hell at once How many lives are out of their proper relations A man was meant to be a man That involves in-volves much It involves thought purpose Think then and have a purpose It involves in-volves a definite plan and persevering action ac-tion Go forward then Let not your content con-tent be the content of a dumb brute content with food clothing sleep That is the sure road to discontent Is not the life more than meat A life with God has always been worth living ever since Enoch walked with God A life in large human and divine di-vine relations with large social and spir itual hopes and purposes and in a great light has always been worth living You are a man and a life in Gods image ought to be worth living You are a man among men anu a me for others ought to DO worm living As a man you are walking through life as through enchanted ground To look back is dangerous If a man looks back and spends his time in retrospect and vain regrets re-grets he is lost He is turned to stone like Lots wife The future is a mans kingdom Let him go forward and conquer it Do scenes vary Let hope and enjoyment take the color of each new scene and vary with it Live ever on the new plane of the present Too much philosophy of life too much dream too much wish too much retrospect retro-spect and not enough purpose of action would oonfuse even nn angel and would rob heaven of its charms Go forward and make the very stones in youf pathway steppingstones to a higher life and a larger and grander and more spiritual future Is sorrow yours Step upon your trouble as the ship steps up upon the billows and it will bear you onward on-ward and upward The sorrowful melancholy life is not worth living and ought not to be lived The empty sunless life is not pleasing to God or man Sorrow is a human reality but it should like a bird sing its plaintive song i sweetly If when touched with disaster the changed life takes on a new beauty and strength such a sorrow is worth having The peculiar mission of a bereaved person is to bear perpetual witness to the truth of the promise lie givetn songs in the night Greater and greater grows such a life riper and riper such a hope brighter and brighter such a joy sweeter and stronger such a character Who ever heard of a growing Christian who did not find tho Christian life worth living Keep in your sphere A weary life is not worth living The sphere of a weary man is to rest A monotonous colorless life is not worth living A misers life is not worth livng and he is made to feel it Who ever heard of a happy miser A stereotyped changeless life however per fect is not worth living Imagine such a thing as a finished world a finished heaven Every stage and phase of growth has its own peculiar meaning and lesson ana joy The best ana happiest life is not born into luxury like a flower fullblown I always pitied Adam because he never was a boy It is natural that there should be first the blade then the ear then the full corn in the ear And in heaven there is action and growth They go on from glory to glory A life behind its own chances and cling inc to a dead nast is not worth living There are people here in Utah trying to live thousands thou-sands of years behind the age Once such a state of things would have amounted to something but that time has long gone by Leave it alone and such a state of society and government and religion will rot down in its own discontent Most discontent comes from looking too far behind or too far ahead You never heard of men who live in the present with their faces to the future complaining of the emptiness and vanity of lifeThe The world is getting crowded and there is no longer room in it for a cynic or a pessimist pes-simist or for a carping and critical person Wo are imperfect men in an imperfect world God meant we should stay here and make the best and the most of it Our sphere is to be good hopeful and happv and to maKe the rest of the world better When wo got ready for the state of an archangel arch-angel God will let us know and will transplant us There is no place in the I world for the man who lives wholly in and for himself Room room give your soul an environment that it may grow Physial mental spiritual room Dont measure God and destiny by your own lit tleness or estimate heaven by your own bad feelings particularly if these are due to meanness or dyspepsia Get out of lassi tude It is not the place for you Get out of pain and let your doctor help you Get out or sin anu let tfoa help you lave up to the fullness of your little world A very simple life contains boundless resources and endless variety though most people fail to find it out There are two kinds of worlds microscopic and telescopic If you havent a telescope at hand to reach the distant world yon long for use your microscope on your own world awhile Unmask the dark planets and search for the small asteroids in your own little system Be yourself There are pecu liar compensations in all spheres of life Search for the compensations peculiar to I j your own sphere In everything do < your best and leave mistakes and fail I I I urea with God Live the higher life i that is more than meat Physical beauty dies and is buried Selflove dies and is j buried Earthly pleasure dies and is buried I Earthly treasure perishes and is thrown j away But love of God and love of man I i never dies Beauty of soul never dies Truth I never dies Heaven never perishes or is thrown worth God and glory live forever I Life is worth living both the life that now is and that which is yet to come I I |