Your ShelfYour Projects

CONCERNING PESSIMISM

3%

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 16, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 29.

Read the full edition

CONCERNING PESSIMISM.

By Hope Onslow

“It is better to be a pessimist with your eyes open, than an optimist with your eyes shut.”—American Sentinel.
“It is a treacherous stream,” said the man on the bank. “Better not embark.”
“Ever been on it?” asked one of the boating party.
“No, but I’ve read the records of those who have. I’ve heard of hairbreadth escapes. I’ve followed down the bank, and seen snag-heads, rocks, rapids, and the falls.”
“Who cares for the records?” said one of the party.
“Who cares for the word of a cowardly pessimist, who has never dared to sail on the stream?” laughed another.
“Hairbreadth escapes give zest to life. Just what we enjoy,” said another.
Away they went down the stream, merry, reckless, faithless.
“Poor souls,” shouted the man on the bank. “Put in at the first inlet. I know you’ll never return if you do not. No one ever returns who passes the rapids.”
“By, by,” shouted the party. “We’ve no use for a man who looks on the dark side. Avoid a pessimist as you would poison.”
The man on the bank mounted a horse, and rode furiously across the country to meet them at the inlet, and, at the risk of his own life, seek once more to save theirs.
The pleasure-party would never have taken to Danger River if they had not been intoxicated. By the time they reached the inlet, they were more drunken, more hilarious, more daring, more demented than when they started.
“Put in to the inlet,” pleaded the man from the bank; “sure death is ahead of you.”
“There’s the man who looks on the dark side,” shrieked one.
“There’s the man with the jaunders,” said another.
“There’s the old fool who wears black goggles, the old dyspeptic pessimist. Say, old biliousness, what do you see?”
“I see the devil luring you to death and destruction.”
“Ha, ha, ha,” laughed the party. “The old pessimist is a raving lunatic. The devil has hold of him, and he thinks we are his victims. Let us put him out of the way; he’s an enemy to all innocent enjoyment.” Their aim was too unsteady, and they missed the old man, and swept on past the inlet.
“We’ll give the old man a peppering when we come back,” said one. “What a lovely time we are having! How delicious is the air! how delightful the motion!” One by one they fell fast asleep. A great roar roused them. They woke in horror; they shrieked; they lifted imploring hands to the old man high on the rocks above the falls. Too late! The pessimist was right. Death, destruction, was their doom.
O Danger River, how many sail thy luring waves! Thy banks swarm with pleasure-lovers! The world is there, passing the intoxicating cup of infidelity from hand to hand. The State is there, drinking in the love of conquest, the lust of power. The Church is there, passing from soul to soul “the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” intoxicating the kings of the earth. The embarking boats rock beside the bank. Shall they go unwarned down Danger River to death and destruction?
“Ho!” shouts a voice from above; “don’t embark. Throw away your intoxicants, and you will see that your boats can not live on such a stream.”
And one like Mephistopheles rises, and points a finger of scorn, shouting, “Pessimist.”
The Church steps daintily out, and asks, “Why should not I embark?”
“Because God’s Word declares that the stream flows down to hell.”
“O, no,” the Church says sweetly. “That’s the cry of a pessimist, a fragment from some old mythical Jonah, who swallowed a whale, and moped under a booth because his pessimism did not find a fulfilment. This stream is the stream of the world’s brotherhood.”
“Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you,” replied the voice.
“God is the Father of all,” said the Church. “The whole world is to be converted, and then there will be no need of coming out, and being separate. Let us embark. Come, State; follow me.”
The State steps sturdily out, and asks, “Why should not I embark?”
“The Dark Ages tell you why. Keep the Church and the State forever separate. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and let God have His own.”
“Pooh!” said the State; “you would separate, separate, separate, as if mankind was not one blood and brotherhood. You are a misanthrope, an ascetic, a pessimist. Different times now than in the Dark Ages. Men are enlightened; the world’s better. Our boats can stand any gale; the machinery is much improved.”
“But Danger River still runs to death and destruction.”
“Let’s drink to the coming century, to the world’s brotherhood. Of course there are snags of monopoly, whirlpools of socialism and anarchy, rocks of war and pestilence and famine, crags of false theories, maelstroms of bigotry; but we’ll show you how we shall outride all danger, and come up on the banks of deliverance for world-wide peace and prosperity. Here’s to peace, prosperity, and popularity.”
“You drink your own despair and death,” said the voice on the bank.
But away sailed the parties down Danger River.
Shall no effort be made to save them? Down the bank rush the messengers who would not go with them, too certain of their ruin. They reach Reformation Inlet in time to entreat and beseech with tears that the mad voyagers shall turn in, and walk up the rocks, instead of sailing down the river.
Alas! hate is their reward. The Word of God and the history of the past have no weight. The danger of the river lures them on. Intoxication closes and dulls their senses, and those who would not receive the love of the truth are taken with strong delusion, that they all may believe a lie, because they have pleasure in unrighteousness.
Song, dancing, hilarity, slumber. Mephistopheles pilots them through the rapids. He sings of peace and safety. He cries out against the pessimist, till suddenly the roar of eternal ruin wakens them. Too late! “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
High on the rock of God’s Word stand those who through all ages have been called alarmists, fools, pessimists, and enemies to human progress. Jesus is with them, saying to the deriders, “Your house is left unto you desolate.” Prophets, apostles, martyrs, are there; angels are there; the Father is there.
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” “Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Sail no more on Danger River. “It is better to be a pessimist with your eyes open, than an optimist with your eyes shut.” HOPE ONSLOW.